Parents' Guide to

Goodness Shapes

By Mieke VanderBorght, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 3+

Extra perks take shape to make pre-K mini-games special.

App iPhone , iPod Touch , iPad Paid Education
Goodness Shapes Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this app.

  • Goodness Shapes App: Screenshot #1
  • Goodness Shapes App: Screenshot #2
  • Goodness Shapes App: Screenshot #3
  • Goodness Shapes App: Screenshot #4

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What’s It About?

Tap play on the GOODNESS SHAPES home screen to start. A narrator introduces one of 10 shapes by naming it and counting how many sides or curves it has. Play continues with a randomly presented series of mini-games that have kids identifying and matching shapes, sorting by color, coloring a drawing to match a target, or playing memory. There's a circle, square, triangle, rectangle, pentagon, hexagon, octagon, crescent, star, and diamond. Kids can also swipe left on the home screen to choose a specific game to play.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say: Not yet rated
Kids say: Not yet rated

A handful of creative touches make these ordinary preschool shape and color mini-games stand out a bit from the crowd. As is so often the case with these apps, kids match shapes, sort by color, and play a memory game. The context changes from game to game, which ups the excitement factor a bit for kids. For the classic memory game, to reveal what shapes are hiding inside, sometimes kids tap pipes and other times they break crates, for example. There are also a few games that ask kids to do something a little different, like stack a shape tower to match a target. And with 10 shapes and 12 games, it'll take a while before it starts to feel like kids are just repeating the same games. Some of the sorting games may confuse kids at first, since with a mixture of different shapes and colors, it's not immediately clear what the sorting criteria should be. In fact, sometimes it's not clear whether Goodness Shapes is an app about shapes or about colors, as the interplay between the two is sometimes awkward. Depending on how parents want to use Goodness Shapes, it can be helpful or annoying that games continue to load ad infinitum. Overall, Goodness Shapes is a good choice for parents looking for a simple and straightforward shapes and color app.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about the shapes in Goodness Shapes. Is your plate a circle, the book a rectangle, and the road sign a triangle? Help kids see and identify the shapes that are all around them.

  • Engage your kids in a conversation inspired by each game. Have they ever been on a Ferris wheel? What was it like? Ask your kids to tell a little story about where they think the shape ships are going.

  • Be clear about your family's rules around screen time. Look here for some help on setting guidelines that work for your family.

App Details

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