Activities

Keep a simple beat with a shaker, such as shake twice, and ask the children to repeat the sound.

Play a lively song while you give each child a musical instrument. Encourage the child to shake, rattle and roll with his/her instrument. Repeat the movements with the children.

Have the infant hold a rattle and attempt to shake it. Younger infants may need assistance.

Create a Bingo board by using tangram shapes. Be sure the shapes are the same size and color so it is easy for the children to match them. Give each child a Bingo board and a handful of tangram shapes. Encourage the children to match the shapes.

Provide an opportunity for children to look for pictures in magazines that are particular shapes, such as circles, squares and triangles. Encourage them to cut the pictures out and glue them onto a page labeled for circles, squares or triangles.

Read a variety of shape books to the children such as Round is a Mooncake: A Book of Shapes by Roseanne Thong; When a Line Bends … A Shape Begins by Rhonda Gowler Greene; Mouse Shapes by Ellen Stoll Walsh; Shape by Shape by Suse MacDonald or Dr.

Read a variety of shape books to the children such as Round is a Mooncake: A Book of Shapes by Roseanne Thong, When a Line Bends...

Offer toothpicks, pipe cleaners, straws or craft sticks as materials the children can use to make into shapes. Discuss the shapes they make by saying things such as, “That's a triangle.

Read the book Mouse Shapes by Ellen Stoll Walsh. In small group, provide the children with shapes cut from different colors of paper. Encourage them to create things with their shapes.

Provide the children with several bowls that are labeled with shapes. Also, provide a variety of shapes glued to plastic bottle caps or lids. Have the children pick a shape and drop it into the bowl that matches.

Provide the children with pattern blocks and homemade pattern block cards. To make the cards, trace the shape of a pattern block in three different orientations (for example, a triangle pointing up, down and to the side).

Use masking tape to make shapes in the block center, such as a car or a simple boat. Have the children use blocks to fill in the space.

Read Round is a Tortilla by Roseanne Greenfield Thong. Invite children to come up and find the shapes in the book. Prepare “shape finders” by cutting circles, squares, triangles and other shapes from poster board.

Tape squares of different sizes on your floor. Play music, and when the music stops the children should be standing inside a square. If the square is too crowded, they have to find another square where they can fit.

Show the children a 2-D shape. Next, challenge the children to explore the classroom to find a 3-D object that is that same shape. For example, a child might use a tissue box as an example of a rectangle.

Show the children a cutout shape and chant with them, “We're going on a shape hunt. We're going on a shape hunt. Do you see a square? Do you see a square?” As they walk around the classroom, help them notice things that are square.

Draw or trace matching shapes onto index cards. Have children fi nd the matches. To make the game more difficult, you may vary the color or size of the shapes. So you have a pair of red circles and a pair of blue circles and so on.

Provide various sizes of paper or fun foam shapes, paper and glue for the children to make shape monsters in the art center. Have them describe and share information about their creations with the children.

Provide the children with cutout foam shapes, all the same color, and a piece of poster board or a section of plastic shower curtain divided into sections for sorting.

Provide stamps and sponges in various shapes in the art center. Encourage the children to use the stamps and sponges as they paint.