Why are shapes and geometry important in early math?
When we look at the world around us, we see shape—in buildings, cars, furniture, toys—our world is composed of shapes. Words describing two-dimensional shapes such as circle, triangle, rectangle, and square (squares are our favorite type of rectangle) are often familiar to children very early. We are also often familiar with words that describe three-dimensional solids such as balls, boxes, pyramids, and blocks but less familiar with their mathematical terms such as sphere, cube, triangular prism, or rectangular prism.
