Feel for Shapes (Early Math Collaborative at Erikson Institute)

View more in our Early Math Idea Library: earlymath.erikson.edu/ideas
In this geometry activity for pre-k and kindergarten, students distinguish shapes using touch rather than sight. View more at earlymath.erikson.edu
Children need to go beyond the use of superficial shape labels to recognizing and specifying the defining attributes of shapes. As children sort and classify shapes with knowledgeable others, they become aware of rules about shapes, such as that a triangle has three sides and three angles.
BIG IDEA
Shapes can be defined and classified according to their attributes.
Children need to go beyond the use of superficial shape labels to recognizing and specifying the defining attributes of shapes. As children sort and classify shapes with knowledgeable others, they become aware of rules about shapes, such as that a triangle has three sides and three angles (corners), that a cylinder has a rounded form with two flat ends that are in the shape of a circle, or that a sphere has only one continuous curved side. That these sorts of precise distinctions can be made is not immediately obvious to young children; for this reason, it is important that teachers design activities to demonstrate this.
SHAPE
Everything in the material world has shape. In mathematics, the focus is very much on regular shapes, such as the two-dimensional circle, triangle, and rectangle and the three-dimensional solids known as spheres and polyhedrons. In our everyday world, these solids commonly appear in objects we describe as boxes, pyramids, blocks, cylinders, and balls. A deeper knowledge about how two- and three-dimensional shapes are defined and relate to one another will help educators be aware of subtle distinctions and rules. Such an understanding allows educators to notice and highlight children’s key discoveries and to guide their experiences to make this knowledge explicit for them.