Playing with Shapes

I never intended to turn this blog into a preschool blog, but it does seem to be a big part of our day-to-day lives right now.  Plus, some of this stuff is just so damned fun!  I haven't played with scissors, glue and construction paper this much in a long, long time!

Recently, we've done a few projects that have allowed Nathan to play with shapes and experiment with how to use shapes to make other things.  A few weeks ago, we did a pet theme, and on cat day, Nathan and I made this "shape cat."  We had a lot of fun discussing which shapes would work best for each of the body parts.  I love that he chose a diamond for the body, not an oval like I had envisioned when planning the activity.  Under the heart-shaped feet, he drew in claws with his colored pencils.  I thought it was cool that he insisted on this detail. 

Introducing Timmy the cat!!

 

 

Today we did one of my favorite projects that we've done this year.  I'll be honest, I'm a little biased on this one because I actually mocked this one up myself instead of stealing it from one of the many preschool blogs and websites we borrow from.  A few days ago, I picked up some new books for the kids at the library.  One of them, Perfect Square by Michael Hall, just looked kind of cool.  Nathan latched on to it immediately, so I decided we would do a Perfect Square project today.  In the book, they take squares and destroy them in various ways (cutting, ripping, punching holes, etc.), then reassemble the pieces into neat pictures.  We did 3 of the examples from the book, and then one example that Nathan created on his on (bottom right quadrant in the collage below).  He really loved working with the hole puncher and my zigzag scrapbooking scissors, and I loved all of the fine motor skills he exercised.  I also loved watching him decide how to make his own picture.  He decided to make grass for the park where the fountain is, which is by the river that flows near the garden.  I loved that he tied his picture into the story too.  What fun!

A flower garden, a winding river (Nathan insisted it was winding, which was why he pasted the strips of paper unevenly), a fountain with water spraying around it and grass (the holes from the hole puncher in the "grass" are, as Nathan says, the entrances to some ant hills).

This is just another reason why I love, love, love our library.  They have a table and some end cap shelves in the children's area where they feature various books, and I always, ALWAYS find great books for the kids this way.

Gina