Shapes

Look around. Everything you see has a shape. The sun is round, the window is like a square, the roof looks like a triangle and a chocolate bar is a rectangle. Today we'll meet four friends — the circle, the square, the triangle and the rectangle.

The four basic shapes

• a circle is perfectly round, with no corners and no straight sides
• a square has four straight sides of the same length and four corners
• a triangle has three straight sides and three corners
• a rectangle has four straight sides — two longer and two shorter — and four corners

Sides and corners

When we look at shapes, we notice two things:

• a side — the straight line forming an edge
• a corner (vertex) — the point where two sides meet

A circle has neither sides nor corners — it's perfectly smooth. A triangle has three corners and three sides. The square and rectangle each have four corners and four sides.

What you will learn

In this topic you'll find short articles for you, and one for your parents:

• Circle and square — meet the first two shapes
• Triangle and rectangle — add two more
• Shapes around us — where to find these shapes everywhere
• For parents — how to help at home

And try these exercises:

• Name the shape — see one shape and click its name
• Find the shapes — click every shape of one type in a grid