A shapes game where every corner counts

What your child learns

Knowing the word "circle" is a good start. Real shape knowledge is knowing why it is a circle: no corners and one round line. PBS KIDS for Parents calls this naming shapes and their attributes, such as sides and corners.

The game takes that step in small pieces. Children meet eight shapes, then use them to build pictures. They fit shapes into a sorter, where the wrong shape simply does not fit. They tap every corner and then every side, and the game counts along with them.

Finally, shapes leave the flat page. A cube, a ball, a cone and a cylinder are shapes you can hold in your hand. Children find out which ones roll and which ones stack.

• Eight shape names, including oval, heart and diamond
• Counting corners and sides, up to the six of a hexagon
• Telling a square from a rectangle, and a circle from an oval
• 3D shapes in real things: a dice, an orange, a party hat, a can
• Spatial thinking: finding the right place for each shape

Why we made this game

Young children ask very direct shape questions. Why does a ball roll? Is a door a square? Why is the roof pointy? Underneath, they are asking what makes one shape different from another.

So we built the game around differences. Tri, a cheerful triangle, explains each shape in a sentence or two and names things that have it. A square has four sides that are all the same length. Most rectangles have two long sides and two short ones.

Every instruction is spoken, so children who cannot read yet can play on their own. Mistakes are gentle: a shape in the wrong hole just flies back, and Tri gives a hint.

What children love about it

The building screen is a quiet favorite. A triangle becomes a roof, a rectangle becomes a door, and suddenly there is a house. Next come a boat, a rocket with an oval flame and a kite with a star and a heart.

The circle on the counting screen always gets a smile. After tapping the corners of a triangle, a square and a hexagon, children are asked to find the corners of a circle. There are none, and Tri explains why.

Tap Tri on the home screen and the triangle jumps, waves, flips or spins, then shares a shape fact. At the end of the quiz, every right answer adds a shape to a tower. More right answers make a taller tower, a good reason to play again.

How to play it together

Start with the shape hunt in the game's busy street. Then go hunting on your own street: a round clock, a rectangle door, a triangle roof. Most homes hold more shapes than you would guess.

Count corners out loud together, touching each one with a finger. When your child names a shape, ask "How do you know?" PBS KIDS for Parents suggests using exact names like hexagon and comparing shapes by their sides and corners.

Drawing is a good next step. Many three-year-olds can draw a circle when you show them how. After that, let your child try a square or a triangle.