Maggie Cary, a national board certified teacher has been an educator for more than 17 years. She is certified in secondary education and holds a master’s degree in early childhood education.

Over the years she has mentored countless teachers and advised hundreds of parents. Cary has taught children from preschool through high school. She also offers classroom advice on website Classroom Talk. She last wrote about knowing the lyrics to your child's music.

Learning the proper term for solid shapes at an early age gives your child a head start in geometry. It’s very simple to teach them some proper names.

1. Call a can a cylinder.
2. Call dice or square boxes a cube.
3. A cassette or a cereal box is a rectangular prism.
4. A sphere is a ball, an orange, a globe or any round object.
5. A cone shape is just like the bottom of an ice cream cone.
6. A pyramid is a fascinating shape that most children remember after they have seen pictures of one.

If you use the objects proper name and then its “household” name interchangeably, children can learn about a variety of 3D solid shapes before they enter kindergarten.

To take this lesson to the next level, talk about the number of sides (faces) of a shape, the number of corners (vertices) and what shapes have common attributes.

Does it roll?

Can you slide it?

What shape appears if you trace around the bottom of it with a pencil?