Shapes

My hubby and I sat down with Little Mister to play with his Shapes Jigsaw last night, and he surprised us by knowing what most of the shapes were! We certainly haven't sat down to teach him before, so this is a very good example of learning through play :)

We've picked this as the prime opportunity to reinforce shapes and for Little Mister to learn the ones he hasn't learnt already. We plan to do lots with shapes for a fortnight, and have a ball!

 

We intend to use a lot of Montessori style learning, and here's some of what we intend to use!

Ideas from The Activity Mom

• Candle Build-A-Shape Mat
• Bottle Top Shapes and Colours (printable)

I printed the Shapes Colouring Pages from Colouring Castle and the Shape Worksheets from Have Fun Teaching and covered them in smooth clear contact for Little Mister to colour and trace etc with soft crayons (you can use Crayola's Dry Erase Markers, or head to a cheap shop and buy a packet of crayons that are soft to the point where you can draw on your skin).

I sorted through our toy box and found...

• My First 1001 Words - has a couple of pages on shapes
• Fisher Price magnetic drawing board with 4 shape magnets and pen
• Tupperware Shape-O
• A Play-With-Me Book on Shapes with shapes on each page that pop out like a jigsaw piece
• Shape On Shape - A never ending wooden puzzle (I'll post pictures later to show what it looks like!)

Other ideas:

• Look through magazines/old picture books for shapes to cut out and make a collage page.
• Use Pipe Cleaners (I think some call them chenille sticks?!) to make each shape
• Make a 'stained glass window' toddler style (we did one quite some time ago, so time to do it again). Here's how you do it: cut a cardboard frame in each shape. When ready to make each 'window', cover one side with clear contact, leaving it sticky on the back for your child to stick cellophane pieces to. Then when that's done cover the other side in clear contact too. Done! Imagine all the shapes lined up on the window in the sun :)
• Look for the shapes in every day life, for example traffic signs (stop, give way, keep left, pedestrians etc
• Little Mister has plenty of playdough toys and cutters, but only one shape! So to incorporate playdough into this one, I'll help him role lengths of playdough and create the shape that way.
• Make a mobile from cardboard and attach it to an old coat hanger (we have tones!)

Wow! I've even surprised myself and I still have ideas filling my head as I type! Definitely thinking that this might be the main topic for a month rather than 2 weeks.

Check out my Toddler Basics page for even more ideas on teaching colours, shapes, letters, numbers and also Gross and Fine Motor Skills.