Finding Shapes and Numbers All Around Us
Look at a stop sign. Count its sides. Did you know it has exactly 8 sides? That shape has a name: an octagon! Math is not just in a workbook. It is hiding in windows, wheels, clocks, and even your own hands.
What You'll Learn
- How to spot circles, squares, triangles, and rectangles around you - How counting helps you know how many things you have - Why a stop sign is a special 8-sided shape called an octagon - How to go on your own shape hunt
Shapes Are Hiding Everywhere
A wheel on a car is a circle. A window is often a rectangle or a square. A slice of pizza, before it's cut, comes from a big circle, but one slice looks like a triangle! A square has 4 sides that are all the same length. A rectangle has 4 sides too, but only the sides across from each other match. A triangle has 3 sides. A circle has no straight sides at all — it is one curvy, round line.
Hold up both hands. You have 10 fingers total. That is a number you can count on — literally!
Counting Tells You "How Many"
When you count your crayons, your toy cars, or the steps to your front door, you are doing math. Counting tells you exactly how many of something you have. Try this: if you have 3 red apples and 2 green apples, you can count them all together: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. You have 5 apples total!
Match each shape to how many sides it has.
Terms
Definitions
Drag terms onto their definitions, or click a term then click a definition to match.
How many sides does a stop sign have?
If you have 3 red apples and 2 green apples, how many apples do you have in total?
Next time you're in the car or walking outside, try to find one circle, one square, and one triangle. Point them out loud when you spot them!
Shape and Number Scavenger Hunt
Walk around your home or classroom with a grown-up. Find and count: 3 circles, 2 squares or rectangles, and 1 triangle. Draw each shape you found on a piece of paper and write the number of sides next to it. Then count up how many total shapes you found and write that big number at the bottom of your page.
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