2D stands for two dimensional. 2D shapes are also known as flat shapes because they don’t take up space. You can draw a circle on the ground with chalk and it won’t take up any space because you can stand on top of it. This is different to a ball (sphere) which occupies its own space; we couldn’t occupy the space inside the ball.

It is important to recognise that 2D shapes make up 3D shapes. You can find some 2D shapes on 3D shapes. 2D shapes make up the faces on a 3D shape. E.g. A cube is made up of 6 square faces.

If you get a piece of paper and draw a square, circle, rectangle, pentagon, hexagon, star, oval etc. you will see that they are flat, you can’t pick them up and they don’t occupy any space.

By the end of this activity you will be able to: Identify 2D shapes.

In this activity you will identify 2D shapes, use the clues to help.