In year 1, the national curriculum for maths states that children should be able to:
The non-statutory guidance also states:
Pupils handle common 2-D and 3-D shapes, naming these and related everyday objects fluently. They recognise these shapes in different orientations and sizes, and know that rectangles, triangles, cuboids and pyramids are not always similar to each other.
We have a wide range of teaching resources, worksheets and activities to help teach year 1 pupils about the properties of shapes including naming and describing 2D and 3D shapes. Children should be taught about faces, vertices and edges, and understand the difference between 2D and 3D shapes.
When we’re talking about 3D (or 3 dimensional) shapes, we often talk about them having faces, vertices and edges. These can be difficult mathematical concepts for children to understand, so it’s best to explain about them in child-friendly, age-appropriate language. For example:
Typical examples of 3D shapes are: cubes, cuboids, square-based pyramids, triangular based pyramids and cones. A 3D shape is essentially something that has three dimensions – length, width and height. Think of a can of beans – that is a 3D shape. You can use our 3D sorting shapes activity cards to help children understand this concept.
2D (2 dimensional) shapes only have sides and vertices, and can only be described by length and width, not height. They are completely flat, unlike a 3D shape. Some examples of 2D shapes are: squares, circles, hexagon, pentagon. Explore our 2d sorting shapes worksheet to help children with this, perhaps after this 2D shapes lesson presentation, to help you model the learning.
To save time, explore our year 1 2D and 3D shape lesson plan – this covers all the year 1 maths national curriculum objectives, but also guides you through the learning, with key questions, differentiation and more.