Shapes in Everyday Things

A circle, square, triangle, rectangle and oval run down the left side of the page, each labeled. On the right, in a mixed-up order, are a party hat, an egg, a door, a ball and a gift box. Your child finds the object that shares each shape and draws a line between the two dots.

Around ages three to five, children start to notice that a shape stays the same shape even when it turns up inside a real object. Finding the circle in a ball or the rectangle in a door means ignoring details like stripes, panels and ribbons and looking at the outline. That habit of looking past surface details also helps later with letters and numbers.

Before any lines go down, run a finger around the edge of each object together and ask which shape your finger just traced. The egg and the oval look the most alike, so they make a good pair to save for last.