Teaching shapes to adults might be embarrassing to those who don't know them. A way to avoid embarrassment is to teach shapes while you teach graphing.

Show each of the shapes you need to teach, then have students vote on their favorite. (You hold up the square and ask who votes for the square so that you do all the initial naming. You can also talk about the properties of the shapes at this time, like number of sides or angles, and ask students why a particular shape is a favorite. You might also ask for places this shape is commonly seen.)

Show student how to graph the results of your survey about the classmembers' favorite shapes. Keep pointing out the shapes as you add up the votes and put them on the graph. Finally, put the shapes and their names on the graph. This activity teaches shape properties and shape names as well as graphing skills, but it doesn't require anyone to acknowledge they he/she doesn't know the basic shapes.