Shapes!

The first thing I wanted to do with shapes this year is to have the younger students cut them out! Not only are they studying shapes are learning about them for the first time, but they can also use this time to develop their fine motor skills. Many kindergarten and even first grade students do not know how to hold scissors correctly or control paper and scissors together in order to cut out squares, circles and triangles.
Both kindergarten and 1st grade students practiced cutting this year. They did squares and triangles on their own with only a small amount of guidance on how to hold the scissors and how to turn their paper. For circles I had copied paper with circles drawn on them so that the students could follow the lines. For circles we also talked about how to hold your scissors and turn your paper for better results.

As you can imagine we then had a ton of cut out shapes! What to do!?

 

The first grade students turned theirs into name tags. They simply glued shapes on to their name (pre-written) on a black piece of paper and then I laminated them.

The kinders used their shapes to decorate stuffed paper bags and turn them into houses! They had a blast and got very imaginative. The houses turned out awesome!