shapes unit for toddlers – Truly Montessori

“Measurement of the Earth together with the consciousness of the reciprocal relationship between Man and the objects of the environment, and between the objects themselves.” ~ Maria Montessori

Geometry is seen as an abstract subject by many and sometimes given to babies and kids at a much later age. However, geometry is everywhere. We live in a world full of patterns and shapes. A butterfly displays symmetry, a soda can shows cylinder and volume, a house looks like a rectangular prism, and a rock can be an ovoid. Geometry is a part of us and when we look at the cosmic world, we see Geometry in us. This is why in Montessori education Geometry starts from Birth with Gobi Mobile and Octahedron Mobile. We can continuously see Geometry being a part of the child with Montessori materials. These materials enhances natural curiosity in among children. The child is engaging all of his/her senses and without realizing it, adding new senses such as the stereognostic sense and the basic sense such as the sense of mass, that is of heaviness or lightness.

Shapes on the Shelf

The way I design my shelf is from Left to Right, Easy to Hard, and Concrete to Abstract. The purpose is to prepare the child for reading indirectly.

This was a simple DIY Sensory Shapes Board. I created this with different materials around the house and hot glued it on a piece of wooden board that I found for free at Home Depot.

My little bug had so much watching the light reflect through these shapes. I love these wooden acrylic glass shapes because they are so versatile. They can be used for stacking, building, and for learning the names of different shapes. I found them on Amazon. (The link is at the bottom of this page).

Wooden Shapes Puzzle

I kept the lessons pretty simple and complete on the shelf. The reason I keep lessons complete on the shelf is because when he enters the sensitive period of order, he can put the activity back when its finished. It also teaches him to complete the task before returning it on the shelf.

Shapes Sorting

This was a simple vertical dowel activity with shapes. This was also an Amazon find.

Finding Shapes in the nature engages child’s all senses and can make Geometry alive by relating it to real life objects.

Shapes Sensory Bin

Shapes Matching

Montessori Imbucare Box

This was by far the most loved lesson on the shelf. My little guy loved flipping the lid after he finished his lesson.

Rocks Washing

The simple rock washing activity is so peaceful and grounding activity for children. It involves geometry and sensory work.

Kandinsky Inspired Art

Kandinsky is famous for his geometric concentric circles in art. So, we created this easy version of Kandinsky for toddler. He painted on the laminating sheet first and then stamped different size circles with lids.

Making Stained glass with shapes by sticking sponges on the contact paper. These different color sponges from dollar tree are so versatile and you can create so many different activities with them.

Knobbed Cylinders

This is the iconic Montessori lesson, one you will find in every Montessori classroom. This is such a great work for visual discrimination, learning the different diameters, thickness, height, and great activity for fine motor skills. This lesson is a pre-writing activity as it helps strengthens the hand and the activity is completed from left to right.

Art with Geometric Shapes

Labyrinth Puzzle

Sacred geometry involves sacred universal patterns used in the design of everything in our real lives. Although, we are limited to explore this subject with toddlers in depth but it shouldn’t stop us to introduce a little piece of geometry in our kid’s lives.

Below are some of the links of the work for older children that I created. Sacred Geometry unit was a very popular unit study in my classroom. Here are few glimpse of our work and some freebie to incorporate it in your classroom or in your home.