Activity Plan 5-6: Shape Transformers

This activity offers children the opportunity to expand their thinking while investigating shape and design.

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Ready-To-Use Teaching Idea: Creative Thinking

Materials:

• colored construction paper
• markers
• child safety scissors  
• glue sticks
• chart paper
• book about geometric shapes, such as Shapes, Shapes, Shapes by Tana Hoban (William Morrow & Co., 1986; $15.98) 

Objective: Children will transform a geometric shape into another shape or design to develop math and creative-thinking skills.

ACTIVITY

1 Write the words Geometric Shapes on the top of a sheet of chart paper Ask children to name all the shapes they can think of and then to draw a picture of the shape next to the word. Offer assistance if needed.

2 Provide construction paper, markers, and scissors. Ask everyone to choose a shape and draw it, and then cut the shape out.

3 Invite children to change the shape into another shape or design. They can change their shape by folding it or cutting it and then gluing their new shape onto another sheet of paper.

4 Encourage children to explore different ways of transforming their chosen shapes. If they are having trouble, they can choose another shape. Invite them to come together to share their investigations with the class. Can their classmates guess which geometric shape they began with? Group children together who began with the same shape and compare the ways that they changed their shapes.

5 Brainstorm with children things at home or in the classroom that can be transformed from one shape to another. Ask them to think about how the transformation would take place and record their responses on chart paper.

6 Find an area in the classroom to display the work. With the class, develop a language experience chart to explain the process of their investigations.

Curriculum Connection: BLOCK BUILDING

Tower Challenge. Divide children into four groups. Write the following challenges onto pieces of paper and ask each group to choose one: #1. Make a tower using only one size block; #2. Make a tower using only the smallest blocks and the largest blocks; #3. Make a tower that is rectangular; and #4. Make a tower that goes from largest blocks to smallest blocks. Schedule time for each group to work in the block area to complete their challenge. Photograph the buildings to create a visual display and include a description of each group's challenge beside the photographs.

Risa Young is the former director of two early childhood programs in the New York City area, the Children's Aid Society's Greenwich Village Center and the Innovative Learning Center at the Long Island College Hospital. She has been a consultant to Early Childhood Today for more than eight years.

Activity Plan 5-6: Architects at Work
Children will engage in a block-building activity to develop language, math, and fine-motor skills in this ready-to-use teaching idea for five- and six-year olds. Activity: Block Building.

Activity Plan 4-5: Pretzel Mania
Children will increase their math concepts, fine-motor skills, language skills, and creative concepts as they use pretzel dough to create shapes, numbers, or letters in this ready-to-use teaching idea for four- and five-year-olds. Activity: Math/Fine Motor

The Geometric World of Young Children
Geometry is one of the most natural and fun areas of mathematics to develop with young children. Clements suggests some ways in which educators can integrate geometry into early childhood classrooms. For more information about exploring math through manipulatives and shapes, see the sub-articles "Getting in Shape" and "What Children Already Know."

LESSON PLAN

Space Shape Museum Allows students to make a classroom museum made of household space shapes. The students find items from home and bring them in to create a museum.