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Shapes

Whenever you're out and about with your child, talk to them about the shapes they can see. Some good ideas for talking about shapes are:

2D (flat) shapes:

How many sides does the shape have?
How many corners does it have?
Are the sides curved or straight?

3D (solid) shapes:

How many faces are there?
Are the faces curved or flat?
What shape is each face?
How many vertices (corners) does it have?
How many edges (where two faces meet) does it have?
Eg: A Cube has 6 square-shaped flat faces, 8 vertices and 12 edges.

A good way to help your child to learn about 3D shapes is to pick apart a cereal box to make it flat. You could try making your own 3D shapes from nets. You will find some excellent printable templates at SEN Teacher. Print them out on card and all you'll need is a pair of scissors and a glue stick or sticky tape. You could make several different 3D shapes and make a shape mobile.

Shape games for young children:

Follow the links to the free online shape games. Your child will have lots of fun while developing their knowledge of shapes.

BBC Smarteenies Shapes Game

Match the shapes to colour the picture, then click the movie button to see your picture come to life! It's best to start with the "Easy" setting, which just involves dragging the shape to the correct space. The "Hard" pictures take quite a long time to complete, because you have to resize and rotate the shape to fit, which is quite challenging!

2D or 3D Shape?

This game from NGFL Cymru asks children to decide whether shapes are 2D (flat) or 3D (solid).

Shifting Shapes

Move your mouse around the white area of the screen to get a peek at the hidden shape. Talk about and describe the shape - find the sides of the shape. Are they straight or curved? How many sides? How many corners? Can you guess what it is? When you think you know, click on the eye to see if you were right. (ICTGames)

Origami

Origami is a useful way for children to learn about shapes. As you help them to fold the paper, talk about the shape after each step and ask questions. Here are a couple of useful sites to give you some ideas:

Jumping frog origami - make a few to have a hopping race.
Tammy Yee's Origami - beautiful designs to print out and fold. Some are quite simple and ideal for younger children.

Resources on shapes for adults (also good for older children):

There's a lot more to shapes than just circles, triangles, cubes and spheres! Do you know what tessellation is? Could you calculate how many tiles you would need for your bathroom floor? Try out these quizzes and games for adults from the BBC.

2D Shapes Quiz

This quiz includes symmetry, tiling and floor plans. There are three levels of difficulty to choose from. Don't worry if you can't answer all the questions - check out the 2D Shapes Factsheets and then try again.

Perimeters Quiz

Try these quizzes to test yourself on perimeters (that's measuring around the outside edge of a shape). If you need any help, just check the Perimeter Factsheets.

Area of Rectangles Quiz

This quiz will test you on the area of rectangles. You can check the Area of Rectangles Factsheets if you need any help.

Volume Quiz

This covers working out the volume of 3D shapes.. Read the Volume Factsheets to refresh your memory.

Shape Recommendations

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