Last time, I showed you how to use simple scales for weight measurement. This time, we will talk about shapes, specifically the shapes of food containers.
Get Into Shapes
What to Do
- Identify with your child pictures of various food container shapes on the Internet (the cylinder of a can, the square of a box, the rectangle of a cereal box, etc.) before going to the store. This will help your child identify them when you get to the store.
- At the store, ask your child questions to generate interest in the shapes. Which items are solid? Which are flat? Which shapes have flat sides? Which have circles for faces? Which have rectangles? Do any have points at the top?
- Point out shapes and talk about their qualities and their use in daily life. Look to see what shapes stack easily. Why do they? Try to find some cones. How many can you find? Look for stacks that look like a pyramid. Determine which solids take up a lot of space and which ones stack well. Discuss why space is important to the supermarket and why the employees care about what stacks well. (More space allows for more products to be stored.)
Parent Pointer: Recognising the different shapes that food is packaged in, such as square boxes, rectangular boxes, cones, and cylinders, will help children connect maths and volume principles to the real world.
Reference: http://math.com/