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This Reading Mama

Shapes: Activities and FREE Printables

By thisreadingmama Leave a Comment

In math, ALuv has been working on shapes.  I thought I’d share some things we’ve done with 2-D shapes that he has enjoyed.  Some of these ideas mix in some literacy…an added bonus!! 🙂  I’m a HUGE fan of integrating the content areas as much as possible.

Counting the sides: Shape Introduction

I laid out number cards 0-8 and we sorted shapes by their # of sides/angles (oval, circle, triangle, rectangle, square, trapezoid, small & large parallelograms, hexagon, & octagon).  To integrate some literacy, my download is a sort that has shapes & number words instead of numerals.  Here are some great discussions we had after sorting all the shapes (some of these questions are on pg. 2 of the download):

  • why there aren’t any shapes with 1 or 2 sides
  • we noticed how many of our shapes were quadrilaterals (a great vocabulary term)
  • we discussed the term parallelogram and we figured out which of our quadrilaterals were and weren’t parallelograms (just in case you’re wondering, the trapezoid is not a parallelogram b/c it’s opposite sides are not all parallel, but the other ones in our sort are)

Making Pictures with Shapes

ALuv made a picture with the pattern block shapes,

graphed how many of each shape he used on this graph,

then recorded the number of shapes he used on this chart.

Shape Writing

I think I originally saw this idea in a Mailbox magazine years ago.  ALuv picked a shape, glued it into the top of his writing paper, then made a picture to go around the shape and wrote about it.

My rectagl (rectangle) is a spekr (speaker) on the TV.

Tangram Puzzles

We started by making our own tangrams, then played around with some Thanksgiving tangrams.

I also like using Karen’s FREE tangrams.  To make it more challenging for ALuv, I trace around just the outside lines of her tangrams, like I did with this Christmas tree.  After he has filled it in one way, I usually challenge him to try a different way.  Sometimes I’ll give him a specific challenge.  And again, at other times, he’ll use this chart to show the different ways he filled it in.

I love our tangram set because it’s multi-leveled (for ages 4-8) AND it gives an answer sheet to help a mama out.  I need all the help I can get with this baby brain of mine!  I had ALuv read many of the directions this time…which was a great review with reading his number words 1-10.

Shape Word Puzzles

As a student, I HATED word problems.  As a teacher/mama, I love them.  What a great way to integrate literacy, comprehension, and math; not to mention word problems help kids to apply the knowledge they know to real-life situations.

When I taught, a co-worker of mine (a.k.a. the best teacher I’ve ever known) made this word problem worksheet.  I’ve typed it up for you to download.  This was a great way for ALuv to review shapes, reading & decoding, comprehension, writing numerals, & using counting on and logic to solve the problems.  Having that many objectives covered in one lesson makes This Reading Mama happy! 🙂

Shape Reading

I read The Greedy Triangle by Marilyn Burns and ALuv sorted the names of shapes with sides/angles 3-10 on our pocket chart.  We had some great discussions through this book, like: Just what is the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.?

Other Shape Books This Reading Mama likes:

  • The Shape of Things
  • Shapes, Shapes, Shapes
  • Grandfather Tang’s Story
  • Three Pigs, One Wolf, & Seven Magic Shapes
  • Mouse Shapes– This one is new to me, but we have all the other Mouse books by Ellen Stoll Walsh, so I bet this one is a keeper as well!

Need any more ideas for teaching and reviewing shapes?  Check out this FREE and AWESOME online resource.  The ideas are hands-on and interactive; my favorite kind of lesson.

Next we’re going to move onto 3-D shapes and I’m excited about the activities I have planned!

Thank you for joining This Reading Mama on a literacy journey!

~Becky

 

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Hi! I’m Becky, a homeschooling mama with 4 blessings who keep me on my toes {and knees}. Before homeschooling, I was a classroom teacher (M.Ed.) and reading tutor. Read more about me here.

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