This week, we explored three-dimensional (3D) shapes. When we think about young children learning about shapes, we often focus on familiar two-dimensional (2D) shapes such as circles, squares, rectangles, and triangles. However, 3D shapes make up the physical world around us, and children naturally interact with and investigate them through their play.
We read Now What? A Math Tale, a story about a small puppy exploring wooden blocks. As the puppy examines the blocks, it notices the shapes of their flat faces and experiments with combining different blocks to create a bed to sleep on.
As a group, we explored our own wooden blocks, noticing their different shapes and discussing how they could be combined to build and create new forms. Later, the children were invited to investigate and build with the large foam blocks and giant LEGO-style blocks combined. The teacher supported this exploration by observing the children’s ideas, talking with them about their constructions, and drawing their attention to the new shapes and forms they were creating.
The photographs below show this learning in action.
