A great way to teach your child about shapes is to take a walk around your house, neighborhood or town and go on a shape hunt. If you look closely, you'll be amazed at how many shapes you find. From octagonal stop signs and square window panes to triangular roofs and round door knobs, shapes are everywhere!
Shape Hunt Adventure
Take It Further
- Camera
- Paper
- Crayon or Marker
Directions:
- The
Cat in the Hat is going on a shape hunt adventure in his
Thinga-ma-jigger. Ask your child if she wants to go on a shape hunt
adventure, too. Remind her to take a camera because she'll want
to take pictures of all the shapes she finds.
- Before
going on your shape hunt, help familiarize your child with the
shapes you'll be looking for. Talk about the characteristics of
each shape. Read a book with lots of pictures of shapes, such as
Shapes, Shapes, Shapes,
by Tana Hoban
- Shapes
to look for: circle, square, triangle, rectangle, pentagon, and
hexagon.
- Begin
by pointing out a few shapes for your child. Then, the next time you
spot a shape (e.g. a rectangular brick), ask your child, "Can you
find a rectangle in that wall?"
- Once
your child gets comfortable finding shapes, ask her "What other
shapes can you find?"
- Take a picture of each shape you find.
- Help
your child make a shape book with the pictures. Use one sheet of
paper for each shape. Write the name of the shape at the top of the
sheet. Ask your child to look through the pictures and find the
shapes for each page. As she looks for each shape, help her
remember the characteristics of that shape by asking questions such
as, "Can you find all the triangles? A triangle has three sides."
- When
the shapes are all pasted into the book ask your child to make a
cover for the book. The title can be "My Shape Book" or your
child might enjoy seeing her name in the title, such as "Anna's
Shape Book." Tell her to use a crayon or marker to decorate the
cover of her book by drawing pictures of the different shapes that
are in the book.
You
can also look for the following 3-D shapes: cube (e.g., a square
block or dice), rectangular prism (e.g., a rectangular book or box of
tissues), cylinder (e.g., an oatmeal container or roll of paper
towels), and sphere (a ball or orange).
Your child might also enjoy making shapes out of play dough or even edible shapes such as shape cookies or shape sandwiches.
The
Great Shape Race — Collect
shapes and match them to ones in a wagon that the Cat is pulling with
his Thinga-ma-jigger.
