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Related Activities to Try at Home

Dear Family,

The activities below are related to the mathematics in the geometry unit, Build a Block, Build a Wall. Doing them at home together with your child can enrich your child's mathematical learning.

3-D Shape Hunt Shapes are everywhere. Talk with your child about the shapes you see every day. Together, you can look at everything from the shapes of buildings in your neighborhood, to the shapes of boxes and cans in the supermarket. Sometimes you can include descriptions of shapes in what you say. For example, “Look at that part of the building that is shaped like a cylinder.” At other times, you can ask your child to look for specific shapes: “See how many things you can find that are shaped like a cube while we walk down the street.”

Making Shapes Making shapes is a great way to learn about them. At home, your child might use clay, building blocks, drinking straws and clay, or other types of construction toys or materials to make different shapes.

Ask your child, “Can you make a cube? How many faces (sides) does it have?” “Can you make a shape that looks like this shoebox?” Or, you can make different shapes and ask your child to describe and copy them.

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