It’s Week 1, Day 2 of our Toddler Time Challenge! Today’s theme is shapes and Little Sister had a blast with this activity, despite the fact that she is currently under the weather.
What I loved about this activity is that it was super simple to set up and used things we already had on hand but yet provided about 30 minutes of entertainment and exploration. Aside from doing puzzles together and reading an occasional book about shapes, we haven’t done too many activities specifically about shapes and I didn’t expect that Little Sister would know many shape names (if any). Much to my surprise, she knew triangle, square, circle, and diamond. She must have picked these shapes up from watching TV. ;)
Here’s what you’ll need:
Playdough (I used a batch of our Pinkalicious playdough I made a couple months ago)
1. Grab two trays (to contain the mess) and then put playdough on one and the kinetic sand on the other.
2. Give your kiddo the shape cookie cutters and let him/her go to town exploring their imprints into both of the materials. Be sure to stick close by to not only supervise, but also so that you can reinforce the shape names and talk about various attributes.
Little Sister definitely preferred playing with the kinetic sand over the playdough when they were side by side.
I love this shape practice idea! Do you have any suggestions for introducing play dough and similar materials? I made a batch of simple homemade play dough, and my daughter doesn’t really like touching it. I’m sure it’s a texture thing, and sometimes she’ll pinch a few little pieces off, but overall she’s not interested. Do you have any ideas that might help? Maybe she’s not ready for play dough yet…
Great idea and designs too. Mostly child’s love to do this for playing. Thanks for sharing.