The Best Shape Puzzles for Tots
This week, I’ve been trying to spend some extra time with Mr. 1. Miss 4’s activities have been too “big girl” for him to do and I’ve been feeling guilty that he’s left out. After making our giant Ocean Scene Match-up that took all day with Miss 4, I wanted something easy but still educational. So, I grabbed my favorite shape puzzles and threw them in the hall! He ran after them totally excited. I’ve been introducing colors but this was the first shape activity that we’ve done.
Tomy Toomies is definitely my favorite toy for shape sorting. Most shape toys are fun for a few minutes, babe gets frustrated and then it’s over. Not this one! When you get all of the shapes in, you push it down. Then, let go and it spins and POPS the shapes back out at you. Then, you get to gather your shapes and do it again!
Each time he makes it pop he says “WHOA!” and throws his arms out.
Fisher Price Brilliant Basics Activity Puzzle
This Activity Puzzle is awesome. It’s great for little fingers. This is one of our toys that I keep out all the time. Great for matching shapes! Each piece makes a sound or has something cool like a door or soft wings. My favorite thing about it is that each piece is a toy in itself and it never feels like I have a ton of unusable pieces everywhere.
Melissa & Doug Beginner Wooden Pattern Blocks
Clearly, a favorite today was the Beginner Wooden Pattern Blocks. He was surprisingly good at figuring out where each piece went. This was one of those times that you keep away a toy thinking they are too small for it, then you give it to them and realize the opposite.
He was even holding up the circles, making a scrunched up face and trying to say circle. With shape activities like this Block Search & Sort and Block Bucket Sorting by Color he starts to associate colors as a group that he can label. This group is blue, this group is red and this group is triangles.
He dumped them, tossed them and even built stepping stones in the box. We used the rectangles to make a road for his car which was a good example of grouping. He didn’t know he was learning! He had a blast!
Melissa & Doug Chunky Shapes Puzzle
The last puzzle I put in the hallway was this Chunky Shapes Puzzle. Again, I was surprised at how well he did! He actually was challenged more by this one than the rest but he gave it a great try. When he filled the board, he liked to pick it up and dump it onto his lap. Then he started over.
It was interesting to see him play with all of the puzzles at the same time. I thought he would mix up the pieces but he knew when he put the shapes onto the wrong puzzle and he would bring them back to the right one.
