Abigail has been learning about shapes in kindergarten.  I remember (somewhat) kindergarten where we learned about circles and squares and triangles.  So we started talking about shapes and a plan she had to build a “shape man” for Halloween.  She listed the shapes we needed, “1 triangle, 1 hexagon, 2 parallelograms and 2 trapezoids.”  “Excuse me?”, I said.  Yup, she had an entire plan worked out on paper with the shapes she named.

I had to follow through with this so we worked on how to use a straight-edge to make proper shapes and then I cut them out of cardboard.  She drew most of the shapes so they weren’t perfect but we cut them out as she drew them.  We glued sticks we found in the yard to the back of the cardboard to hold the pieces together properly.  Sure enough, we had created a shape man (or, to credit my contribution, a stick man).

She painted him and has plans for another before Halloween.  I am still amazed at her knowing about these exotic (for a kindergartner, anyhow) shapes.  Kindergarten has changed a lot (and a lot for the better in most cases, I think), since I was in that position!