The other day I saw a fascinating toy in an educational bookstore. The toy consists of a set of colorful shapes made of wood, and a cork board. Each shape has a small hole in the center – there’s also a box of tachs which ft through the holes, and allow a child to pin the shapes to the corkboard.
My son (four years old), when he saw it, immediately informed me that he plays with this toy in kindergarten, and that he also wanted me to buy one to bring hope. We didn’t buy it then and there, but he wanted it so much I later went back to the bookstore and picked one up. You can also get them from Amazon.com.
This is a great toy for kindy kids for a variety of reasons –
- it helps get kids familiar with shapes and colors.
- it helps kids see how shapes can be combined together to make larger and more complex patterns.
- it develops kids’ fine motor skills as they place shapes, and place the pins in the central hole.
- it can be used again and again, making different patterns each time.
I took a video of my son using the toy. See it below :