Shapes Archives - Oxford Owl for 51��

Christmas activities for 5–7 year olds

Oxford Owl — Tue, 12 Dec 2023 11:36:31 +0000

Whatever the weather this Christmas, you’ll find an activity here to suit your child. Wrap up warm and go out for a winter scavenger hunt, or stay inside and play party games with our range of festive activity ideas.

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��Kitty and the Moonlight Rescue, Kitty puts on a special mask when she becomes a feline superhero. Now you can be a hero too!

Christmas memory tray game

Your child will love this Christmas version of the popular memory tray game. Find a selection of Christmas objects – for example, a bauble, a mince pie, a small parcel, a satsuma – and arrange them on a tray. Keep the tray covered with a tea-towel or a piece of wrapping paper until you are ready to play the game. Vary the number of objects according to the age of your child. Uncover the tray and give your child a minute to memorise the contents of the tray, then cover it up again. Take the tray away and remove one object. Bring the tray back and ask the child to write down the object that is missing. You could turn this into a competition – perhaps the winner can eat the mince pie!

Baking together is great fun and a good way to get children practicing their measuring and counting skills. These snow-covered gingerbread trees are easy to make and your child will love decorating them.

Can you find the 10 Christmas words hidden in the wordsearch? A fiendish test of your child’s word-spotting skills, the words can be written any way – forwards and backwards, top to bottom and bottom to top, left to right and right to left, and even diagonally.

Go for a winter scavenger hunt

We all know that sluggish feeling in the Christmas holidays when you have been in the house for days and have eaten one too many mince pies! This winter scavenger hunt is a great way to get everyone outside burning some energy. Give your child or children a bag and a list of things to collect. If you are in the woods, this could be a pine cone, a conker, a twig, a feather, a leaf, a stone. If you are at the beach, they could search for a shell, a piece of seaweed, a stone. Alternatively, you could just have a challenge to see who can find the most of a certain item – pine cones, shells, stones. Another idea is that you could give your child or children a bag each and challenge them to see what treasures they can find.

Follow these steps to make a super snack for the birds in your garden, inspired by the��books.

Everybody loves pugs, and they’re easy to draw! These activity sheets from the creators of��will help you draw your own completely unique pug, as well as making a comic, designing a sea monkey, and much more!

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Fun books with maths

Oxford Owl — Wed, 31 Aug 2022 09:00:26 +0000

Looking for fun ways to introduce maths to your little ones? Books that explore these ideas, like shapes, counting and size can be brilliant ways to help your child get to grips with early maths skills.��

Maths is an essential part of our daily lives. It makes our computers work. It helps us tell the time, buy our shopping, know how much we can fill the kettle, and lots, lots more.

But when it comes to introducing children to the world of maths, it can be difficult to know where to start. Counting? Shapes? Size? Weight? All of the above? Well, if asking your toddler to count out 100 shapes and sort them by size and weight sounds a little daunting, we’re here to help.

We’ve curated a list of our best maths-inspired picture books which help children learn about those important early maths skills in a gentle way. Think heartwarming stories, heaps of humour and a cast of vibrant characters that presents maths information in a subtle, age appropriate and easy-to-digest way.

Fun books with maths concepts

Please note that all links will take you to Amazon.co.uk��

Helen Mortimer / Cristina Trapanese

Suitable 2+

Using carefully chosen words in relatable settings from the world around them, this book creates a moment for children and adults to discover first counting words at a pizza party.

The engaging art style, fun characters and hardback picture book feel make this series accessible and perfect to share.��

Helen Mortimer / Cristina Trapanese

Suitable 2+

This book creates a moment for children and adults to discover first sorting words through dressing up and having fun.

Written and illustrated by the same winning team as ‘Big Words for Little People’, this series is special not only because it focuses on maths in a child-friendly way, but also because it’s from Oxford, it’s packed with educational goodness that helps children develop and grow.

Naomi Jones / James Jones

Suitable 2+

Circle loves the tower that the squares and hexagons have built and wants to make his own.

But circles, diamonds and triangles are pointier, rounder and much wobblier – making a tower is not as easy as it looks! The shapes try and try but their tower just keeps tumbling down. Can Circle persuade them to have just one more try?

Leigh Hodgkinson

Suitable 2+

Martha LOVES drawing maps. She creates maps of everything-even her thoughts and dreams! Let Martha be your guide as she welcomes you to her world. Starting in outer space, we zoom in page by page, to our planet, Martha’s community, and beyond to her dreams of a future where ANYTHING is possible.

Full of quirky details and fun non-fiction labels that children will love poring over-they will discover cool new facts with every reading.��

Tony Neal

Suitable 2+

Elephant is too heavy to play with Mouse on the seesaw. Their friends can help, but will it be enough to get Elephant’s feet off the ground? A great deal (of Elephant) hangs in the balance in this hilarious introduction to the maths concept of weight.

With engaging artwork and a very funny story, readers won’t even realize that they’re learning something while they laugh along with the animal friends!

Naomi Jones / James Jones

Suitable 2+

No matter how hard she tries, Triangle doesn’t roll like the circles, or stack like the squares…so she sets off to find friends that look exactly like her. But when she finds the other triangles, playtime isn’t as fun. She misses the shapes that roll and stack; she misses being different. So she starts a new quest, one that gets all of the different shapes playing and having fun together!

Tony Neal

Suitable 2+

Mouse is hungry, but that tasty cake is just too high! Is it a stretch too far, or will Mouse find his way to the top?

It’s a big problem for a small mouse in this hilarious introduction to the maths concept of height.

8 fun ways to learn about shapes

Oxford Owl — Tue, 12 Jan 2021 10:55:04 +0000

Shapes are all around us and there are many ways you can start exploring them with your child. Learning to recognise shapes will help familiarise your child with different shapes in all sorts of contexts.

There are lots of fun and easy ways to get your child recognising and naming shapes, to give them a great start developing early numeracy skills. Here are some activities you can try at home and when you’re out and about.

1. Shapes on the dinner plate

Give your child different shaped food and ask them to name the shapes. Try slices of watermelon or pizza for triangles, sandwiches or crackers for squares, and apples or peas for circles. You can use the food to introduce informal mathematical language by asking your child to count how many sides or corners each food item has, or if the shape has straight or round sides.

2. Go on a shape hunt

Hunt for shapes around the house: ask your child to find circles (e.g. clock, plughole, plate), rectangles (e.g. TV, books), squares (e.g. windows, cupboards), and more. How many different shapes can they find in one room? Can they find small shapes and big shapes?

3. Spot the shape when out and about

What different shapes can your child spot when you’re out and about? Think about different shape road signs (circles, triangles, rectangles, and the octagon ‘stop’ sign); circular wheels on cars and bikes; square pavement slabs. Which shape is most common?

4. Shape of the day

Ask your child to choose a shape and then see how many times during the day you can spot it together. This can be around the house, when you’re outside, or even in books or on the TV.

5. Match the shapes

Cut out shapes from pieces of paper and lay out randomly on the table. Ask your child to match up all the circles, triangles, squares etc., naming the shapes as they go. Try using shapes of different sizes and colours. If your child feels confident, use a timer to see how fast they can match up all the shapes!

6. Trace the shape

Pick a shape and ask your child to trace its shape on a plate of flour, in sand, with a stick through soil, or on a pavement with a paintbrush and water.

7. Make pictures with shapes

Cut out different sized shapes from pieces of paper and see what pictures your child can make with the same shape, e.g. boats and butterflies from triangles and towers from squares. Now introduce another shape and see what picture your child can make by putting them together (e.g. a house from a square and a triangle).

8. Read stories featuring shapes

Help build your child’s confidence in recognising shapes during storytime. There are lots of fantastic picture books introducing shapes and patterns, which children will want to pick up again and again. We’ve highlighted two of our favourites from 51�� below.

Books to support learning at home

Buy now

All Aboard the Shapes Train

Illustrated by Sean Sims

Visit the park, the playground, the boating lake and the funfair to spot circles, squares, triangles, patterns and lots more!
Find out more >

Buy now

The Perfect Fit (Pre-order)

Naomi Jones, James Jones

Triangle is trying her best to fit in, but she’s just not like the circles and the squares. So Triangle sets off to find some friends just like her.

Published March 2021.

Find out more >

Buy now

Shape and Size Age 3–4

Progress with Oxford

This fun activity book will help your child to develop their knowledge of shapes and size. They will quickly learn the names of shapes, recognise their features and learn the vocabulary of measurement and dimension.
Find out more >

Buy now

1st Steps with Numicon at 51�� Kit Age 3–5

Numicon

This kit has been designed for parents to help children’s maths during the Foundation Stage and early Key Stage 1, offering a series of fun and easy to play activities to encourage understanding about early number and arithmetic.
Find out more >

Buy now

Shapes and Measuring Age 4–5

Progress with Oxford

This activity book will help your child to develop their knowledge of shapes and measuring. They will quickly learn the names of 2D shapes and their features, using mathematical language. They will also start to learn about measuring and comparing quantities and objects.
Find out more >

The post 8 fun ways to learn about shapes appeared first on Oxford Owl for 51��.

Shapes Archives - Oxford Owl for 51������

Christmas activities for 5–7 year olds

Christmas memory tray game

Go for a winter scavenger hunt

More from Oxford Owl

Fun books with maths

Fun books with maths concepts

More from Oxford Owl

8 fun ways to learn about shapes

1. Shapes on the dinner plate

2. Go on a shape hunt

3. Spot the shape when out and about

4. Shape of the day

5. Match the shapes

6. Trace the shape

7. Make pictures with shapes

8. Read stories featuring shapes

More from Oxford Owl

Books to support learning at home

All Aboard the Shapes Train

The Perfect Fit (Pre-order)

Shape and Size Age 3–4

1st Steps with Numicon at 51������ Kit Age 3–5

Shapes and Measuring Age 4–5

Shapes Archives - Oxford Owl for 51��

1st Steps with Numicon at 51�� Kit Age 3–5