North Carolina Early Learning and Development Progressions: Birth to Five

Domain: NC Foundations for Early Learning: Cognitive Development (CD)

Subdomain: Mathematical Thinking and Expression

Goal: Children identify and use common shapes and concepts about position during play and other activities.

Skill Progression: Recognizes geometric shapes

Age: 21-24 Months

Click here to go to all skills for ages 21-24 Months.

Matches forms with the same size and orientation

Situations for Observation of Skill

Have two shape puzzles or make them. Make shape puzzles by using colored paper. Make three sets of drawings with a circle, square and triangle of the same size on each one. Cut the shapes out on two of them.

Elicitation Strategy

First give the child all of the paper shapes and watch what he does with them. If he does not automatically group them in like pairs, suggest, “Let’s find the ones that are alike and put them together.”

Behavior Observed

The child matches shapes. He may make patterns as well, lining them up on the floor.

Routines-based Intervention (Embedded Instruction)

Encourage early childhood educators and parents to label the various shapes they see in their environment, so children learn that these shapes are not just in puzzles, they are everywhere.

 North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, 2015

©2015 by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/.