Best School Games for Kids: Fun Ways to Enhance Learning and Development
From doors to school bags, everything in one's environment is inspired by one shape or the other. Looking closely, one will find the presence of multiple shapes in a particular object. Hence, learning and understanding of shapes is critical for kids to organize the viewed observations into various sections and derive a critical understanding of it. Learning shapes is also one of the elementary steps towards understanding areas and parameters in-depth. Kids also learn about symmetry and dimensions with the help of shapes.
Increased awareness about various kinds of shapes and their differences can make a child spatially aware. It may also help in improving their performance in other disciplines such as science. Parents can try making learning shapes a bit more fun by introducing some interesting games. This can help in keeping a child engaged while enhancing their knowledge about shapes.
Here is a list of some highly interesting games for kids to learn about shapes.
Instead of a treasure hunt, a shape hunt game is an interesting way of checking your child's basic understanding of various shapes. After introducing your child to some basic shapes, you may hide different objects that look like those particular shapes. You can hide each of these objects in different corners of the house. Now give your child a hint and ask them to find that particular object. If the child ends up getting the correct object, it signifies that they can distinguish one shape from the other quite well.
Making shadows in a dark room with a single source of light can be a fun activity for toddlers that combines creativity with knowledge. Simply switch off the light in a room and put on your phone’s flashlight. Now take various objects of different shapes to cast a big shadow on the wall. You may also make some interesting voices to make the activity more fun and engaging for your child. Educate them about every shape and where it can be seen in everyday surroundings. For example, while making a circle, tell them that the shape of the wheel is like that of a circle or the shape of chapati is also circular.
Shape bingo is a slight deviation from conventional bingo, but equally fun and interesting. To do this activity at home, you will be required to make a grid consisting of various shapes. Now, one by one call out the name of random shapes and ask your child to circle the shape that has been called out. Simultaneously, check whether your child is recognizing the called-out shape correctly or not. The repetitive practice of this activity may help in making your child more proficient with distinguishing between shapes.
A shape puzzle is a very fun and interesting preschool-level activity in which parents may create or get a shape-solving puzzle for their child. This will encourage the child to put the shape cut out into the right space. For kids who are just getting to know about different kinds of shapes, it can help them get familiar with some basic concepts and understand shapes better. As a child becomes better at solving this puzzle, parents may introduce some more complex level puzzles such as shape-related jigsaw puzzles.
To play this game, parents or teachers can simply put different types of shapes in front of a child. This may include circles, squares, pentagons, and hexagons. Now ask the child to pick up a particular shape one by one. For example, if you say the word triangle, the kid will have to sort out the shapes and pick up the triangular shape. It's an appropriate activity for kids who are just starting. It may help a child retain the name of every shape and reinforce what each shape looks like.
Tactile learning is one of the most efficient ways of making a child retain concepts while also letting them explore their creativity. To play this hands-on learning game at home, parents will have to provide the child with some playdough and ask them to make various shapes. Initially, the shapes can be made with the help of a cutout mold. As the child begins to perform better, parents may encourage them to make these shapes on their own. Slowly with the help of independent shapes, kids can be pushed to make a proper scenery or a larger object, such as a train with the help of square, rectangular, and circular shapes.
Developing a basic understanding of shapes helps children make a profound connection between what they know and the environment around them. It may also enhance a child's ability to reason and critically draw conclusions out of their observation. Further, the child may also have the ability to navigate various spaces and understand spatial relations better. Such activities can serve as a building block for kids to venture into the field of geometry and do wonders.