Shapes, Colors, Sizes and Patterns!

I quickly put these two activities together this morning for Tyler. They follow what he's already into and they were an instant success!

"Tyler, I have something to show you. Do you want to make shapes?

 "Yeah!"

"Ty, I have something else to show you. Do you want to work with big and small?"

"Yeah, Yeah!!"

This work focuses on making squares and rectangles using unit blocks. It also works on color matching as  the child matches each color to the appropriate square in making each shape.

This work was inspired after using cubes with his homemade lever a while ago. I randomly started playing with  the cubes, putting all four together to make bigger squares. He watched and was intrigued so I handed them over and let him try. He was proud when he figured it out himself (as you can see in the photo), but it wasn't easy for him.

 Having the visual on paper in front of him helped him be more successful. Though lining blocks is often a natural activity at this age, I don't think he typically sees the lines and thinks "Oh, a rectangle!" when he does it. This work helped him with the shape concept as I told him "I'm making a rectangle" when demonstrating.

He was happy to be so successful with the square. I enjoyed watching how he would push the cubes together when he was done to make his square more "neat".

Tyler continues to talk about sizes and the kid still adores his puffballs, so this activity made sense. This works on big, small and of course pattern work, which I feel he could use a bit more of. I purposely used two shades of pink and red for a bit of spectrum recognition. I backed both this and the shape work on cardboard for durability.

 Ty was extra excited to do this work! I think it looks a bit festive when completed as well!

Linking-up with really great ideas at 1+1+1=1 & Living Montessori Now!