Get into Shapes

Get into Shapes


The grocery store is filled with geometric shapes.


What you'll need


Items at the store










What to do


1. Show your child the pictures of the shapes on this page
before going to the store. This will help to identify them
when you get to the store.

2. At the store, ask your child questions to generate
interest in the shapes.

Which items are solid? Which are fiat?

Which shapes have fiat sides?

Which have circles for faces? Rectangles?

Do any have points at the top?

3. Point out shapes and talk about their qualities and their
use in daily life.

Look to see what shapes stack easily. Why?.

Try to find some cones. How many can you find?

Look for pyramids.









Determine which solids take up a lot of space and which
ones stack well.

Discuss why space is important to the grocer and why the
grocer cares about what stacks well.



Boxes, cans, rolls of toilet paper or paper towels, ice
cream cones and cones that hold flowers, plus produce such as
oranges, grapes, and tomatoes are all geometric shapes.
Recognizing these shapes helps children connect math to the
real world.



Check Out


The check out counter is where we commonly think about
math in the grocery store. It's where the total is added up,
the money is exchanged, and the change is returned.





What you'll need


All the items you intend to buy


What to do


1. Have your child estimate the total.

2. Ask, if I have 10 one-dollar bills, how many will I have
to give the clerk? What if I have 20 one-dollar bills? 5?
How much change should I receive? What coins will I get?

3. Count the change with your child to make sure the change
is correct.





One way to make estimating totals easy is to assign an
average price to each item. If the average price for each item
is $2 and if you have 10 items, the estimate would be about
$20.


It's in the Bag


Here's some fun estimation to do with bags full of
groceries.





What you'll need


Bags of groceries


What to do


1. Have your child guess how many objects there are in a bag.
Ask: Is it full? Could it hold more? Could it tear if you
put more in it? Are there more things in another bag of
the same size? Why do some bags hold more or less than
others?

2. Estimate the weight of the bag of groceries. Does it weigh
5 pounds, 10 pounds, or more? How can you check your
estimate? Now, compare one bag to another. Which is
lighter or heavier? Why?





This activity exposes children to the experiences of
counting items and comparing qualities, as well as to judging
spatial relationships and capacity. It shows how to estimate
weight by feeling how much the bag weighs, comparing it to a
known weight (such as a 5-pound bag of sugar), or weighing it
on a scale.


Put It Away


Now, the sorting begins as you put away the groceries.


What you'll need


Your bags of groceries
Counter top or table to group items on


What to do


1. Find one characteristic that is the same for some of the
products. For example, some are boxes and some are cans.

2. Put all the items together that have the same
characteristic.

3. Find another way to group these items.

4. Continue sorting, finding as many different ways to group
the items as you can.

5. Play "Guess My Rule." In this game, you sort the items and
invite your child to guess your rule for sorting them.
Then, your child can sort the items, and you can guess the
rule.






Sorting helps children develop classifying and reasoning
skills and the ability to examine data and information.


Math on the Go


In this busy world, we spend a lot of time in transit.
These are some projects to try while you are going from place
to place.

While you're moving, have your children keep theft eyes
open for:

* street and building numbers;

* phone numbers on the sides of taxis and trucks;

* dates on buildings and monuments; and

* business names that have numbers in them.