School @ the Mill

This shape activity focuses on sorting/matching.  It was also one of Abby’s first experiences with placing things in rows.  I created three pages with different shapes on each one.  This is the page we are currently working on.  I printed the sheet and shapes on white cardstock for durability.  Although I used contact paper to laminate the removable shapes, I simply stuck the worksheet into a page protector.  As you can see, I did my usual and used velcro for easier placement and to avoid slipping. When you’re not using this activity, the removable shapes can be slipped inside the page protector as well.  I store the page in Abby’s preschool math binder.

A great deal of my creative inspiration develops via pinterest.  Even though there are a lot of ideas that aren’t exactly what I want, they are close enough that I can use them to get started.  I had seen a few people pinning shape match-up quiet books a while ago.  They looked super adorable and everything, but I can’t sew whatsoever.  I’m not even kidding you.  I can thread a needle and then I don’t know what to do.  If a button falls off a shirt, I have to turn elsewhere for help.  Just thinking about sewing makes me feel stressed.  I wish I was talented in this area but, needless to say, I had to edit this craft a tad.

This matching activity is a little more complex than others.  Instead of simply matching color to color or shape to shape, etc., it requires the child to remember and look for multiple concepts at once.  I took some plain craft sticks and used markers to create a variety of designs – making sure there was a matching stick for each!  Then I let Abby sort them into pairs.  This was a little tough for her the first few times, but she is much quicker with it now.  You can make the designs noticeably different from one another or have a few tricky ones that are almost similar, depending on how challenging you want this to be for your child.

Abby picked up on her colors pretty early, so our current color activities are just for reinforcement and fun!  I wanted to find some type of cheap containers/boxes to use for color sorting and finally had what I call the, “Plastic Apple Juice Cup Revelation.”  Okay, so I finally realized I was throwing away the perfect solution every week from Alidis (best grocery store ever – and yes I make it incorrectly plural).  These cups work amazingly because they are lightweight, super cheap (if you’re going to drink the juice anyway!) and don’t have anything for little ones to cut themselves on!  That was my problem with using tin cans – sharp edges!