This activity offers the opportunity to scale up the study of geometric shapes. Tape makes nice straight lines and neat corners that don’t move (unlike string, which we also tried) so it is very gratifying, especially for students who may struggle to draw shapes with writing implements. Tape Shapes also allows for some great partner work, opening up opportunities for rich math talk.
Materials:
- Painter’s Tape
- Scissors
Instructions:
We introduce this as a partner activity and model the two jobs – taper and cutter – for the whole class, showing them how to put the tape down, cut it to make a line, and then switch jobs.
During small group time, students are given time to work in their pairs to create shapes. We offer prompts such as, “Make one four sided shape and one three sided shape” or “Make a shape with four vertices.”
After everyone has had a turn to create (it could go on for days, the tape stays put!) we have a whole-class discussion to talk about what we did, any problems we faced, and what we see. Again, we may offer a prompt or a challenge such as, “Is it possible to make a three-sided shape that isn’t a triangle?”
In this photo below, the preschool children were grappling with the concept of “shapes are closed.” Looking at all of their work on the floor provided a great opportunity to discuss what makes a shape. In the process, some of the children noticed that the floor tiles were rectangles!
With all the tape shapes on the floor, the area of the classroom is now ready for playing games. The Floor Is Lava is a fun game where children can call “safe shapes” while they hop across the area. For example, “Triangles are safe and everything else is lava!” “Four-sided shapes are safe and everything is lava!” “Closed shapes are safe and everything else is lava!”
Modifications:
Once the children had a chance to experience making shapes with tape indoors, bring the activity outside! You can also add chalk as another art medium, and provide foam shapes for reference or tracing.
