Shapes in English: Names, Pronunciation and Examples for Kids

Practice on screen

Look at the picture or number and choose the right English word. Ten questions each round.

How to teach it

1. 1. Shape hunt around the room

   Name a shape and ask the child to find and touch something with that shape: a round clock, a square window, a rectangle door. Then swap roles. Looking for shapes in real objects gives each word a meaning the child can see and touch.

2. 2. Build shapes with sticks or straws

   Give the child sticks, straws or pasta pieces and some play dough. Make a triangle with three sticks and a square with four, counting the sides aloud: "One, two, three. A triangle has three sides." Building the shape shows why each one has its name.

3. 3. Cut and sort

   Cut paper into circles, squares, triangles and rectangles in different colors and sizes. Ask the child to sort them into piles by shape, not by color. Say the name each time a piece goes onto a pile, then count how many are in each pile.

4. 4. Draw a picture with shapes only

   Ask the child to make a house, a robot or a boat using only shapes. Then ask questions: "What shape is the roof? How many circles are there?" The child practices the shape names and the question words together.

5. 5. Mystery bag

   Put solid objects in a cloth bag: a ball, a box, a can, a party hat. The child reaches in, feels one and guesses: sphere, cube, cylinder, cone. Say the shape word and the object together, then let the child take out the object to check.

6. 6. Shape bingo

   Make bingo cards with a grid of shapes. Call out the shape names one by one and have the children cover the matching shapes with small counters. The first to cover a row says "Bingo!" and reads the shapes back.

Common mistakes

• Using "a" before oval and octagon

  Use "an" before words that start with a vowel sound: an oval, an octagon. All the other shape words on this page take "a": a circle, a square, a triangle, a cube.

• Confusing square and rectangle

  A square has four equal sides. A rectangle has four sides too, but two are longer than the other two. Show a book next to a sticky note and say: "This is a rectangle. This is a square."

• Mixing up the numbers in pentagon, hexagon and octagon

  A pentagon has five sides, a hexagon has six and an octagon has eight. Learners often swap them. Count the sides aloud with the child each time and point to a stop sign as an example of an octagon.

• Forgetting the plural -s

  Say one triangle but three triangles, one circle but two circles. Learners sometimes say "two circle". Hold up cards and ask "How many?" to practice the plural with the numbers.

• Using shape names for solid objects

  A square and a circle are flat. A cube and a sphere are solid. Learners may call a ball "a circle". Say: "A ball is a sphere. A box is a cube." Show the flat and solid versions side by side.