"What shapes do you see?" Exploring shapes and figures in our neighbourhood!

Mathematics in the Full-Day Early Learning-Kindergarten program builds on children's desire to make sense of their world, and helps them develop and demonstrate their mathematical understanding.

Rich mathematical problems involve important mathematical ideas and arise out of real-life situations, and can be approached in a variety of ways so that all children can be involved in exploring solutions.

Ontario Ministry of Education. The Full-Day Early Learning – Kindergarten Program. 2010-11. Draft Version. Pg. 92

The students have been exploring and investigating 2 dimensional shapes and 3 dimensional figures. They have been creating shapes and figures using various art mediums such as paper, twist ties, and a variety of building materials.

Recently, we read the book, "Shapes, Shapes, Shapes", and "Cubes, Cones, Cylinders, & Spheres" by Tana Hoban. These two books became our inspiration for our "What shapes do you see?" neighbourhood walk and follow-up book creation.

As soon as we got outside, the students found shapes and figures everywhere!  They were so excited! Using their clipboards, they started sketching and labeling the shapes and figures they noticed.

"The top of the slide is an arch." M.P.

"The garbage is a cylinder." E.S.

"The pylon is a cone." A.P.

"They are a cylinder." I.R.

"This sign is a pentagon." B.S.

"I see a cut tree, it's a circle!" K.E.

"The roof if a trapezoid." E.S.

"The pillars are cylinder." R.H.

"The paper box is a rectangular prism." A.M.

"Rectangles in the school window." N.S.

"The green box is a cuboid." H.S.

"There's a sphere at the top of the flag pole." P.I.

"A tree is a cylinder." N.S.

"Why do shapes have corners? G.B.

"So they can stand up." D.S.

"So they connect." A.M.

The first few pages of our shape book! Students self selected which picture they wanted to write the caption for. Once the book is complete, students will have the opportunity to take it home and share with you!