Math for Kids: Making Shapes

On sunny summer afternoons our backyard deck seems to call us out to play and learn on it. On one such day the deck became one of the learning tools we used to work on shapes and measuring the sides of shapes.

A couple golf tees placed in the spaces between the boards and a length of green yarn were great for reviewing shapes. The tees just needed to be moved around a little to create the corners of squares, triangles and trapezoids. Wrapping yarn around each of the corners helped to create the each shapes outline.

When we tired of one shape, we moved to another. The different types of triangles and rectangles seemed endless. There were short ones, tall ones, skinny ones, and fat ones.

After exploring shapes for awhile we measured the length of each shapes sides with golf tees. It was a little hard to get the golf tees to stay in place. It took several attempts to get them lined up in a way that they won’t roll.

If you like this activity, but don’t have a deck available this same activity could be done with a piece of Styrofoam .  The Styrofoam remembers each hole that you have place the golf tees in. Younger children might like being able see where they are putting the golf tees ahead of time.

Kids enjoy learning about shapes and re-creating them on their own.   Here are a few more fun Quirky Momma ideas with shapes that your children might enjoy: