Today Pomme was playing/working with her wooden shape puzzle by Melissa and Doug, and the shape-matching cards I had made to go with it, when I noticed something interesting.

She had received Melissa and Doug’s clock shape puzzle for Christmas… or her birthday.  I’m ashamed to say I can’t remember which.  I think it was her birthday.  (Her birthday is only 2 weeks before Christmas so hopefully I can be forgiven!)

The shapes are the same 12 shapes.  They’re a bit smaller in the clock puzzle, and of course have big numbers printed on them, but it is the same set of shapes.

So I put it all together.  Shape puzzle pieces on the matching cards, clock puzzle pieces on top of the shape puzzle pieces.

First of all, I just thought this was COOL.  But I also had to think “educationally” so… this teaches that a shape is a shape whatever the size… which, admittedly, she already understands because she loves to draw and point out “GIG ty-goh” (that’s “big triangle”) as well as little ones.

It teaches coordination and dexterity, to place the smaller one on top of the larger.  Which she can do and has other tools already that practice the same skill… It teaches size differentiation, to determine which is the smaller one…. which she can already do.  Um, how about, colour doesn’t affect shape either?  Oh I know, we could use it to talk about colours, “put the red triangle on top of the… oh, both triangles are red, aren’t they… okay, put the green rectangle on top of the… oh right, the other rectangle is missing…”

It introduces the written words for shapes, therefore concepts of early literacy, letters, sounds, etc, as well as the verbal words for the shapes.  But it did that before I added the second set of shapes.

Um… so…

I guess it’s just cool.

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