As you travel around during the day and night, have you ever looked
at what you see? Do you see patterns, colors, shapes, and designs
in man made structures and the natural world? If you have not really
taken notice, then now is the time to look at the common shapes we
see everywhere we go. Kind of like the old saying, "stop and smell
the roses." Except now the twist is "stop and look at what you see."
For example, have you really looked at your school building? Do you
see a pattern in the windows? How about a pattern in the bricks or
other materials on the outside of the building? If you see patterns
then describe what you see. You should see three dimensional objects,
rectangles, squares, circles, triangles, and more.
How about patterns at a baseball park? Do you see a diamond? Do you
see semi-circles? How about circles? Any other shapes in the field
and stands? As you look you will notice common shapes everywhere in
the baseball park?
Now let's look at a different place. What about when you are riding
in a car going down the road? What can of shapes do you see? What
is the shape of a billboard? What is the shape of the bridge you just
went under? How about the shape of buildings you pass, can you describe
their shapes? What about the shape of other cars and trucks you see?
As you look you will see ovals, cylinders, cones, triangles, circles,
rectangles, squares, trapezoids, straight lines, and many other shapes.
How objects that have multiple shapes do you see?
Common shapes are everywhere we go, so let's take a look at something
else. How about your home? Do you see any shapes there? How about
the TV, computer, radio, stove, doors, beds, walls, lights, etc? What
kind of shapes do you see?
Another place to look for common shapes is in pictures and paintings.
Look at any picture of an object in your home or anywhere. What shapes
to you see? Pictures are full of common shapes, especially a painting.
A painter will start his/her painting using common shapes to depict
objects and then finish the painting based on these common shapes.
If you look closely, you will see circles, ovals, rectangles, triangles,
objects perpendicular to each other, objects that are parallel to
other objects, and more.
Let's look at your bicycle. What shapes do you see? Look at the wheels,
the pedals, handle bars, lights, reflectors, spokes, seat, tires,
chain, etc. Now describe all the shapes you see. You should be able
to see circles, cylinders, rectangles, ovals, and many others. What
other shapes do you see besides the ones I listed? If you do not see
any, then you are not really looking at what you see!
Shapes are everywhere and it does not take long to start finding
shapes as you look. How about the clouds in the sky, do you see shapes?
Many people see dogs, cats, boats, and more. Trying looking at the
clouds and if you can see a shape in the clouds. Then describe the
shape using geometric terms - such as, ovals, circles, etc. If you
look you will see them.
Here is a fun look at the food in the cafeteria. What shapes do you
see in the food? Pizza comes in rectangles; green beans come in cylinders,
French Fries come as three dimensional rectangles, and more. Your
food is full of shapes; even less obvious shapes have circles for
apple slices and wavy ovals in chips (provided they are not broken).