Describing 2D Shapes (K.G.4) {printable}

Part of our morning math mini-lessons at the beginning of this quarter were focused on describing shapes by their sides and vertices. {Okay, confession… I will no longer teach “corners.” The moment I used the word vertices, I had their attention like no other since they had never heard that word before… corners…they tuned out and I worked twice as hard.}

We originally learned that vocabulary the third week of school when we were talking about sorting by the number of vertices.

Describing 2D Shapes

I drew a large shape on a piece of paper, labeled it with the name (which we mastered identifying last quarter) and then used a different color marker to highlight the number of sides and vertices. For a few of the shapes, I showed a snippet of the 2D shapes video by Harry Kindergarten.

Since the standard K.G.4.a says that my kinders should “Describe two-dimensional shapes to identify their various attributes, including vertices, sides, corners, and length of sides” then this is where we are headed.

What’s a fun way to then get them practicing the verbal description part? During a math lesson in small groups this week, we played “What’s Hiding Under the Rug?” It was great for me to use as an informal pre-assessment of where they are at in their describing abilities and really gave us a reason for learning how to describe a square different from a rectangle.

How do you play?

Under a large surface (cloth, 11×17 paper, folder, etc.) hide the 2D shapes. I highly recommend using foam shapes or manipulative ones versus paper so that kinders can “feel” the sides and vertices. One player describes the shapes with the number of sides and vertices, without naming it. The other player reaches under and feels for the correct shape based on that description. If they pull out the right shape and name it, they get to keep the card and shape as their “point.”

That’s it! Super simple, but it gets them talking and describing!

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I hope these tips will help your kinders better describe their 2D shapes! If you like what I do here on KindergartenWorks, then be sure to subscribe today. I look forward to sharing ideas with you weekly.

More Kindergarten Math

• Activities and Videos to Help Teach 2D Shapes
• 10 Activities for Describing 3D Shapes (K.G.3)
• Guided Math in Kindergarten: Mission Possible
• Learning Teen Numbers in Kindergarten
• Monster Numbers {tools to learn 0-10}