Take a look around your house. What are the shapes that you most commonly come across?
Tree trunks are cylindrical, leaves are elliptical, lemons and oranges are spherical, eggs and water melons are elliptical. Vegetables too have shapes; French beans are cylindrical, ladies finger and carrots are conical, potatoes, onions and tomatoes are spherical.
To name some more, a water droplet is spherical, shells take on various shapes… the commonest that we may come across is the cone shaped shell. A canopy of trees also takes on various shapes including conical, rounded, etc.
Shapes can also be found when one takes a cross section of various things found in nature. An apple as a whole appears to be spherical, but when one takes the cross section of an apple, the seeds arranged inside the apple seem to appear like a star. The cross section of a honey bee hive will reveal hexagonal cells, that of a carrot is circular, etc.
So you realise that geometric forms are not just related to two dimensional shapes drawn on paper or to three-dimensional models but shapes can also be attributed to various objects found in nature.
Let us undertake a simple survey of our surroundings, either at home or at school and find out shapes of various things— both living and non living appearing in nature. The following table could be extended to fill in details.

The author is with Centre for Environment Education