Taking SHAPE to have some more fun!

We continued our unit on shapes this week. We've had a lot of fun incorporating shapes into different art projects and center time activities. We also learned about the number 2 this week, so for an art project we took a number two construction paper cutout and added some shape arms, legs, ears, and other parts of the body that come in two's.

For a math center we had a Melissa and Doug puzzle set that has puzzles with shape insets where you insert shape buttons for numbers 1-10.

We learned about the letter F this week. We made our own flags in the shape of an F, and decorated them with stickers. 

We also practiced our patterning skills with unifix cubes this week. This particular set has shapes inset on each cube, so I had some pattern strips with the different shapes on each cube, and the kids practiced finding the shape and stacking their cubes together in the same order. These cubes are kind of hard to snap together and unsnap, so it was not only good for shape recognition and patterning, but also a great fine motor skill.

We worked a lot on fine motor skills this week. (We are getting those fingers strong to start writing in our journals each week from here on out) This center had fine motor bands that they could hook together by either buttoning, snapping, or fastening with velco. They not only worked on finger dexterity by connecting them, but they also practiced building shapes! They built triangles, squares, and rectangles by connecting each band to another.

These blocks were a hit in the dramatic play area. They are different shaped blocks that each have velcro on each side of the block so that they are sticky! They had a ton of fun building people, buildings, and other items with these sticky shapes!

We've learned 3 more letters! So, we had our dry erase upper case and lower case D, E, and F out for the kids to practice their writing skills. 

We also practiced our cutting skills again this week. We learned a song to sing as we cut (find the lyrics at the bottom of this blog entry). Something that is super fun to cut is playdough! It is easy to cut through, and when the pieces are too small, you just smash them back together and start over again!

One of the favorite centers this week was our giant memory game! We mixed up 6 different matching shapes and took turns finding the matches. 

And, we used our geoboards to make rubber band shapes.

We are excited to tell you that our caterpillars have formed their cocoons! Now we will patiently (at least we'll try to be patient!) wait for the beautiful butterflies to emerge! It just might be a long winter.....

Book of the week: 

Goldie Locks and the Three Squares by Grace Maccarone

Song of the week:

Our Scissors Song

(To the tune of London Bridges)

I hold my thumb up when I cut, when I cut, when I cut.

I hold my thumb up when I cut

And squeeze the blades together!