Shapes Shapes Shapes!

I say this every time, but I love this theme! I forget how many fun shape activities I have until I start planning, then I regretted I only had 4 days to get them all in! Here's some of what we did:

Dramatic Play

Pizza Restaurant


 



















 

The kids had A LOT of fun in this center! We had to work a lot on sharing and taking turns, as they all wanted to be the chefs and cashier. They used play dough and toppings to make their pizzas, then I let them "bake" them in the stove. Not sure why I didn't think of that last year. It was a huge hit! They'd set the timer and everything. Dramatic Play is my favorite center to observe, since they have the best conversations.
We also learned cleaning up and sorting by putting toppings away where they go. We did a lot of numbers and counting, plus there is literacy everywhere in this center with labels and orders.
As usual, it was super busy and crowded the first 2 days, but by day 3 and 4 they didn't play here as much. That's why I have to change it each theme.

Art

Day 1, we made pictures with foamie shapes and glue.

Day 2, we painted with shape stamps.

Day 3, we used paint dab markers to make circles. Here's my toddler demonstrating:

Day 4, we used the art table to make our pizzas for snack. What a huge hit! I didn't get pictures, but their pizzas were beautiful. We used greek pitas for our crust, then added the sauce, cheese, and toppings of their choice. It was fun after playing in the pizza restaurant for 2 weeks, to finally get to make real pizza. They even got to help me cut olives with a real knife and they loved having that responsibility. After they were done, most ran straight to the pizza restaurant to keep making more pizzas! We had the wikki stix at the art table with the shape mats after we made the snack.


Blocks

Day 1, I had bowling set up. We learned a lot about patience and taking turns, plus helping each other as they had to set up the pins. There was some great cooperation happening.

Day 2, were foam shape and number puzzles.

I loved these especially as we cleaned up and we were looking for and labeling specific shapes, plus counting and matching that to the numbers.

Day 3, we had the magnet tiles. These are definitely the kids' favorite block!!

p.s. These are super expensive, so if you ever want some, I highly recommend Zulily. I got a set of 100 for $19!!! Not even kidding. They are one of the very favorite toys at our house, so they're worth the money, but I love a bargain.

Day 4, we played with the small wood blocks.


Small Manips

We had different shape puzzles and games all week.










I've also added a magnet wall in this area, so we had shape magnets too. They love the pattern blocks.





Writing

I added shape stencils to the writing center.


Large Group

Day 1, We focused on circles, and after reading about shapes and learning our new shape songs, we played with the shape mats and pom pom balls pictured above.

Day 2, We focused on squares, and matched shapes on this Learning Shapes Train. It stayed out the next days for them to add and remove shapes.



Day 3, We focused on rectangles, and made these shape pizzas. On the back, I wrote how many of each shape after they helped me count. They were all correct, but some added more shapes after we counted, if you noticed their numbers were off.

Day 4, We focused on triangles. We played shape bingo and it was a huge hit!

Small Group

Week 1, my group worked on making patterns with shapes. They are doing great at copying and extending patterns!
Miss Kim's group used wikki stix to make different shapes, and turn those shapes into things.

Week 2, my group sorted shape magnets into shapes and colors. We also graphed them.

Miss Kim's group stamped blocks into play doh to make shape prints.

We added some fun songs this theme too.
Jake the Snake (I use a folder with pictures of the snake making different shapes)
     I'm Jake the Snake, I'm a happy snake,
     I'm a magical guy, I can change my shape!

2 are from Dr. Jean's Totally Math cd:

Shape a loo by Dr. Jean

I Spy a Shape by Dr. Jean

I love that those two songs are so active! They love searching for shapes in the I Spy one, and dancing and waving their shapes around in Shape a Loo.