Shape-Up Treasure Hunt

Today I put together an activity for the girls to shape up their minds and their bodies: a treasure hunt of shapes.

You will need:

• Card Stock (at least two colors of your choice)
• Printer Paper (for the worksheets)
• Scissors (to cut out the card stock shapes)
• Tape (to tape the shapes up around the house)
• Crayons (to correspond to the card stock colors)
• A Computer (with Microsoft Word or analogous program) & Printer

Getting Started:

I opened up a fresh Word document and created two pages of shapes. I simply inserted the shapes I wanted to use and enlarged them to the size I wanted. I had 13 shapes total, spanning two pages. I chose two different colors of card stock (yellow & orange because they were easy to spot) and printed, then cut out each shape.

I then copied and pasted each shape into a new Word document (see printed sheet on the left of picture below), shrunk each shape, and listed the shape's name next to it. Each hunter got her own worksheet.

{Left: Worksheet, Right: Card Stock Shapes}

Directions:

1. Show each shape-hunter all of the shapes they are looking for so they are familiar with what they are to find.

2. Hide the shapes around the house (I chose the main level of our home), in an easy to spot, eye-level position.

3. Go over the worksheet, looking at, pointing to and saying the name of each shape.

4. Each hunter should choose one crayon to correspond with the color of the shapes they are searching for.

5. Leaving the worksheet at a table, desk, etc, the hunters should begin their search. With each find they are to return to the table to color in the shape they have found with its corresponding color.

{Lauren & Abby Coloring Their Shapes}

Objectives:

• Shape recognition
• Learn shape names
• Tone memory skills
• Locate said items
• Fine motor/coloring skills
• Following directions
• Exercising Patience
• Exercising their bodies

{Lauren Proudly Displaying Her Completed Worksheet}

The great thing about this treasure hunt is that once you create the documents on Word, it is very easy to reprint worksheets, or even print the shapes again on varying colored paper. I started out very basic with the girls on our first try, but after a few times I will probably make it increasingly more of a challenge to keep their interest and foster learning.

Variations:

• Use a variety of colors for the shapes
• Hide shapes in more difficult to find locations
• Print out only the shapes' names on the worksheet and have the children draw and color each shape from scratch
• Instead of hiding printed shapes, have the children find items in the house that correspond with the shapes on their worksheet. (You will want to make sure that each shape on the worksheet has something in the house to correspond to it.)
• Play as a timed competition

When we were finished with our treasure hunt, the girls were excited to collect the shapes from their hiding spots around the house. This not only helped to reinforce memory skills, but it also taught them the importance of team work and clean-up responsibilities.

The possibilities are endless, and no doubt this activity will be added to our treasure box of games & activities!