Practice Geometry with Shape Riddles!

What You Need:

• Nothing—just the names and descriptions of a few geometric shapes

What You Do:

1. Tell your child that you’re going to play a riddle game called “What Shape am I?” You will start by providing a certain number of clues about a geometric shape. Decide with your child how many clues you want to provide (3–4 is a good start). Try to incorporate as many geometric terms as you can for your clues. For example, if you’ve picked a square, you might give your child clues like:
   • I am a quadrilateral
   • All my sides are equal in length
   • I have four right angles
   • What shape am I?
2. Based on your clues your child will guess the geometric shape. Then, your child can think of a different shape and come up with clues of his or her own. For a challenge, keep increasing the number of clues each player needs to provide. Here’s another example with 5 clues:
   • I am a polygon
   • I am a quadrilateral
   • I only have one pair of parallel sides
   • I have two acute angles
   • I have two obtuse angles
   • What shape am I? (A trapezoid)
3. Continue playing until your child has a good grasp of geometric terms. Who knows, with a little practice she might even be able to stump you!