The five regular 'Platonic' solids
This is a cube, the most commonly seen of the regular solids. Dice used in board games are this shape, which is made up of six squares. It's also known as a hexahedron. When the first part of a word starts with 'hex' it is nearly always related to the Greek word for 'six'. A hexagon is a flat shape with six sides, a hexahedron is a solid with six faces.
This is a tetrahedron, the simplest of the regular solids. It's made up of 4 equilateral triangles. The suffix 'tetra' is the Greek word for 'four'.
This
is an octohedron. It's made up of eight equilateral triangles.
The suffix 'octo' is the Greek word for 'eight' - it's also
found in the word octopus (a creature with eight legs).
This
is anicosahedron. It's made up of 20 equilateral triangles.
The suffix 'icosa' is from the Greek word 'eikosi' meaning
'twenty'.
This
is a dodecahedron. It's made up of 12 regular pentagons. The
suffix 'dodeca' is the Greek word meaning 'twelve'.
If you want to use them on another site, please include a link to their site.
If you would like to know about flat shapes - such as the squares, triangles and pentagons that make up the above solids, see the page on geometric shapes.
For more articles about teaching basic maths without workbooks or drill, see:
Number
bonds - beginning addition
Beginning
multiplication
Prime
numbers
and factors
Algebra
for six-year-olds
If you have older children, and are concerned about teaching them maths, see: