Shapes & Spatial Relations
Activity Summary
Use this storybook guide with the book “Have You Seen My Monster?”
Many public libraries have this book.
Reading guide
About the Story
A little girl loses her monster at the fair. As she tries to find him, she sees different shapes all around her. From the octagons on the merry-go-round to the hexagons in the fun house, children will enjoy spotting the shapes. The book is challenging and needs to be read more than once, but it is fun.
Words to Learn
SHAPE WORDS
octagon, rhombus, hexagon, kite, quatrefoil, trapezium, parallelogram, curvilinear triangle, heptagon, trapezoid, pentagon, nonagon, decagon, crescent
About the Math
“Have You Seen My Monster?” introduces children to a variety of shapes. As they look for the shapes, children can learn:
- The names of the various shapes, especially the more complex shapes: quatrefoil, trapezium, curvilinear triangle.
- The properties of each shape. For example, hexagons have six sides and heptagons have seven sides.
- How shapes keep the same name even when they grow larger or smaller or turn around.
Math Talk During Reading
- EXPLORE THE SHAPES
What do you notice about this shape? How many sides does it have? Are all the sides the same length? - TALK ABOUT THE SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES BETWEEN SHAPES
This shape is called a rhombus and this shape is called a square. How are they different? How are they the same? - NOTICE HOW THE SHAPES KEEP THE SAME NAME, EVEN WHEN THEY LOOK SMALLER OR BIGGER
Do you see how this oval is small and this one is big? But we call them both ovals!
Try to come up with some of your own questions and comments, too!
Activity After Reading
- LOOK FOR SHAPES IN YOUR HOME
Let’s go on a shape hunt! How many parallelograms can we find around us?