Planned · Shapes and space

Cairn Shape™

For ages 3 to 6 · Spatial and geometric reasoning: the properties of shapes, composing them, and symmetry.

Age 3Age 4Age 5Age 6

Illustration for Cairn Shape

Name them, sort them, build with them, fold them in half. Geometry that feels like play.

The science

Young children move from naming shapes by how they look to understanding their parts. Cairn Shape walks that path: identify and sort 2D shapes, compose them into pictures, and find lines of symmetry, the moves that underlie later geometry and spatial thinking.

Children's geometric thinking develops through levels, from recognizing whole shapes to reasoning about their attributes (the van Hiele levels; Clements & Sarama, 2009). Rich shape experience early raises that trajectory.

Spatial skills, including composing shapes and mental rotation, predict later mathematics and STEM achievement and respond to practice (Verdine et al., 2014; Newcombe, 2010).

Cairn Shape uses composition, make a picture from shapes, and symmetry, fold it in half, because both make the properties of shapes concrete.

The research, cited
  1. Clements, D. H., & Sarama, J. (2009). Learning and Teaching Early Math: The Learning Trajectories Approach. Routledge.
  2. Verdine, B. N., et al. (2014). Deconstructing building blocks: preschoolers' spatial assembly performance relates to early math skills. Child Development, 85(3), 1062-1076.
  3. Newcombe, N. S. (2010). Picture this: increasing math and science learning by improving spatial thinking. American Educator, 34(2).

By age, and how to do it at home

Here is what is developing at each age, what Cairn Shape does about it, and a way to build the same skill at home. The home column is the real point: even if your child never opens the app, you can do this. The best early learning has always been a parent and a child and a little knowing-what-to-try.

5years old
What's developing

Names circles, squares, triangles, and rectangles, and matches a shape to one turned a different way.

What the game does

Sort shapes by their properties and compose two or three into a simple picture.

Try this at home

Hunt for shapes on a walk: “how do you know that window is a rectangle and not a square?”

6years old
What's developing

Describes shapes by their sides and corners and sees when two halves match.

What the game does

Trickier tangram pictures, the first 3D shapes, and fold-it-in-half symmetry puzzles.

Try this at home

Fold paper shapes in half to test symmetry, and build the same model two different ways.

No reviews yet, on purpose. When real children have actually played it, their reactions go here. We do not buy reviews, run review farms, or invent five-star quotes. That this is unusual tells you something about the rest of the shelf.
Cairn Shape

In the workshop.

This game is on the bench, built one at a time and only shipped when it clears all six of our promises. The science and the at-home guide above work today, with or without the app. Want to know when it lands? hello@playcairn.com.

See the whole library

The pedagogy behind every Cairn game is written in plain language and cited. Questions, or a researcher who wants to argue with us? hello@playcairn.com.