I’ve been sharing about my shape themed adapted book series and “Let’s Find Shapes” is the final book in this series.  The series includes “What Shape Do You See?”, “I See Shapes”, and “Let’s Find Shapes”.   All these books are great to work on those basic shape concepts with your students.  I’ve been pairing different shape themed activities and games with each book.  I paired two fun shape sorting activities I like to use with my students to go with this book but there are lots of shape sorting activities out there.

For this book the student has to find the items which match the given shape concept on that page.  On the first page it says, “I see a square.”  Then we move to the bottom of the page and read “Find all the squares.”  The student needs to scan all the pictures and find all the square items to place in the square on the page.  For this page the student would place the square waffle and checker board pictures in the large square.  There are 2-3 items for each given shape concept.  When I set up the book I like to put 4 pieces of Velcro on each page so the student doesn’t know how many items to find per page.  Then all the pages will look the same.

As always I change the prompting depending on my students’ skill level.  I have students who are able to help me read/say some of the words as we point to each word box.  Other students know some of their shape concepts so they can help me name the shape concept for that page.  We might name the items or count the items on each page.

Sometimes I need to reduce the visual field of items and provide my student a choice of 2-3 items to look at to find which item matches that shape concept.  You might even need to flip over the back page with all the object choices if that is too distracting.  Maybe the first time or two you read the book with the student, the focus is for the student to place one of that shaped item per page.  Then work up to adding more items for each page.  Model those shape concepts throughout the activity.

Since this book works on finding items by shape I paired it with some different shape sorting tasks.  I have lots of shape sorting activities I like to use but here are a couple of my favorites I love to use from Lakeshore Learning Products.  We did the Shape Sorting Center and Button Sorting Center.

I use both of these sorting activities all the time.  The shape sorter pairs perfectly with this book.  The student is given a shape just like in the book and has to place the item on the correct shape board.  There are 8 different shape concepts targeted with this activity.  You can sort by 2 shapes or all 8 depending on your students’ skill level.

A trick I did with my shapes was put a small piece of clear hard Velcro on the shape boards and then a small piece of clear soft Velcro on the back of all the shape pieces.  That way my student can actually attach the object to the board and it will stay in place.  My students sometimes like to move the boards or have difficulty leaving the shapes alone while doing this activity so the Velcro really helps. 

Show your students several items and tell them which shape to find and place on the board.  The students can also verbally, with visuals, or an AAC system work on requesting the item by the shape concept.  After they request the item they can find where to place the item.  Some of my students are also able to name the objects too.  For example “clock is a circle” or “the pizza is a triangle”.     

I also use this Button Sorting Center activity all the time because it is so flexible when working on color, shape, or size concepts.  This time I used the different button shape jars to work on sorting by shape concepts.  The other great thing about this activity is you can sort by 2 shapes or more.  If your students are just learning how to sort focus on sorting by 2 shapes.  Maybe sort by hearts and triangles.  Give the student a heart button and help them decide if it goes on the heart board or the triangle board.  Continue to model those shape concepts.

When your students are more successful sorting increase the number of shape concepts you are using.  You can work on those receptive language skills.  Show the student 2-3 buttons and tell the student which item to select.  For example, “find the circle”.  After the student choices the circle button they can place it on the correct button jar.  You can hold up the button and see if the student can tell you what shape the button is before you give it to them to place on the correct button jar.  Maybe they can name the color and shape concept!  That’s the great thing about this activity is you can work on both color and shape concepts if your student is at that level.

Lots of ways to have fun working on shape concepts.  If you are interested in these books you can find them on TPT with the link – Shape Adapted Book Series

The Shape Sorting Center and Button Sorting Center activities I got from Lakeshore Learning