Shape Up!
Build on your child’s interest in shapes, blocks, and patterns to foster early math skills.
Geometry is one of the most natural and fun areas of math for young children, since preschoolers love to explore shapes and patterns. They pose and solve geometric problems using their bodies, toys, manipulatives, and computers. (A child can even do geometry while she eats if you cut fruits and vegetables into specific shapes!)
Consider these skills and fun ways to build them:
Building Imagery
Block Play
Map Making
Everyday Observation
Building Imagery
Draw a simple set of shapes on a piece of paper — for example, a square divided into two small squares and a rectangle. Give your child a brief glimpse and then cover the image. Then ask your child to share what she has seen. She may respond by describing the shapes or talking about the images she is reminded of. There really aren't any incorrect responses. You simply want to involve her in thinking about shapes and what she sees.
Block Play
When your child plays with blocks, he is creating forms and structures that are based on mathematical relationships. For example, when children are working to make a roof for their block building, they are struggling with the concept of length relationships. When they substitute two shorter blocks for one long one, they are working with the concept of equivalence. As they build, they consider height, area, and volume.
Encourage your child to discuss his thinking and help him put words to his actions. For example, if he and a friend are arguing over whose block tower is biggest, ask if they mean whose tower is tallest or widest or whose building has the most blocks. The children may be surprised to find that the tallest tower doesn't have the most blocks! You can also engage your child in thinking about the similarities and differences between the blocks they use and the structures they make. Suggest that he try a variety of challenges such as putting the blocks in order by length or using shorter blocks to make a wall that's as long as the longest block.
Remember that these activities are not meant to determine your child's aptitude for math or to see how many right and wrong responses he comes up with. They are, instead, opportunities to explore the properties of math and encourage children to participate in logical, creative, and critical thinking.
Map Making
Young children are not necessarily natural map-readers, but they do possess impressive abilities that can be fun and exciting to explore. Here are some activities to do just that:
• Which way is up? Your child may be ready to learn environmental directions such as "above," "over," and "behind," and develop navigation ideas such as "front," "back," "going forward," and "turning." To foster this learning, help him represent these concepts on simple maps. For instance, ask him to use masking tape and help you mark a path from the door to the wastebasket. Together decide where to glue the door and the wastebasket on a large sheet of paper. Then look for and list the items on the map. As your child gets the hang of map-making, he may want to work on some more complicated maps.
• What's your perspective? Provide opportunities for your child to explore perspective. Take photographs of your home from different perspectives and spread them out on a table to discuss and think about. Photograph your child's favorite playground equipment from different perspectives. Mix up the photographs and let her sort them according to structure.
Everyday Observation
Geometry can be the most fun and naturally engaging aspect of mathematics to explore with your child. As she learns about the structure of shapes and space, she is building on what she already knows. But we must all keep in mind that children learn these ideas most effectively through active engagement with toys, blocks, puzzles, manipulatives, drawings, computers — and you!
Encourage your child to:
• Use blocks and other materials to form pictures and buildings.
• Identify shapes he sees at home, outdoors, in the store, everywhere!
• Sort shapes and describe why she believes that a shape belongs to a specific group.
And don't forget story time! Try sharing these books about math with your child.
• As the Crow Flies by Gail Hartman, illustrated by Harvey Stevenson
• Grandfather Tang's Story by Ann Tompert, illustrated by Robert Andrew Parker
• The Shape of Things by Dayle Ann Dodds, illustrated by Julie Lacome
Douglas H. Clements, Ph.D., is a professor of early childhood education at the State University of New York at Buffalo. He has also taught preschool and kindergarten.
