2D Shapes Around Us

Eight picture cards fill this kindergarten page in two columns. Each shows a familiar object in color on the left and, on the right, two outline tiles: a circle labeled circle and a rectangle labeled rectangle. The child decides which shape the object has and colors that tile. The sheet shown runs an envelope, a plate, a lollipop, a door, a wall clock, a wall map hanging from a rod, a whiteboard and a pizza, four round things and four rectangular ones, mixed so that no long run of one answer builds up down the page.

This face takes the shape names off the page and into the room. The objects are chosen because each has one flat face a young child can see as a circle or a rectangle without thinking about depth: the round rim of a plate, the front of a door, the sheet of a wall map. That is the kindergarten expectation of naming shapes in the world around us, and it is why only two shapes are offered; the question is which of two, not which of four. The lollipop is the card most likely to stop someone, because the stick is a line and only the candy is round.

One sheet, eight pictures, eight colored tiles. Coloring rather than circling makes it slower and calmer than the other faces, which suits a first shape lesson. Afterwards, send the class to find three round things and three rectangular things in the classroom and name them aloud. Every rectangular object on the page has sharp square corners, so nothing here contradicts the Real or Not face, where a rectangle with rounded corners is ruled out.