Finding Shapes and Numbers on a Walk to School
Look down at the sidewalk under your feet. Count the cracks between two squares of concrete. Now count your steps from the mailbox to the front door. Numbers and shapes are hiding all around you, even on a short walk — you just have to know how to spot them.
What You'll Learn
By the end of this lesson you will be able to: - Name shapes you see in real places, like circles, squares, triangles, and octagons - Count objects in groups of 2 and groups of 5 - Spot a repeating pattern and say what comes next - Compare which of two things is bigger, smaller, longer, or shorter
Shapes Hiding in Plain Sight
A stop sign is not a circle or a square — it has 8 straight sides, which makes it an octagon. Windows are usually rectangles: 4 sides, with 2 short sides and 2 long sides. A slice of pizza is shaped like a triangle, with 3 sides meeting at 3 corners. Manhole covers in the street are circles, because a circle shape can never fall through its own round hole no matter how you turn it.
Stop signs are octagons — shapes with 8 sides — so drivers can recognize them from the back or the side, even when they can't read the word STOP.
Counting in Groups Instead of One by One
Counting one by one works, but counting in groups is faster. A bicycle has 2 wheels, so 3 bicycles have 6 wheels — that's counting by 2s: 2, 4, 6. A hand has 5 fingers, so 2 hands have 10 fingers — that's counting by 5s: 5, 10. Next time you see a row of cars in a parking lot, try counting the wheels by 2s instead of counting every single wheel.
Spotting a Pattern
A pattern is something that repeats in the same order. A brick wall might go flat-brick, flat-brick, flat-brick. A striped shirt might go red-white-red-white. If you see red, white, red, white, red... you can guess the next color will be white, because the pattern tells you what comes next.
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.
A stop sign has how many sides?
If a pattern goes blue, yellow, blue, yellow, blue, ___, what comes next?
Shape and Pattern Hunt
Walk around your home or yard with a grown-up. Find and draw 5 different shapes you spot (like a circle, square, triangle, rectangle, or octagon), and write down one pattern you notice, like stripes on a rug or tiles on a floor. Bring your drawing to share with your class or family.
Count the wheels on every vehicle you see for one minute — bikes, cars, and trucks all have different numbers of wheels. See how high you can count by 2s and 4s.
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