Building Shapes

I found a great idea for working with shapes at Shannon's Tot School.  If you're looking for great ideas for crafts and activities for kids, her blog is a goldmine.  What's even better is that she gives "from the trenches" reviews, giving her impressions, safety and cleanliness tips, the reception of the crafts by her children, and a rating for the activity.

I tweaked the activity only slightly, using different colored popsicle sticks for each shape.  I traced the sticks in each shape on plain white paper, then wrote the name of the shape in the middle, matching the color to the sticks.  (For durability for repeated use I would laminate the paper.)

On each stick I wrote the name of the shape it would be used to make and a drawing of the shape on each end of the stick. I then mixed them all together then laid them out for her to pick through.

Addie had a great time with this activity, and was very pleased with the shapes she was able to make.  

Activities that involve some tracing on my part and then matching on theirs seem to go over very well.