Shape Stories with Farm Friends Series 

What Is the Shape of My Egg? is the first in a series of children’s picture storybooks titled Shape Stories with Farm Friends. The series is dedicated to nurturing young children’s developing knowledge about shapes beyond the images that they see and the geometric names that are applied.

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The context of each story is relatable to children in terms of what they may know about animals, farm animals to be exact, and what they may know about geometry. In addition, select words and phrases are built into each storyline to foster accurate conceptions of shapes with either two or three dimensions. To help solidify these concepts, the properties of select shapes, and how certain properties differentiate one shape from another, are revisited as the story unfolds. This provides a memorable way for children to think about shapes on more of a descriptive and visual level.

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As a key component to mathematical learning, spatial thinking involves learning about physical space. Understanding the dimensions or properties of objects, as well as their location, are important aspects of the learning experience. Language that draws attention to position, direction, and location is therefore included in each storyline to help children build upon what they already know (or don’t know) about space. Some spatial concepts, such as left and right, can be challenging for youngsters to learn since what is left versus right can change pending the child’s orientation. This book, and the others to follow, takes such difficulties into consideration. My recommendation is for children to read the book aloud with an adult to promote accurate learning and opportunities to reason about shapes. While reading, children should be encouraged to ask questions and talk about the illustrations using correct geometric language. Simply stated, communicating with children about shapes and space matters in early mathematical learning. I hope you enjoy!