- Introduction to shapes:
- BabySmash introduction to shapes, including polygons.
- While doing this, ask: "how many sides does this shape have? (reinforcing polygon identification)"
- Pooh's Color's and Shapes Flash Cards
- Draw shapes together in a sandbox.
- BabySmash introduction to shapes, including polygons.
- Shape match game: Fold a paper into 3rds, cut out various shapes along each crease, give them the cut-out shapes, and have them match them up on the paper while identifying which shape they are.
- 'Shapes in the world' game: Anywhere, in any environment–ask them what shapes things around them are made out of. For example–a trampoline is a circle, and a house is a mix of squares, rectangles, triangles, circles, etc. "What shapes are in that cloud? What shape is the moon?"
- Draw an outside scene together in the form of shapes.
- 'Shapes in a picture' game: Take a picture, print it out. Discover the shapes within it, and cut them out together.
- 'Fruit Shapes': Cut a citrus fruit (orange, lemon, grapefruit, etc) in half and ask what shapes they see (the half is a circle, the inner sections are now triangles). Then reinforce numbers with counting the number of sections, and how many of them make the whole fruit (fractions).
- Angles: Make an animal (cat, dog, bird) together out of triangles.
- Can draw, or cut out a lot of paper triangles to paste together.
- Introduces the concept of angles with obtuse, acute, and right triangles.
- Trapezoids: Create your own 4 sided shapes together by drawing or with paper cut outs.
- Polygons:
- Reinforcing polygonal 'sides' by drawing each shape together. 1: line, 2: angle, 3: triangle, 4: square, 5: pentagon, etc. Each time you draw a new shape, circle and count each point to reinforce the polygon's identity. Once you get to 12 or more, ask 'what shape is this starting to look like?' (a circle).
- 'Polygon star game': starting with a pentagon, explore the stars you can create together when connecting the points within polygons. Ask if they can see the shapes within the stars (squares, triangles, rectangles). If drawn, cut out and hang the stars in their play area for fun.
