There are 14 NRICH Mathematical resources connected to Early years shape, you may find related items under Early years foundation stage.
Broad Topics > Early years foundation stage > Early years shape
Here are some examples of children's thinking following on from their exploration of the NRICH Paths activity.
Children explore characteristics of shapes and use both everyday and mathematical language to describe them, talk about positions and solve problems
In this article for EY practitioners, Dr Sue Gifford discusses children's early spatial thinking and how this predicts their mathematical understanding and achievement.
Barrier games build on children's natural desire to combine block play with small world items.
In this activity, children have the opportunity to wrap some toys and to measure and discuss the size of the box or wrapping paper that they will need.
This task provides a real-life context for children to compare capacities in order to choose the biggest container for their lemonade.
In this task, children put their hands into a bag and describe what shape they think they can feel and why.
Comparing the wrapped presents in this activity will give children the chance to explore and discuss weight, including the idea that large objects aren't necessarily the heaviest.
This task provides an opportunity for children to work together to make a picture, discussing with each other which position they want to put each shape in.
By making 'caterpillars' in this activity, children will have an opportunity to practise using language of length and width, as well as using non-standard measures to compare lengths.
In this activity, children will develop an awareness of the faces of 3D shapes by using them to make 'footprints' in soft dough.
By making 'paths' out of different materials and discussing these, children will develop their shape and space language in this activity.
When tidying away toys in this activity, children will use their counting skills to check that all the toys are in the box.
As children move around an obstacle course, adults can model positional language, encourage children to describe their movement themselves and create their own course.