About this worksheet
Young children usually learn shapes as whole pictures before they learn the parts that define them. A circle means something round like a ball; a triangle only counts when it points upward and sits on a flat bottom. These pages take that apart in three steps. First a child matches a drawn shape to the same shape among the choices, which needs nothing but careful looking. Then the same shape appears three times in different colors and different sizes, and the child has to say what has stayed the same while two other things changed. Finally the question stops using the shape name at all and asks for the shape with three straight sides, or four straight sides, or none of the corners a straight-sided shape has, so the answer has to come from the shape's parts. Ask for one reason out loud each time. Because it has three sides is worth more than a fast correct label, and it is what carries a child into sorting, building, and drawing.
What your child will learn
- Match a drawn shape to the same shape
- Name a shape when its color and size change
- Choose a shape from a description of its parts
- Say one reason a shape has the name it does
Worked example
Three tiles are all the same shape, but one is small and red and another is large and blue. Only the shape stayed the same, and it has three straight sides, so it is the triangle.
Common mistake
Sorting by color or size because those change first and the shape is the thing that stayed the same.
Helpful hint
Look for what has stayed the same in every tile.
Worksheet 1