Types of Shapes

Everyday solids are sorted into families through Finding the Same Shape and Odd One Out, which brings out differences such as whether an object rolls or stacks. Later, Shape Seen from the Front and Shape Seen from Above are set against each other, and children identify the original solid from its flat views.

When sorting, children sometimes group by color or size instead of by shape. With views, a cylinder read as a circle from above and a rectangle from the side gets confused, and because the solid is decided from a single view, answers split in Shape Seen from the Front and Above.

Coming right after Comparing Area, this unit shifts the subject away from spread and quantity and toward shape. The way of looking at shapes practiced here stays useful in Structure of Shapes later in the same grade, and beyond that it splits into two paths: Triangles and Quadrilaterals and Shapes of Boxes, both in grade 2.