Memorizing the Moments: Shapes

Monday, April 9, 2012

Shapes - Square

Xander is 17 Months

Theme: Pete the Cat I Love My White Shoes

Shape: Square

We are currently working on shapes, devoting one week to each while also reviewing those already learned. The themes just add a fun element to the shapes lessons. For our overall Tot School goals for our shape units, see my Goals post.

This was our first week working on shapes! I am so excited and hope they all go really well! It was also the first time I made a "Tot Pack."

I made a Montessori style 3 part card for each shape in both English and Spanish. This is our first week, so I took the square card and mixed it in with the 3 part cards from his Pete the Cat Tot Pack. Since Xander is so young, I only use one of each card instead of using both sets.

Here are some pocket chart phrases I made for squares as part of the Squares Printables. One of my goals is to get him really familiar with words, so the more I can sneak in, the better.

Also in the Squares Printables I made a tracing page. I started just putting it in a page protector and helping Xander trace the squares. On a whim I put it in his Crayola Dry Erase Activity Center, and he much preferred to do them that way. He is no where near ready to trace on his own, but to get him used to the concept I had him hold the marker, and I held his hand. We traced together saying "right, down, left, up" or whatever direction I happened to be going. He loved it, and we often ended up erasing and tracing again.

Below is another page I made for him. I actually made it in both English and Spanish, but only took a picture of this one. Once again, Xander cannot do this activity without help. He held the crayons and I helped him color in the correct area. Then we pointed at the squares and I said the colors for him. For some reason he thought this was funny, and wanted to go through them again and again, faster and faster.

As part of his I Love My White Shoes Tot Pack, I made a shapes mini book. It ended up being a huge hit, so I will have to go back and add a mini book to the other tot packs I am working on.

More tracing fun.

Making Learning Fun has these great shape highway printables. I laminated the square for Xander and showed him how to drive the car on it.

We also made play dough snakes to make a square. He wants to be able to make a snake on his own so badly, but just hasn't quite figured it out yet.

I found these Magnetic Pattern Blocks and am SO happy with the purchase. He loves to put them on the marker board, or throw them around the room. I also found some neat premade pattern block cards that were really reasonable. I can't wait until he is ready to use them!