Five days of shapes unit

Welcome to a week of shapes! Each day of this shape unit includes ideas you can use with your children to explore the art, math, and play of shapes.

 

 

Five days of shapes unit

NurtureStore hosts regular themed weeks of creative learning activities, giving you ideas, lesson plans, and printables all year round.

This week our focus is on shapes.

You might like to pick just one of these ideas to enjoy or offer all five over the course of your week.

A themed-week lets children make connections between one idea and another, one material and another, one experience and another.

With a range of linked activities, children are able to compare and contrast, see how things are the same and what’s different – young scientists and creatives in the making.

Coming back to a theme over consecutive days gives time and space for ideas to brew, and the repetition helps children find depth and meaning.

 

 

 

Day One :: shape hunting

On day one of our shape week, let’s go hunting for shapes. You can search:

:: in your room/classroom

:: around the house

:: outdoors on a neighbourhood walk

:: in the pages of your storybook

 

Print out my shape magnifying glasses to help you search.

You can look for one particular shape or see how many different shapes you can find.

You can count how many things of each shape you can see and make a tally chart.

Younger children can hunt for circles and squares, older children can extend their vocabulary and maths knowledge by searching out cubes, cuboids, prisms, pyramids and trapeziums.

You could play I-spy, making it as simple or as complex as you like, to suit your children: I spy a circle that is blue, I spy a square that is very small, I spy a shape with two sets of parallel lines and no lines of symmetry.

 

 

 

Day Two :: sensory shapes

Let’s explore shapes with sensory play on day two of our shapes week.

You can print my shape cards to go alongside your play. You might:

:: hide the shape cards in a sensory tub along with an assortment of loose parts in matching shapes

:: make a sensory tub themed around one specific shape: for example one filled with squares and cubes

:: use play dough to explore shapes

:: homemade cloud dough to explore shapes

:: bake shapes

:: make a shape meal

 

 

 

Day Three :: building with shapes

On day three of our shape exploration, let’s see what we can make with shapes.

This activity invites children to think about what they already know about shapes and put this knowledge into practical action to make something.

They’ll be working with 2d and 3d shapes, thinking about the size and orientation of shapes, and working with designs that combine a number of shapes together.

Use recyclables and basic craft supplies to junk model. What can you make? What shapes do you need to put together to build your model?

Print my construction challenge cards to give your children a prompt to get them started.

You could also use shapes to create pictures – like my shape dogs and shape houses.

 

 

Day Four :: shape games

Let’s play shape games today:

:: make this shape jigsaw

:: play this memory game using items all of one shape

:: play this shape guessing game

:: try these printable spinning tops games

 

 

 

Day Five :: shape art

On the final day of our shape activities, let’s create shape art. 

Very young children can create beautiful shape mobiles or shape collages.

You can use these Spell, Draw, Doodle printables.

Try 3d to 2d printing using blocks – or potatoes!

Make math stars.

Learn about the famous artist Kandinsky and his circular colour studies.

Create geometric art inspired by Islamic designs.

Or enjoy this complete Art of Circles workshop.