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April 7, 2012

Sticky Shape Mat

A fun way to practice building and identifying shapes with your children! Get ready to get sticky!

You will need:

  • Straws
  • Con-Tact paper
  • Posterboard
  • Markers
  1. Prep: Draw shapes on a piece of posterboard, using the lengths of straws as a guideline. Cover the posterboard with con-tact paper, sticky-side-up.
  2. Have the children identify the shapes on your board during Circle Time.
  3. Provide the Sticky Shape Mat at your Math Center, along with your straws.
  4. Using the straws, encourage the children to build the shapes on the Sticky Shape Mat.
  5. Questions to ask: How many straws did it take to build a [square]? Which shape was the easiest to build? Which one was the hardest? You can add a circle/oval, and provide yarn for the children to use.
  6. Extension: Give the children construction paper, glue and extra straws and have them create their own shapes.

OBJECTIVES (Based on the NYS Pre-Kindgergarten Standards)
  • Children will demonstrate understanding of gometric and spatial relations.
  • Child points to square, triangle, rectangle, circle, when asked.
  • Child names: square, triangle, rectangle, circle.
  • Child builds, compares, and contrasts two and three dimensional shapea
  • Child describes whether or not two shapes are the same
Children will demonstrate an understanding of numbers, ways to represent numbers, relationships among numbers and the number system.
  • Child is able to count with understanding and recognize “how many” in sets of objects.
  • Child counts a set of objects and recognizes that the lst counting word tells “how many”.