Shapes in many sizes and directions
Children often think a triangle has to point up. The shapes here are drawn in different sizes, and colour by shape scatters them so children name each one by its sides and corners.
Three activities
Tracing and naming suits K1 and K2. Sides and corners suits Primary 1. Colour by shape works for any age as a quiet, satisfying activity.
In the MOE curriculum
- K1–K2The NEL Framework names four basic shapes, circle, square, rectangle and triangle, and their attributes.
- Primary 1Naming and describing rectangles, squares, triangles, circles, half circles and quarter circles, and making figures from them.
- Primary 2Patterns with 2D shapes, and 3D shapes such as cubes, cones and cylinders.
The P1 list includes half circles and quarter circles, which this maker does not draw, while the oval, rhombus, pentagon, hexagon, octagon, star and heart go beyond it. For P1, stick to the four main shapes, then have children fold and cut a paper circle into halves and quarters.
P1 children also copy figures on dot or square grid paper and find the shapes that make up a bigger figure. The graph paper page on this site prints a dot grid for that.
Summarised in our own words from the MOE Primary Mathematics Syllabus (2021, updated October 2025) and the Nurturing Early Learners Framework (2022).
