Geoboards

I recently bought some geoboards for Daniel and Abby to use during our math time. I have found that they are not only good for learning shapes, but they are also great for strengthening fine motor skills. Those rubber bands can be tough to stretch!!

Like most other things, Daniel and Abby quickly got bored with just "making" shapes. So, I surfed the web to find some new and interesting ideas to keep them engaged for longer periods of time. I thought I would share some of what we came up with.

1. Use them to teach basic shapes.
I found geoboard dot paper here.
http://prekinders.com/pre-k-shapes/ (scroll about half-way down the page.)

I printed off several of the large geoboard dot paper and drew a shape on the paper. They pick a shape. We read the sentence about the shape at the bottom. Then, they make the shape on the geoboard. After that, they draw the shape on a laminated piece of geoboard dot paper (with a dry erase marker.)

Basic Shapes

More Complicated Shapes

Daniel's Pentagon

Drawing the Pentagon

Finished Pentagon

2. Copy simple pictures and identify shapes within a picture.
I also made several picture cards. Daniel and Abby pick a card, make it, and draw it. We then discuss what shapes we can identify within the picture. This was very difficult for them both. But, so good for developing visual perception.

Some of our Picture Cards

Dinosaur

House

Abby's Completed Drawing of the House

3. Reinforce number recognition.

Number Cards

4. Make and copy your own design.

Daniel's Design

**One tip--Many of the pictures and numbers took more than one rubber band to make the picture. To make it easier, I drew the designs with colored sharpies and used a different color for each rubber band. So, on the house that Abby made, I used one color for the triangle, one for the rectangle, and a third for the square "door". To make it more challenging, use all black marker!!

Have Fun!! :-)