Food Shapes

 

Last week I posted about how children learn shapes best by using their hands to manipulate the shapes.  I wrote about using shape puzzles/sorters and also about incorporating shapes into bath or water play time.  Another fun way to get your child to start recognizing shapes is by

playing with their food.

 

Yes.  I just said "playing with their food".

 

Most children enjoy playing quick games with their food before eating so why not take advantage of snack time.  You can easily lay out snack foods of different shapes and ask them to find the "circle".  Or point to a shape and ask them to name it.  As soon as they get one right let them choose if they want to eat it or set it aside until they have collected all of the shapes.

 

You can probably go through your pantry right now and find an array of different shaped foods.  I just opened one cabinet today and pulled out four boxes of crackers.  Two kinds were shaped like squares, one like circles, and the last like rectangles.  Those three shapes alone would be a great starting point for most young children. 

 

The best way to teach more complicated shapes, without having to search the stores for food the right shape, is by using mini shape cookie cutters (I think I got my from the Dollar Store). 

 

Grab some snack food that can easily be cut into shapes, such as; cheese, fruit leather, melon, etc.

 

One of my daughter's favorite snacks is crackers and cheese so I can easily double up the shapes.  I pick out one I want her to find and then describe it to her.  "An octagon under a square."  "A circle beneath a triangle."  Not only is she still getting shape practice but she is also practicing position words, such as; over, under, on, and beneath.  After she finds the right one she sets it aside because she usually wants to mix up the shapes and play again at least once more before actually eating.

Counting to 100

We are currently working on counting to 100.  I downloaded a chart offline but it would be really easy to make one.  We use the chart to practice counting to 100 but I also pull out the chart whenever my daughter wants to count anything.  While we count I have her cover up the numbers with the items (if they are small enough), or point to the number we are on.  My hope is that this is helping her identify the numbers as she learns to count.

 

Here is a link to the site where I downloaded the chart.

 

 

I like to use her Unifix Cubes to work on counting because I can easily teach counting by tens as well.  She refuses to mix up the colors when counting which I think helps her.  I think it would be harder to teach skip counting if she didn't keep the colors separated.

 

 

She really likes to pull out the jar of buttons and her 100 chart.  She will sort the buttons by color and then start counting them.  She will lay one button on the number as she counts it.  She only has 19 purple buttons so when she gets to 20 she starts the next color.  By the time she gets to 100 she has a number of different colored buttons on her sheet.  I ask her questions like "Which color buttons do you have the most of?"  "What color buttons did you use to count the numbers 90-100?"

 

Sometimes I try to lead her to play a certain way by asking her questions such as "Do you have enough buttons to only use 10 of each kind?" "If you only use your purple and green buttons what number do you think you will stop on?"  I also like to try and get her to do some estimating by having her grab a bunch of buttons and then guess how many she has.  After she guesses she adds the buttons to her chart to see how close she was.

 

 

 

We also spend a lot of time practicing to count with no objects.  Randomly she will ask me to listen to her count to 100.  She loves to exclaim that she can do it all by herself (she is getting really close but still needs some help when it comes to ordering 40, 50, 60, and 70).  This is also her new favorite way of trying to stay up a little later.  She knows that her mommy will not tell her, "No you cannot practice counting.  Go straight to bed."  So she gets a couple extra minutes of counting practice every night before bed.  :)

Busy Boxes

Busy boxes are a great way to organize activities for your toddler and preschooler.  They are really great to pull out when you need to get some house work done, help another child, and nurse a younger sibling.

 

Here is a look at our busy boxes. 

 

These busy boxes are meant to keep her entertained independently while I am busy.  She usually pulls out a box and sits in whatever room I am in so she can still show me things and ask questions and I can supervise her.  Some of these boxes are used during quiet time but others are louder and/or messier so she is not allowed to get them out during our daily quiet time.

 

We are using these a lot, now that I am busy nursing a newborn,

so I will probably be changing a few of them up every month.

 

 Busy box storage

Felt box- Large pieces in different colors to use as backgrounds

and lots of shapes cut out of a number of colors.

 

Foam Stickers- Foam sheets cut into different sizes to use as background

and a wide variety of foam stickers.

Imagination Box- I created this box because my daughter would get out an entire container of beads, all the pom poms, the box of pipe cleaners, etc. and then only use a couple to complete whatever activity she was working on.  I spent a lot of time asking her to clean up and trying to help her sort everything again.  I decided to just make a box that had a little bit of everything.  So now she can use whatever she wants for her activity and clean up is much easier because it all goes back into one box without needing separated.

Jewelry Box- All of her jewelry and some hair stuff.

 

Playdoh Box- A few different colors of playdoh, cookie cutters, small rolling pin,

some rocks, beads, and clothes pins.

 

Desert Box- Oatmeal with dried strawberries and her desert toob toys.

 

 Rice Box- Neon rainbow rice and she has added some sparkly tinsel stuff.

 

Investigation Box- Binoculars, magnifying glass, petri dish, spoon, and tweezers.  I switch out things for her to look out.  Right now we just have toys from her insect toob.  Some other things I have put in there are leaves/flowers, rocks, sea shells, textured paper, variety of crackers, multi-colored glass rocks, pom poms, cotton balls,and scraps of material.

 

Space Box- Space flash cards and glow in the dark stars and planets.

Lacing Box- Dr. Seuss theme and bears

Puppet Box- Our home made puppets

Doodle Box- I swap things out of here pretty often.  Right now it is holding her aqua doodle.  Other things I have put in here are blank paper, lined paper, small coloring books, activity or maze sheets, markers, crayons, colored pencils, stamps, small stamp pad, and scratch art sheets.

Ball Box

 

Food Box- This box always has her play food.  Sometimes I add her play dishes so she can cook and serve.  Other times I add the cash register and some play money so she can play market.

 

Tracks-  This "box" is under her bed because it doesn't fit on the shelves.  She has some hot wheel tracks and a long tube.  Right now the box holds cars to race down the tracks but other times it has balls or large round beads.

Leap Frog Box- Leapster, games, Tag jr., and books.

 

Tag Reader Box- Tag reader pen, books, human body study, solar system study,

and world map (not pictured).

 

 

Read-a-long Box- Cd player, head phones, books and cds.

Shapes in Water

 

The more opportunities your child has to interact with shapes the faster they will learn them.  You should be pointing out shapes of every day objects as you go about your business.  Seeing shapes pointed out in their environment helps children learn that shapes are important. 

 

The best way for your child to learn or name shapes is by having opportunities to explore the shapes through touch.  Shape puzzles and sorters are great for this.

 

Another thing I suggest is using shapes during bath or water play time.  For a lot of children bath time is one of the most laid back and easy times to learn because they do not feel pressured.  Learning quickly becomes a game for children as soon as you add water.

 

So grab some shapes from around your house and put them in the bath with your child tonight.  Or grab a large bowl of water and throw some shapes in for some fun sensory play during the day (we like to add a little bit of dish soap to create bubbles). 

 

If you do not have any waterproof shape toys look around the house for everyday objects that can be put in the tub with your child.  Or cut some shapes out of foam sheets that can be picked up cheap in the craft section of most stores.

Birthday Princess Bath

My daughter turned 4 this week. 

She requested a special birthday bath so here is what I came up with on the spot.

 

 Her favorite color is purple so I added a couple drops of food coloring. 

I added some lavender essential oil.

I tossed in a bunch of jewels, necklaces, rings and a scepter.

Every birthday girl needs a tiara!

 

After a little while we added bubbles.  At the end I lined up a bunch of tea lights, we sang Happy Birthday, and she blew out her candles.

 

She really enjoyed this so I think we will continue to do this bath throughout the year

(minus the song and candles) and call it Princess Bath.

Valentine's Day Activities

This post can now be found here.

Black Light Table Toys

Here is a look at some of the fun toys we use on our black light table.

 

 

Orange Neon Beads, White Pom Poms, and Jewels

 

Neon Butterfly Hair Clips

(Dollar Store- Party Section)

 

Clothespins Painted with Neon Paint

 

White Fuzzy Pipe Cleaners

 

Neon Sea Life Beads

(Micheal's)

 

Neon Shot Glasses

(Walmart by registers)

Mosiac Stickers

For my daughter's birthday last year one of her friends gave her a "Cat and the Hat" themed mosaic sticker project to complete.  We did it that week and I am just now getting around to posting the pictures (at least it didn't take a full year). 

 

This project was great for practicing fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination.  My daughter enjoyed it a lot but pulling off all the sticker backs and carefully placing the stickers where they belong is pretty time consuming.  We took a couple breaks but finished it all in one evening.

 

 

When we finished she immediately hung it up on a tack board for everyone to see.  I have been on the look out for similar projects since.  I have a couple hidden away.  I think they will make great projects that she can work on by herself while I am busy tending to her baby brother.