I have already done a bit on 3D shapes with my oldest but lately it has been my youngest who keeps asking about them.  He seems to have picked up a number of the names from his sister but he was not sure what a 2 dimensional shape is and what a three-dimensional shape is.

I printed off these great 2 D shape pages from Twinkl (Platinum) and laminated and cut them out.  I laminated ours as I knew we would be using them with play dough and I wanted them to last so that we could use them again in a few weeks time.  I also printed some of the 3 D shapes from Twinkl Platinum- we like the Houses and Homes (the ones in the photos below) and the real life objects.  We started by comparing the two.  It was quickly clear to my youngest that the 2 D shapes where flat and the 3 D shapes had depth.

Then we got our play dough out and both kids had a go at creating 2D shapes and 3D shapes with their play dough.

The play dough shapes actually ended up being very popular with my two. The kids have kept coming back to doing it the last few days and they are both trying really hard to recreated the harder shapes.

The have both become mini-experts in creating pyramids with their play dough and now I think the only shape which they still battle to create (they can make it but it is not yet up to the standard that they want) is the cone shape.

My oldest also had a go at matching the 2D shape 3 part cards and the 3D shape 3 part cards both from Twinkl and she asked me to print out a poster for her to use with her doll school (I printed this 2D and 3D shape poster from Twinkl Platinum for her as it shows both 2 D shapes and 3 D shapes).  I have heard her telling all their toys what the different shapes are called and even asking the toys ” so is a circle 2D or 3D ?”  Poor toys they never realised when we bought them that they would be attending toy school.