Building understanding

Recognising and matching 2D shapes to a template

Numeracy

﻿Hello, my name is Helen and I'm your teacher. Today's lesson is one of four in the Shape and Sorting unit. And for today, we're going to be learning to recognise and match two-dimensional shapes. The shapes we'll be looking at today are triangle, circle and rectangle. We're also going to be looking at some real life objects that we can find around our homes and see if we can recognise these 2D shapes on their faces. But today's lesson, you're going to need templates of the shapes rectangle, circle, and triangle. I'm going to draw these on a piece of paper and you can do the same. Some playdough or saltdough and some objects from your house that have rectangular, circular or triangular faces. So now you know who I am and you've got your resources together. Let's find out what we're going to do during today's lesson. First, we're going to be matching some two-dimensional shapes. Next will be matching real life objects to shapes that we've been looking at today. And finally, we will be making some shapes from playdough. What shapes can you see? That's right, rectangle. That's right, circle. You're right, triangle. Well done. Can you find the rectangles? Be careful, they might be different colours and they might be different sizes. Excellent work. Can you find the circles? Be careful, they might be different colours and they might be different sizes. Fantastic. Can you find the triangles? Be careful, they might be different colours and they might be different sizes. Amazing, well done. I've drawn some templates of some two-dimensional shapes on these pieces of paper. I've got a circle, a triangle, and a rectangle. I've also got some objects that I found around my house and I'm going to try and match these objects onto these two-dimensional shape templates. Let's see how we get 'em. I've got a tin, a tin a peas. What shapes can you see on this tin? Can you see a rectangle? Can you see a triangle or can you see a circle? That's right. A circle, great work. I found this in my fridge. This is some cheese, I could spread on it on some bread. What shapes can you see on here? Can you see a triangle, a rectangle or a circle? That's right, it's a triangle. Excellent. I've got a cup. Which of my two-dimensional shapes can you see on my cup? Can you see a rectangle, a triangle or a circle? Fantastic. A circle, well done. I found this ornament. I think I can see a circle. Is that right? It's not. These are triangles. Fantastic work. I've got a candle. which is my two-dimensional shapes can you see on this candle? Can you see a rectangle, a triangle or a circle? Fantastic. A circle. What about this tissue box? Can you see a rectangle, a triangle or a circle? You're right. Rectangle, well done. What shape can you see on my plate? I think it's a rectangle. I'm I right? No, it's a circle. Great work. What about my cereal box? Rectangle, triangle or circle. Fantastic. Rectangle. Brilliant job.

Place your shaped templates and objects in front of you. Match your objects to the correct template. Make sure you look carefully all the faces on your objects. Pause the video to complete your task. And when you're finished click to resume.

I've got some playdough and I've got my three templates of my 2D shapes. I've got my triangle, my rectangle and my circle. I'm going to roll out my playdough and I'm going to make some shapes to match each of my templates. I've got here a little cup and as you can see the top of the cup is a circle shape so I'm going to use that to cut our circle. Here we go, I've made a circle. So I'm going to put it on the template that it matches to, which is this one. You can see they're not the same size but they're both circles, they're both the same shape. This time, I'm going to use the end of my rolling pin as you can see that it's got a circle shape on it as well. So I'm going to use that to cut a circle out of my playdough. There we go. I've got a small circle here. I'm going to put that on my template to match my circle. Now I don't have a rectangle shaped template to cut out my playdough. So I'm going to cut with a knife, not dangerous when it's not sharp. But I'm going to use this knife so that I can cut the shape that I want. Now you can see I've made myself a rectangle. So I'm going to put that on my rectangle template over there. I'm going to do the same again with a rectangle, but this time I'm going to make a small rectangle. Here we go, another rectangle. Not the same size but the same shape, still a rectangle. Again I don't have a triangular cutter to cut out the shape that I'm after for my triangle template. So I'm going to use my knife, it's not very sharp to cut out the shape that I want. A triangle. And I'm going to place that on my triangle template. This time I'm going to make a bigger triangle. As you can see, not the same size, but it's still a triangle, it's the same shape. So I can put them both on my triangle template.

Can you model your playdough to match your shape templates? Try to make playdough shapes of different sizes to match your shape templates. Pause the video to complete your task. And when you're finished click to resume. You've done really well at recognising and matching 2D shapes to a template. Well done. To make this task easier try and make all your shapes the same size to make them easier to recognise. You could also try to make your similar shapes the same colour as your templates to help you recognise them. To make it a bit harder, try turning your shapes around into a different orientation. Can you still match them? You could even try putting different shapes together to make pictures. For more ideas of how to practise these skills, you could bake some shapes if you've used saltdough to make the templates. And you could make decorations for your house. You could try cutting shapes of different sizes into potatoes and making prints using paints.

Well done, what's a fantastic lesson. You've done really well recognising and matching 2D shapes to their templates. Next lesson, we're going to be looking at building models with three-dimensional shapes. If you want to share some of your fantastic work with Oak National Academy, please ask your parent or carer. They can share your work on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter. I'll see you next time. Bye.

Recognising and matching 2D shapes to a template

Recognising and matching 2D shapes to a template

These resources will be removed by the end of the Spring Term 2026.

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