Shrink your room!

Children can learn important geometric concepts by mapping familiar spaces.

Creating maps and models of their surroundings (their room, neighborhood, etc.)  helps kids put their world in context. Talking about their map or model can help them understand the relationship of navigational words like up/down to map words like north/south and supports mathematical concepts of directionality and spatial relationships.

Choose a familiar space, such as a bedroom, and encourage your child to make a miniature model of it:

1. Use a shoebox or other box to represent the room.
2. Have your child draw where the door(s) and window(s) should be. You may need to assist with cutting so that these can open and close.
3. Ask your child to place doll house furniture, blocks, building bricks or other small items into the shoebox to represent the furnishings.
4. Draw in wall art and add other decorative touches with crayons, markers, construction paper and felt.