Maths Reception Spring Shapes

3-D Shapes

• Give each child a 3-D shape to hold.
• Display images of 3-D shapes on the interactive whiteboard OR stick 3-D shapes to the board using masking tape or sticky-tack.
• Display a 3 by 3 grid of different shapes (see download).
• Describe a shape by its position, e.g. It is above the black cuboid. OR It is beside the green cube.
• Any child holding the same shape as the one you are describing, should stand up, i.e. any child holding a cube would stand up if you made the first statement.
• Repeat, continuing to describe a shape on the grid with reference to its position.

Songs

The Grand Old Duke of York

Little Miss Muffet

Incey Wincey Spider

Half a pound of tuppenny rice. In this song, change the ‘on’ the table, to ‘under’ the table or to ‘beside’ the table, etc. Note up and down and in and out … what other position words could we use?

Story

Rosie’s Walk by Pat Hutchins

Little Star and other Shapes by J. Y. Quinn

Exploring and Playing

‘Animal bus’ (see resources); small world animals; assortment of materials for collage e.g. cubes, blocks, shapes, cotton wool, reels, paper etc; large paper; masking tape; plastic potato head or real potatoes; plastic body/ face parts or stick-on google eyes, pipe cleaners, pom poms etc; glue; toy cars; large sheet of paper; ramps, bridges, etc.

Active learning

3 identical hats or hats made from boxes; cat soft toy; ‘L-hand’ (see resources); coloured dot stickers; 3-D shapes; ‘3 by 3 grid’ (see resources); ‘Position words’ (see resources); ‘4 by 4 grid’ (see resources), ‘3 by 3 grid’ (see resources); ‘Number tiles 0 – 10’ (see resources); hall space; mats; benches

Creating and Thinking Critically

Lego™ or Duplo™; ‘4 by 4 grid’ (see resources); basket; objects e.g. small figures, coloured beads etc., ‘Position word cards’ (see resources); conker or other small item; ‘Position words poster’ (see resources); 3-D shapes in different colours and sizes

Describing

• Tape a 3-D shape (cube, cuboid, cone, sphere, pyramid or cylinder) to a child’s back.
• Turn them round so that the class is looking at their back.
• Ask children to describe the shape WITHOUT using its name.
• Can the child guess what shape it is?
• Repeat with other shapes and other children.

Songs/Chants/Rhymes

Incey Wincey Spider. The classic song/nursery rhyme.

3-D shapes. A rhyme to support recognition of 3-D shapes all around us.

Stories

Walter’s Wonderful Web by Tim Hopgood

Mouse Shapes by Ellen Stoll Walsh (2-D shapes)

Round is a Tortilla: A Book of Shapes by Roseanne Thong (2-D shapes but shapes found in the environment that could be converted to 3-D shapes)

Captain Invincible and the Space Shapes by Stuart J Murphy (specific to 3-D shapes; you decide whether the storyline is appropriate)

Exploring and Playing

Paint; plastic/wooden 3-D shapes, e.g. cube, cuboid, pyramids, prisms, cone and cylinder); trays; junk modelling items in different shapes e.g. cube/ cuboid boxes, kitchen rolls; masking tape; scissors; sticky labels, pens; tuff spot or sand tray; play sand; play-dough or salt dough; selection of 3-D shapes.

Active learning

Large cube; sticky-tack; cuboid; cone; everyday 3-D shaped objects (cube, cone, cuboid and cylinder); set of triangles; set of squares; set of circles; set of rectangles; selection of 3-D shapes; pennies; construction materials e.g. Knex™ or Magnetico™; card; Cone and Cylinder templates (see resources); glue; sellotape.

Creating and Thinking Critically

Large selection of 3-D shapes of different sizes and colours; 2 hoops; pieces of paper for labels; bag, pennies; A2 paper; ‘Carroll diagram’ (see resources for example); ‘Faces table’ (see resources).