Shapes and More Shapes

Shapes are the building blocks of our world--everything is made up of shapes. A house can be broken down to circles, squares, triangles and rectangles. Help your child be aware of the shapes all around.

Download

Tools and Materials

See below

Steps to take

Start with simple and familiar shapes first - circle, triangle, star...then add more complex shapes - hexagon, octagon.

At Home

If you have 3 minutes

  • When using dough, cut out shapes with cookie cutters.
  • Cut your child's sandwich into shapes, talk about the shapes. Talk about the shapes of other foods, like crackers, grapes, oranges.
  • Play a game- ask your child to find shapes around the house by saying "Can you find (name a shape)?'
  • Use items that represent shapes when picking items for your child to play with - blocks are cubes or rectangles (rectangular prism), cans are cylinders, balls are spheres.
  • Have your child trace around solid objects to see how they look on paper.
  • Put flour, sugar, or cornmeal on a plate and have child use their fingers to make shapes.
     

On the Go

If you have 3 minutes   

  • Use a bucket of water and paintbrush or chalk to make shapes on the sidewalk.

If you have more time

  • Use containers such as egg cartons, margarine tubs, Jell-o molds, coffee scoop as molds to use with sand, snow. Use a spray bottle with water to get the sand wet. Fill the containers with sand or snow, turn the container over and remove the mold. Ask the child "Which mold made the shape?"
  • Have your child draw shapes in the air. Point out the shapes of signs.
     

Words to Know

2 dimensional- circle oval triangle square rectangle diamond(rhombus) star 3 dimensional- cube cylinder sphere cone 

Possible Observations

Correctly identifies shapes; names shapes in books; names shapes of objects when playing; counts sides of shapes; observes and comments on which shape has more sides