The shape of things

Book Title:  The shape of things

Posted by Marcia Black

Title:  The shape of things

Author:   Dayle Ann Dodds.     
Illustrator:  Julie Lacome
Recommended grade level:   Pre K – 1^st grade

New York State Prekindergarten Foundation for the Common Core (Math)

Identify and describe shapes (squares, circles, triangles, rectangles).

Analyze, compare, and sort objects.
 

Summary:

This book is about simple shapes that we can find in our environment.   The shapes are shown alone on one page and on the next page; the shapes are included in objects.  For example, there is a blue circle on one page and on the consecutive page there is a Ferris wheel.   There is a triangle on one page and on the other page the triangle becomes a sailboat.  There is a square on one page and on the other the square is shown in a house.  It is a reminder that if we really encourage children to look at objects that they see and use daily,  they will see how shapes are used.   Shapes are everywhere.

Rating:

The book encourages children to look for shapes in different images and to identify the shapes in different orientations.  I find this book to be a great book for children, it is colorful and engaging.  It provides images that young children are familiar with such as ships, houses and Ferris wheels.  I highly recommend this book for young children.

Classroom ideas

The children will be encouraged to use a variety of precut shapes to create a person.   As they select the shapes to construct a person they will discuss the attributes of the shapes and why they choose to use that particular shape.  If any of the children are interested in creating any other particular image from, the book or any other image that interests them they will be allowed to do so.

Using shapes, the children can also create a shape book by selecting a variety of shapes, one for each page and describe the shapes and tell where in the classroom we can find the shapes.