Name That 3D Shape!

Most primary-aged students are familiar with the overarching concept of a 3D shape. After all, these shapes are to be found everywhere in our immediate environments! Think of household items such as books, cans of soda, boxes of crackers, balls, and so on. But do they know the mathematical names of these familiar shapes? Some students may, but the vast majority probably don’t!

That is why teachers must explicitly teach the mathematical names of these familiar shapes. That’s where we can help!

Explore Real-World 3D Shapes With a Cut-and-Paste Activity

This cut-and-paste worksheet has been designed to support your students to recognize and name familiar three-dimensional shapes in the environment.

Students are presented with images of various common shapes from the real world. They are required to cut out the shapes and paste them in a table under one of the following headings: 

• Cylinder
• Pyramid
• Sphere
• Cube
• Cone

An answer sheet is also provided in the download.

Tips for Scaffolding and Extension

We understand the need to differentiate instruction and resources in order to successfully cater to the learning needs of all your students. That’s why we’d like to offer these handy tips and tricks for making this resource suitable for learners of all abilities:

• Support Your Less-Confident Students – If you have students in your class who aren’t quite ready to complete this activity without additional scaffolding, then we recommend providing them with a 3D shapes poster to help them complete the task.
• Challenge and Extend Your High Fliers – Encourage students who need an extra challenge to draw additional examples of each three-dimensional shape in each row of the table.

Download More 3D Shapes Activities

Use the dropdown menu next to the Download button to select between the editable Google Slides or the easy-print PDF version of this resource.

As this download includes an answer sheet, we recommend printing one copy of the entire file, then removing the worksheets for photocopying.

This resource was created by Kaylyn Chupp, a teacher in Florida and a Teach Starter collaborator.

Don’t stop yet! We have more fabulous 3D object resources only one small click away!

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Real Life 3D Shapes – Interactive PowerPoint

Explore three-dimensional objects in the real world with this engaging interactive activity.

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Real-World 3D Shapes - Coloring Worksheet

Explore three-dimensional shapes in the real world with this coloring worksheet.

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3D Shapes Dominoes

A set of dominoes to help students reinforce their understanding of 3-D figures.