It’s time to move beyond squares, rectangles, and triangles.
With my son toting home worksheets about polygons, I decided to create a fun
activity to work on some of the harder shapes – parallelogram, octagon,
hexagon, pentagon, and trapezoid.
I took inspiration from a game we played often when my son
was younger: Cranium Hullabaloo. If you’ve played this before, you’ll see the
similarities.
When my son came home from school, we read Shapes in Transportation. This book was
perfect to remind my son about the names of the shapes we’d be working with and
showed just how common they are.
Having read the book, it was time to get moving. I had my
son help me spread the shapes out all over the floor. Then I set the timer on
our microwave for three minutes. I told my son that he needed to move to the
shape, number, or color I called out as quickly as possible in the way the die
dictated.
Ideas for call-outs:
Give an addition and subtraction problem equal to the number on
the shape.
Ask that the child move to a particular shape (e.g. hexagon
or trapezoid).
Tell him/her to find an odd (or even) number.
Pick one of the colors and call it out.
Instruct the child to move to a shape with a certain number of
sides.
When the timer went off, I named one of the above again and if my son was standing on that particular color, shape, or number he was a winner. We played over and over!
Oh, my word, did he have fun!?! This was great math practice that had my son dancing, hopping, crawling, and “swimming” across our living room.
He looks SO happy! What a creative mom you are!
ReplyDeleteI second what Phyllis said- YOU ROCK!!!
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like SO very much fun. A great rainy day activity, I think.
ReplyDeleteI LOVE active learning games like this!
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing with Learning Laboratory at Mama Smiles =)
What a wonderful game! We'll have to try it!
ReplyDeleteI love it!! you incorporated some great physical activity with math education.
ReplyDeletekeeping kids healthy and smart... kudos!!!!
Oh this will be awesome to review math with the kiddos over the summer! Thanks for sharing the great idea!
ReplyDeleteJen
pinning :)
Hi I just want to ask, your son goes to a regular school during the day? I am a hs mom, but my little girl doesn't working so well and I am considering sending to kindergarten on AUGUST. I am so worry about this, I believe in homeschooling like a life style. My oldest son, worked so well for 4 years. Now his on 11 grade. I appreciate your advise. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteYes, Anonymous, my son does attend public school. I honestly never considered homeschooling him. (I grew up with two parents as teachers that taught/administrated in the public school system.) We have been thrilled with my son's education and his teachers, but I know that the quality of public schools is not the same everywhere. I wish you luck in making a decision!
DeleteVery well discussed and I am sharing a simple definition about polygon as -A polygon is a plane shape with straight sides.A simple polygon has only one boundary, and a complex polygon intersects itself.
ReplyDelete