Shapes are all around. Everything we see has a shape. Some of those shapes are regular, some not so regular. In early childhood, children are introduced to the basic regular shapes of circles, triangles and rectangles, including the special rectangle that we call a square.

Even before they begin formal learning, most young children can recognise and name these four basic shapes. They see them in picture books and encounter them in puzzles and games.

But learning about shape goes much deeper than just being able to recognise and label those colourful images.  An understanding of shape has relevance to many other activities such as reading maps, construction, laying tiles, and stacking items. They need to know how shapes can be combined to form others, and what happens when they are cut, flipped or turned. They will use their knowledge of shape in more advanced geometry such as finding perimeter, area, and volume.

The colourful, and sometimes humorous cartoon-like, ways in which shapes are introduced to young children, can make them appear fairly basic, and parents and teachers may state with pride, “My child knows all the shapes.” But with shape forming a basis for so much other understanding, it is important to use language that enables understanding and discourages the formation of misunderstanding.

Misunderstandings occur when objects

Continue reading: Shaping up – activities with 2D shapes. – Readilearn