- Toddler
Fit Inside the Tape Shape
Learning Areas:
- Movement
- Math
Overview
What is this activity?
ECSEL Standards
What skills are being enhanced? What knowledge is gained?
Materials
What do you need to prepare for this activity?
Instructions
Step by step guide
ECSEL Prompts
What questions can you ask to promote ECSEL thinking and discussions?
Extended Learning
How can you extend children’s thinking?
Overview
How many children can fit inside the tape shape? Move your bodies and let’s find out!
ECSEL Standards & Learning Goals
What skills are being enhanced & what knowledge is being gained through this activity?
Emotional Identification
Children will begin to recognize and identify the four basic emotions (happy, sad, angry, and scared) that arise while participating in collaborative movement activities.
Emotional Understanding
Support children in understanding the differences between emotions that arise within the context of this activity.
Cause & Effect
Children will begin to associate the four basic emotions with a cause with teacher support in providing simple causes for each emotion.
Problem Solving
Children will use their problem solving skills to figure out how many bodies or body parts can fit inside each shape.
Empathy & Prosocial Skills
Children will work collaboratively to complete this teamwork activity.
CASEL Standards
Self-Awareness, Social Awareness, Relationship Skills, Responsible Decision-Making
Materials
- Printed images of different basic shapes (e.g., square, rectangle, circle, and triangle)
- Different colored masking tape
Instructions:
- Prepare for this activity by printing out images of basic shapes and creating different sized shapes on the floor using masking tape.
- Introduce this activity during circle time by showing images of each printed shape and identifying them each by name. Support children’s language skills by encouraging them to repeat each word. While showing each image, discuss and count any points, curves, and lines.
- Share that the class will be working together to count how many children, how many hands, and how many feet can fit inside each shape taped to the floor.
- Guide children to the first shape, and encourage teamwork and collaboration to fit as many children as possible, followed by as many hands and feet as possible inside the shape.
- As children move their bodies into the shapes, count how many children or body parts can fit into each. Repeat for all shapes taped to the floor and discuss which shape fits the most children and which fits the least.
- Verbalize acts of empathy and prosocial skills that arise while children work, as well as any emotions related to the activity.
- After participating in this activity with each shape, meet back at circle time.
- Encourage children to share how they are feeling after the activity. For verbal children, ask them to label the emotion for the class. For non-verbal children, identify what you observed their emotion to be by their facial expressions and ask if this is correct. Discuss simple examples of causes for each emotion related to the activity or ask older toddlers what caused their feelings.
- Emphasize that we all have many different feelings and we may experience different feelings than our friends while participating in teamwork activities.
ECSEL Prompts
ECSEL Prompts are helpful questions & guiding statements you can use to provoke children’s thinking about emotions. These prompts are related to this specific activity.
What are you feeling? I see you have a smile on your face.
So many children said they were happy, but a few said they were sad.
Were you sad because you couldn’t fit inside the shape?
How many of us can fit inside the triangle?
Great job working together to fit inside each shape!
Extended Learning
Use these questions & ideas to extend children’s learning!
Extend this activity by finding classroom objects to fit inside each shape. Continue by supporting groups of children in filling up each tape shape with objects, counting each object that is able to fit.
Toddler – Fit Inside the Tape Shape