Using the Shapes Song, students learn all about shapes, including Shape Names and Shape Recognition. The Shapes Song by Have Fun Teaching is a song that teaches the shapes. Shapes have names their made of angles and lines, there are flat shapes and solid shapes we see them all the…
Pointy corners everywhere!
In preschool, angles are simply corners. Kids don't measure angles yet. Instead, they notice that a square has four corners, a triangle has three, and a circle has none at all. They trace shapes with their fingers, count the corners and sides, and find corners around the room on tables, books and windows. This builds the shape vocabulary they'll use later. The click comes when a child points to a slice of pizza and says, "It's a triangle! It has three corners!"
Little ones learn shapes best by touching, tracing and finding them. Try these moves.
Play a shapes song and have kids draw each shape in the air as it's named. Stop the song and ask, "How many corners does it have?" Kids count on their fingers.
Why it works: a catchy, repeating tune gives the brain a hook to hang words on, so sung text is remembered better (Wallace, 1994).
Try it withShapes SongSongsOpen it →Give kids craft sticks or straws and ask them to make a triangle, then a square. Point to each corner and count together. Building shapes shows exactly where corners come from.
Why it works: kids understand an idea best when they touch it, then draw it, then write it, the order the U.S. Department of Education recommends for elementary math.
Show pictures of everyday objects and ask kids to point to every corner. Then go on a real hunt around the classroom. Seeing corners everywhere makes the idea stick.
Why it works: pairing a picture with each word gives kids two ways to remember it, a well-tested principle of how people learn (Mayer, 2009).
Not formally. Preschoolers learn about corners on shapes, which is the first step toward understanding angles. Measuring angles comes much later, around 4th grade.
Most preschoolers learn circles, squares, triangles and rectangles. Many also learn ovals, stars and hearts.
Go on a shape hunt around the house. Find squares, circles and triangles, and count the corners on each one together.
Counting corners and sides helps kids tell shapes apart. A triangle always has three, no matter how big or small it is.
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