The purpose of this activity is for students to identify and describe solid shapes in their environment (MP4, MP6). The shape walk can occur in many locations, such as a classroom, school, gym, playground, or library. Additional objects may need to be added to the environment to ensure that there are examples of a variety of solid shapes. Students may identify objects that are not exact examples of solid shapes. If this happens, consider acknowledging similarities between the shapes. (“This shape has a point like a cone, but it is not a cone.”) Students use their own language to describe the solid shapes and are not required to use shapes’ names. As students identify solid shapes, encourage them to describe the location of the object, using positional words, such as “above,” “below,” “beside,” and “next to.”

• Invite students who used positional words to describe the locations of shapes to share.
• “____ saw a round light bulb below the lamp shade. It looked like a sphere.”
• “_____ saw a book on the bookshelf. It looked like a box.”
• Display image:

• “Which shape does this clock look like?” (Students say, “cylinder,” or hold up a cylinder.)
• Display image:

• “Which shape does this party hat look like?” (Students say, “cone,” or pick up a cone.)
• “In the next activity, we are going to use clay to make shapes like the objects we saw.”

The purpose of this activity is for students to model objects in the environment, using clay (MP4). Students choose the solid shape that represents the object and then make the shape out of clay.

• Invite selected students to share the shapes they built.
• As each student shares, ask the class to point to the solid shape that most looks like the object they built.
• “Did anyone else see an object that looked like this shape?”

The purpose of this activity is for students to choose from activities that offer practice with number and shape concepts.

Students choose any previously introduced stage from these centers:

• Build Shapes
• Geoblocks
• Counting Collections
• Match Mine
• Shake and Spill

• Display a cylinder.
• “Do you think you could build a rocket ship with this cylinder? Which other shapes would you need?”