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Writer's pictureIhana Tiimi

The Importance of Learning Shapes

Updated: Jun 17, 2022

“I See 44 Shapes”



At a very early age, children begin to identify shapes. When they start discovering shapes, they really don’t know what they are yet; however, what they can see are some symbols, some drawings that are similar and different to and from each other. This enchanting, if the arduous act of observing, comparing and trying to understand things around them is extremely important in their cognitive development.

 

Children also gain the spectacular art of coordinating the visual, and spoken information around them. As their curious eyes meander through the location they are at, they start categorising everything around them on the basis of two qualities namely shape and colour. Young children feel like captaining an orchestra to learn shapes that they see around them.


As parents, and teachers, we play an important role to help them solidify their understanding of these unclear ideas. This process requires a lot of work and patience. When we teach our children shapes, and colours at an early age, we are helping them to enhance their logical thinking skills, enrich their capabilities to communicate, accentuate their creative reading and enliven their love for maths. When we make this practice fun and engaging, pure magic can be witnessed in a child’s understanding and interaction with the world around them.



They want to sort things, read whatever, howsoever they can, identify, and verbalise the names they know. These little, profound experiences give them immense confidence, which yields individuals who are ready to take on challenges as they grow.


 

Supplemented with toys, activities, and habitual conversations children identify, label, and understand shapes, symbols, signs, and colours that accentuate multiple skills. Drawing shapes engages them in a way that helps them to discover art in a playful way. They gradually understand the expression of emotions and feelings, thereby strengthening their visual apprehension. These skills in shapes and symbols help them greatly with the alphabet since the letters are essentially symbols and shapes.

Toys like shape sorters, shape puzzles, beading shapes into strings, sorting shapes of the same family, blocks, tile games, among others, greatly benefit the process of learning shapes with the little ones.



Supplemented with games like making shapes with sticks, cutting shapes on a sponge for sponge painting, asking them to paint or colour inside the shapes you draw for them, let them draw if they want to. Another thing we can do is shape jumping, just draw shapes with chalks on the driveway in different colours and then shout out the yellow pentagon. This game is so exciting and so much fun. We can make cutouts of the shapes and spot things in similar shapes as visit places.

Every child has his own pace of learning and understanding concepts, and to be able to apply those in real life. The what, how, why, and where of shapes should be taught respecting the timeline for each child. If played religiously every day, identifying, labelling, sorting, every child can admirably decipher the difference between the complex shapes with ease. They are sprightly when they realise they have a richer vocabulary. The way they start describing things around them is so endearing in their babbling voices,” Mama, a clesent (crescent)!” or “….. a pallogaam (parallelogram)…..”. This is such an incredible adventure parents, and teachers can share with their children and students.

 

Homeschooling my boys 4 and 6, I realised I could easily sail with them over shapes like a reuleaux triangle, a wedge, squircle…..

Hence, I created “I See 44 Shapes” for children to master basic concepts like naming shapes, identifying them, counting, discovering colours, animals and vocabulary based on science which they can use every day — all while having a uniquely fun time. I wanted to create a book that spans a wide age range. With real-life references of shapes, children relate to the little stories of adorable animals engaged in hilarious activities on every page. The shapes have been organised in a pattern for children to easily decipher the change that occurs after a few pages.



Vivid, bright illustrations with vocabulary that is fun, and intriguing, will make those little hands reach for the book over and over again. They discover the lush intellectual capacities they have when they learn maths, science and vocabulary skills, all together. The book is very straightforward in identifying shapes accompanied by real-life references. I aimed at accomplishing important concepts in a didactic way juxtaposed with flamboyant illustrations that show an adorable animal engaged in activities that little ones can form stories with. The writing style is not story-like yet narrative like talking to the children. I wanted to achieve the goal of showing children that spectacular shapes make up our everyday world, to engage, compel and immerse the child on every page in a subtle way to reinforce the message of looking for shapes all around. Learning shapes, colours and animal names is a stimulating way that enthrals little and young children alike. So next time, we are travelling with our children and approach a tunnel they know its an arch shape, they notice, they speak and they believe more in themselves with each encounter when they discern which shape is which.

 

There is also a companion book ‘ I see 44 Shapes- Let’s Practise’ — to help children walk through what they have learnt in ‘I See 44 Shapes’. This tiny aide will nourish their reinforcement where they encounter questions, sentences, some grammar, and practise forming words.

We are an integral part of our children’s learning journey. Celebrate with them their joy, their excitement, their challenges, the obstacles they face and their achievements.

Happy Learning!


Tina Mittal Kashyap

Author & Illustrator

I See 44 Shapes Program

The First Fundamental Program to Introduce 44 Shapes in Kindergarten

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