Make a Shape Collage

If you look closely at the things around you — both inside and outside your home — you may be surprised by how many shapes you can find. There are shapes in food, shapes in the architectural features of buildings, and shapes in road signs. There are even shapes in people, like round or oval faces and eyes. Shapes are all around you!

When you are spending time with your child, point out the shapes in everyday objects and ask your child to do the same. Most objects are made up of shapes — sometimes a single shape and sometimes many shapes put together. A bee’s eye, for example, is made up of many hexagons connected together. You can see shapes in many of the things you eat. A pizza is round, and when you cut it into slices, the slices are triangles. Brownies are often cut into squares. Fruits like oranges and grapes are round, but a watermelon can be either round or oval.

Talk with your child about the characteristics of different kinds of shapes, like how many sides and corners they have. Focus on circles, squares, rectangles, hexagons, octagons, and pentagons. Point out that some shapes have the same number of sides, but they are not always the same length. Spend time together pointing out and talking about the shapes in everyday objects like furniture, food, road signs, and the patterns in rugs and floors.