Teaching Shapes to your 22 Months Old
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Looking for ideas for teaching shapes to toddlers? With these tips, both you and your child will have many enjoyable experiences with shape activities at home. Cherish these moments of teaching preliminary lessons to your munchkin. When he starts distinguishing circles from squares, you can say, ‘We did it!’
Have you ever wondered why teaching shapes is an important element in preschool lessons? Children are introduced to the basic four shapes- circle, square, rectangle and triangle- at a preliminary stage to prepare them for more complex lessons in the future. These different shapes help in honing their reading and writing skills too. Moreover, they lay down the foundation for math lessons and logical reasoning. Here are some effective shape-friendly hacks and activities to aid the cause!
Top Ways to Teach Toddlers about Shapes
1. Use Shape Puzzles
One of the most effective tools for teaching is puzzles. As you look around online and in brick and mortar stores, you’ll find basic puzzles that require the concept of shapes for their successful completion. They serve to be smart aids for introducing basic shapes to toddlers. Usually, such puzzles are brightly coloured and big in size, which makes it easy for tiny tots to hold them and understand individual shapes.
2. Play with Play Dough
If your child’s play dough set has been lying idle, it’s time to take it out. With it, you can create different shapes for toddlers to learn. Your child will not only enjoy the activity, but the time spent together will help you bond.
3. Through Exercises
If you’re looking for some really stimulating shape activities for toddlers, then try this: Every morning, spend some time exercising with your little one. Show how he can create a circle with his arms by stretching them in front and holding his hands like a bowl. Or, teach him to form a triangle by bending over and touching the ground. He’ll love the activity!
4. Tactile Sensory Lessons
In your lesson plans for toddlers on shapes, you can introduce basic shapes with the help of different textures. Use materials like a corrugated board, sandpaper, satin and jute on different shapes. Gradually, by running his hands over them, your child will be able to distinguish between each shape without your intervention. Through touch, he’ll come to learn that circles are round whereas squares have sharp edges.
5. Art and Craft
While deciding on shape projects for toddlers, remember to include art and craft activities too. You can encourage your child to paint each shape in different colours. If he’s already been introduced to plastic scissors and glue, teach him to cut out different shapes no matter how rough they come out. The pieces can be stuck in scrapbooks or on nursery walls. Revise the learned shapes regularly. Once the concept on basic shapes is grasped, you can proceed with polygons, ovals, cylinders and other complicated forms.
There you go- get started with these fun shape projects for 22 months old. After a few practice sessions, your child will not only learn to talk about them but will also take an active interest in creating geometric designs on his own.
