Planets - Teaching Circles

My favourite topic when I was a Special Needs Teacher was Space. The possibilities for cross-curricular and multi-sensory learning is endless with the topic of Space.

I wanted an exciting and engaging way to start teaching my toddler about 2D shapes. Watching my two year old’s engagement and enjoyment through this activity I think I achieved my goal of creating a motivating shape activity. This activity is simple to set up and uses day to day objects to help your toddler start to recognise circles.

Set Up

To set this easy and engaging activity up to teach circles, I gathered a selection of items in our kitchen which could be used as a circle stamper; a sponge, a cup, a bowl and a silicone cupcake case. I poured a selection of colours into a round take away platter. I put all the paints into the big platter because it was a circle and I wanted the planets to be a mix of colours.

To read how I set up all painting activities click here.

Together my two year and I then chose different ‘stampers’ to create our planets. I kept repeating “this is a circle” each time either of us stamped a planet.

It wasn’t long before my two year created one big circle but this became our sun in our solar system art work. Once the paint was dry I cut out the sun and the planets (circles) and my son stuck them onto the black piece of paper.

The finished piece of art, which looks good and has also begun to teach my two year old to recognise circles.