Learning about Shapes

The children in my care clearly get lots of practice and support at home with their families, learning numbers, letters, colours, shapes, etc.  In my childcare, I am really building on the learning that has already taken place at home.

There are different activities we do at the daycare that teach the children about simple shapes. We read books about shapes. The children play with shape sorters, and we name the shapes as we put them in. We also notice shapes around us, in the apartment and out in the community.

Did you know that cookies and crackers are a great way to learn about shapes? The kids usually have whole wheat crackers or graham crackers (which we call cookies) as an afternoon snack. They eat them on the go in the wagon or outside. Depending on the day, they could be having "circle crackers", "rectangle cookies" or "square cookies". (Once in a while we have the Arrowroot cookies, which we call "oval cookies".) The kids often specify the shape when requesting more cookies or crackers. Just this week, one of the children was annoyed that we were having "rectangle cookies", and demanded "circle crackers" instead.

One day this week, the kids found a shapes poster tucked away in the closet. It used to be posted on my classroom wall when I was teaching grade 4/5. We took the shapes from the shapes puzzle and matched them to the shapes on the poster. It was funny to see the kids correctly matching the trapezoid and pentagon. Little geniuses! Next week we will learn about the hypotenuse. Seriously though, are there any crackers shaped as pentagons or trapezoids? I think that them requesting a trapezoid or pentagon cracker would REALLY impress the parents!