Summer flew by and I’m happy to be back with the first fall unit of Mommy School. I had intended on continuing throughout the summer but with a few vacations, a big move and preparing for baby boy I figured I wouldn’t push it. I really wanted to start with the alphabet this fall but decided on pushing that pack to the new year. AG just turned two years old. Shapes, colors and numbers are what I’ll be focusing on over the next few months with some fun themed units along the way.
SHAPES
Since there are so many things you can do with shapes, I am breaking this unit into two parts. Come back next week for more on shapes and make sure to follow along on IG (Leah.Herring) to see the activities in action throughout the week.
Learning shapes while reinforcing primary colors at the same time. The shapes I focused on with AG were circle, triangle, square, heart, star, oval, diamond and rectangle. My goal was not only for her to identify shapes but also recognize colors while learning shapes. I also incorporated counting into many of the activities.
Little Shapes by Justine Smith, Shapes by Melanie Watt, My 1st Book of Shapes by Eric Carle, Away We Go by Chieu Anh Urban, Skippy Jon Jones Shape Up by Judy Schachner, A Circle Here, A Square There by David Diehl, Curious George Shapes by H. A. Rey, What Shape is a Grape by Christy Webster.
Shapes Sponge Stamping
I bought a pack of sponges for less than $2. I cut them into various shapes and put some fingerprint on paper plates. AG dipped the sponges into the paint and stamped them onto the paper. Super easy, quick clean up and fun! After we were through with this activity, I rinsed out the sponges and threw them in her bath toy bucket. Now they’re a new favorite toy for the bath as well.
Shape Sorting with Buttons
This was one of the busy bags I made for AG. I bought a huge bag of button shapes, which were perfect for this unit. There are so many different activities you can do with them. For this activity I made some sequencing and matching cards using notecards and markers. When we do this together, I ask her to find the…. and put it on the card. She does a great job with matching them and after a week is at the point where she can do this independently. I do plan on laminating the cards for the future. After a week of playing with them they haven’t held up too well.
Flash Card Matching Shapes
I bought tons of flash cards from the Dollar Spot at Target this season. When I was a teacher I wasn’t a fan of flash cards. Especially when it came to memorizing math facts. But, I do believe they can be a good tool if used in the a different way. For this unit, I took shapes flash cards and cut them various ways. The goal was for AG to not only match up the shapes but the colors as well. I had the cards in groups of 5-10 so she wasn’t overwhelmed with tons of shapes at one time.
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Since our puzzles are all still in boxes, I decided to make this game mat for her. I printed the mat on card stock and laminated the pieces. I used small velcro circles (from Jo Ann Fabrics) on all of the pieces so she could put the pieces together like a puzzle. She enjoyed putting them on and pulling them off. I have a feeling there will be a few more DIY shape mats in our future!
You're such a good mama and teacher! I'm saving these for future use with Liesl!
I love the shapes patining that's a great idea!
Yay! I love your mommy school! Bookmarking for next year. Great ideas!
I am starting mommy/toddler school this week! We are doing fall themed lessons right now. I'm holding off on the shapes, colors, numbers and alphabet until the new year when Noah is 2 and we are stuck inside more :). I love all your ideas!