Mini Shape Book

Happy Thursday! I'm here to share a mini shape book I made that is the perfect size for an activity on the go! We are still working on shapes and colors, so I wanted to add an activity that would work on both.

On each page I added a new shape, but kept the same language "This is a...". Repetition is SO good for little ones and it's the way they learn. Here is an interesting article about why toddlers love repetition. So when your little one asks to read the same book for the 100th time - remember it is good for them (even if it can drive a mama crazy at times!).

I wanted repetition in this book so that once they mastered identifying shapes, they could begin to "read" the book themselves and feel success! To add a little bit of matching fun, I cut out felt shapes so they could identify and match shapes for an activity to go with the book.

I love to have various activities in my diaper bag to use at long appointments, at the baseball field, or anywhere on the go! This makes an easy activity to grab and throw in our bags and it doesn't take up a lot of space!

Shape Sort

A few weeks ago I shared this set of shape manipulatives that I scored at a local consignment shop! We have used them over and over for the past few weeks with exploring shapes!

This week I used painters tape to create four shapes (rectangle, triangle, square, circle) on our hardwood. We have sorted the shape manipulatives several times into each category. We've also just practiced walking and jumping on the shape while saying the shapes name! Such an easy way to discuss shapes every day when we walk right over them!

Shape Fun Outside

Last week while the weather was nice we should our SHAPE fun outside and combined it with a little bit of gross motor fun! I drew 6 shapes on our driveway in chalk: square, rectangle, circle, triangle, heart, and star. 

How did we work on MATH with GROSS MOTOR skills?

• We identified shapes.
• I called out shapes for them to run to.
• We jumped on shapes. This works on jumping in a stationary position. 
• We jumped from shape to shape, working on the skill of jumping forward.  

After some shape fun, the littles wanted to play basketball with big brother and draw with chalk (worked on pre-writing skills!). There are so many fun ways to work on various skills outside!

Shape Manipulatives Sort

A few weeks ago I went to a local consignment sale and found so many wonderful resources for great deals! There were thousands of books and tons of teaching supplies! One of the items I picked up was this set of shape manipulatives. They came in red, blue, and yellow in a variety of sizes. Some shapes are big, some are small, some are thick, and some are thin. I love the variety!

We have been looking at shapes and really focusing on the four basic shapes: rectangles, triangles, squares, and circles. This set was perfect for our shape study. I cut out shapes in construction paper and wrote the shape words on them. Then, we worked on sorting by shape.


How could else could I use shape manipulatives?

• Sort by color
• Sort by size
• Sort by thickness/thin
• Create patterns
• Count edges and vertices of shapes
• Sort and count 

Shape Hide & Seek

Happy Monday! We are still working on shapes, so I wanted to share this easy Shape Hide & Seek game with you all. Last week, I shared that I cut felt shapes for a DIY puzzle and used them again for a giant shape puzzle. We used those same felt shapes again for this activity! That's three activities you can do with those felt shapes! 

We haven't played hide and seek much, so I wanted to make sure all of our shapes were visible so that they understand the basics of the game. Find the shape and match it to the DIY puzzle. Eventually we will move towards hiding the shapes a little more, but I didn't want it to be frustrating in any way at first. This also works on visual skills as well - looking vertically and horizontally for a given object. You could also hide your shapes in a bigger area (maybe a specific room), but I wanted to keep it simple for this activity! 

You can play hide and seek with SO many objects/themes! The options are endless and it's great practice leading up to Easter egg hunting!

Shape Sensory Bin

We've had this Melissa & Doug puzzle for a while and I love that not only can you work on shapes, you can work on colors with it, too.



I saw on Fun with Mama blog that she used this puzzle for a fun Shape Hunt Sensory Bin, so we recreated it using black beans. The beans were less than $1 and it took less than two minutes to throw this together. Literally just dump a filler (you could use rice, too) and added the shapes.

Before the activity, I hid the shapes under the beans. Once they found a shape, we talked about what shape it was and they placed it in the puzzle. My little ones really liked this activity and played with the beans for the longest time (with and without the shapes)! 

Shape Bath

A fun way to work on shapes is in the BATH, so we had a "Shape Bath" last night! I bought two packs of sponges and cut them out in the four shapes we are working on right now: circle, square, rectangle, and triangle.

I took out all of our toys that we have in the bathtub for this activity and placed the shape sponges in the tub! First, I let them just freely play with the sponges. They put them on their heads, squeezed water out, etc. After some time we worked on identifying shapes (I asked them if they could find a circle, etc.).

Such a SIMPLE way to incorporate shapes into bath time and they really enjoyed a simple "toy" to play with at bath time!

Giant Shape Puzzle

Yesterday I shared a DIY basic shape puzzle that I created using a cardboard box and felt pieces. We used those same felt pieces to create a GIANT shape puzzle! All you need for this activity is white paper (THIS is the kind we use). I taped the paper to our coffee table and outlined the shapes.

This activity took only a few minutes to set up and served its purpose! It isn't something we will keep for long (lets be real - someone ripped the corner in less than a few hours!), but it worked for that days activities and can be easily created again! And I love that I was able to use the SAME felt pieces we'd been using!

DIY Basic Shape Puzzle

We are in the beginning stages of working on shape identification, so I wanted to share this very basic DIY shape puzzle. So many shape activities and puzzles include multiple shapes and I really felt it would be beneficial if we began our focus on the four basic shapes: square, circle, triangle, & rectangle. 

I created this DIY puzzle using two pieces of a cardboard box (thanks Amazon!) and felt pieces. I would suggest using a sturdier piece of felt than I did here, but this works for its purpose! You could also add velcro which would help the shapes stay in place. 

I have lots of fun shape activities planned and will be sharing lots here!

Sorting Hearts by Color

We have been working hard on sorting by color, so I wanted to share a few of the ways I've used the materials from our Valentine's Day fun for sorting. 

Activity #1: 

I purchased this set of multi colored hearts on Amazon and I found the printable at Teaching 2 and 3 Year Olds. 

For this activity we didn't use them as stickers. We just placed them onto the correct heart. We will use the hearts as stickers in the next activity.

Activity #2:

We used those same foam hearts for another color sorting activity! This time I cut out hearts from construction paper and taped them to the wall. We used the stickers to match to the colored heart. 

Acvitiy #3:

These foam hearts came in a pack of hearts that I used for Valentine Multiplication. We took a few minutes to sort the large hearts by color. You can sort into two groups as shown here (reds and pinks):

 Or you could take it a step further and divide into four groups (colors with and without glitter):

Activity #4:
I purchased these red and pink plastic hearts from Dollar Tree and we have used them in both sensory bins this month. For this activity, I gathered them and we sorted them by color.

Activity #5:
Another easy color sorting activity you can do is to sort candy conversation hearts! They are a classic Valentine's treat!

Valentine's Toddler Math Activity

Let's look at another Valentine's math activity for toddlers and preschoolers! I created this using PowerPoint, but I highly suggest purchasing a heart die cut because cutting these out (times two so both my girls could play it at the same time!) was a bit of a pain! 

This is a simple number matching game that works on number identification! 

Materials:

• Numbers printed or written on hearts 
• Cardstock
• Laminator (optional, but suggest it for future use!)

I chose to use different colored hearts to make matching a bit easier! You could start with either color as the base and then have your child match the numbered hearts with the other color. You can expand this lesson by having them line up the numbers in order of least to greatest, greatest to least, odd numbers, even numbers, etc. SO many ways to expand or you can simplify it as well! We aren't ready for those expansions yet, so we will just stick with identifying numbers and add the enrichment ideas next year! 

Valentine's Toddler Math Activity

Today we are working on a math sorting activity using miniature heart erasers! This sorting activity can be expanded to counting as well! 

Materials:

• Miniature heart erasers (Dollar General)
• Sheet with similar colored hearts for sorting 

For this activity, we will match the mini erasers to the colored hearts! You canuse these erasers for so many math skills: sorting, counting, patterns, etc. So many ways to expand this activity based on your child's level and interests!

Teaching Colors

I'm back to share a few activities that we have done lately to work on colors! We are working so hard on sorting and matching colors, as well as naming colors.

Activity 1: This is such a simple activity to create at home and cost less than $3 total. The goal is to work on fine motor skills while matching colors!

Materials:
cardboard box (I bought this box so I would have a deep enough box for the popsicles to go into)
colored popsicle sticks (linking similar ones)
markers (to color around the slits you make in the box)

Activity 2: This activity uses dot stickers, which are seriously the best! We use them all the time. We actually did activity on the go in a waiting room. It's perfect to add to a busy bag for on the go, or to do at home! I just laid out construction paper and had my girls match the dot sticker to the paper. So easy and it works on colors and fine motor skills with the stickers!

Materials:

construction paper

dot stickers 

Activity 3: For this activity we used our counting bears to match colors using a printable from Life Over C's. I printed and laminated the sheet and we placed the bears on top matching colors. There are so many ways to use counting bears - counting, matching colors, patterns, etc.

Materials:
Printable from Life Over C's 
Counting bears 

Activity 4: This activity comes from Kelly at Lattes and Lunchrooms. She is the sweetest and I always love to see what she is teaching her girls! For this activity, the child drives the colored car to the matching construction paper. She shared it on her Instagram and I just had to pick these cars up to try it. My two LOVED this activity. We started with the papers close, moved them apart, and eventually spread them all over. So fun!

Materials: 
set of 6 cars (Wal-Mart Valentine's section for $1.97)
construction paper 

Activity #5: This activity also comes from Kelly at Lattes and Lunchrooms! Told you she was awesome! She used dot stickers on an egg carton and had her kiddos match colors using popsicle sticks. Fine motor and colors - it's a win, win!

Materials:
egg carton
dot stickers
colored popsicle sticks (linking similar ones)

Teaching Colors

We have been working hard on colors lately! Identifying colors, naming colors, sorting colors, you  name it. I thought I would share a few sorting activities that we have done recently. 

Activity #1:

I printed off this cereal sorting mat from I Can Teach My Child. I have a laminator at home (best purchase ever as a former teacher and I still use it all the time!) so I laminated it so we could use it over and over. I did this activity at our morning snack time, so it was the perfect color sorting activity that ended in a treat! 

Activity #2:
I purchased a pack of foam blocks from the Dollar Tree months ago and we've used them multiple times. For this activity, I simply printed colored squares to match the foam blocks. After we sorted by colors, we worked on stacking and knocking down the towers. These are tricky to stack because they are small, so it's good fine motor work.

Activity #3:
For this activity, I printed this free Goldfish color sort. Just like with our first activity, I paired this around snack time so we could enjoy the snack after the activity. This was a bit tricky because the yellow Goldfish really look more orange, but my two year olds were still able to sort accordingly!

I'll be back soon to share more color activities!