Sunday, November 8, 2009

Shapes Week

This week we studied shapes: circle, square, triangle, ellipse (I was told this is the new name for oval), and rectangle. We read the book The Wing on a Flea by Ed Emberly. As a special treat on Saturday, we went to the Kansas BEST Robotics competition to cheer on Southeast High School. Greg was intrigued by the robots. We came home and built our own out of Lego's.
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Circle Day
  • Play "Ring Around the Rose"
  • Play with the ring stacker and discuss the sizes of the circles
  • Put circle stickers (colored dots) on each other and on a box. Play inside the box as our "Dotty House"
  • Eat round butter crackers
  • Draw circles on the sidewalk with chalk. Step from circle to circle.
  • Hit a balloon back and forth with circular paper plates.

Square Day

  • Do Washington Square rhyme: From here to there to Washington Square; when I get near, I'll pull your hair.
  • Eat Cheese Zit type of crackers
  • Build with square alphabet blocks. Make squares out of the blocks and count the squares.
  • Cut squares out of sand paper and make crayon rubbings of the squares.

Triangle Day

  • Bake cup cakes inside ice cream cones (that didn't work so well)
  • Make pizza and cut it into triangle slices.
  • Play music on the triangle.
  • Set-up the Tee-Pee and play.
  • Make a triangle hat out of folded newspaper.

Ellipse Day

  • Put a chocolate chip inside 15 different Easter eggs. Parent hides the eggs. Greg hunts for the eggs and we discuss the shape.
  • Throw the football.
  • Hit balls off the T-Ball stand with a tennis racket.
  • Slice bananas at an angle to create ovals.

Rectangle Day

  • Make a stained glass rectangle to hand on the window. Make two identical rectangles out of wax paper. Use a cheese grater to shave crayons. Sandwich the crayons between the two pieces of wax paper. Use an iron on low heat to melt the crayons and seal the wax paper together.
  • Build with rectangular blocks.
  • Make rectangles out of cardboard and step on them as if you were in a life size board game.
  • Make lasagna in a rectangular pan.
  • Build a fort out of a large, rectangular blanket.