About this game

Solid names

Solid names: a free Kindergarten math game for ages 5-6. Each round draws 5 questions; instructions are read aloud and every answer is checked and explained.

How it plays and why it helps

Kindergarten children meet solids every day: a ball, a box, an ice cream cone, a can of soup. Solid names gives those objects their math names. A colored solid appears, and your child taps its name from four, among cube, cone, cylinder, sphere, pyramid and rectangular prism. Five solids make a round, the instruction is read aloud, and every answer is checked and explained by its faces: a cube has 6 flat faces, all the same.

Faces are the clue. Naming solids by their faces, flat or curved, is the first step of 3D geometry. The explanations give each name a reason your child can feel, such as round all over for a sphere.

Cone and pyramid get mixed up most. Both rise to a point, and the two names often sit side by side in the choices. The base tells them apart: a flat round face for the cone, a square for the pyramid. Ask, "Would it roll if we tipped it over?" Praise the reasoning: "You looked at the bottom, not just the point."

Aligned with

  • K.G.A.3 Identify shapes as two-dimensional (lying in a plane, "flat") or three-dimensional ("solid").

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