Shape Jingles

Several months ago I noticed that my daughter learns things when she encounters them in a song.  I was looking for a way to teach her shapes, and so I thought I'd give this a try.  It worked great!  I just made up little jingles for each of the shapes.  (My first thought was to make a song with all the shapes, but in practice that idea sort of morphed into this instead).  When playing with her little shape sorter set or shape puzzle, I would point to the circle and sing the circle jingle over and over, tracing the circle with my finger as I did it.  After a few minutes, I stopped and immediately asked, "Where is the circle?"  It took her few times, but I persisted and she eventually pointed to it.  Next I walked around the room, and wherever I saw a circle I woulde excitedly point to it, sing the jingle, and trace it with my fingers.  I picked her up and we went all over the house.  Circles were everywhere - the knobs of the dresser, the burners of the stove, details in the furniture, etc.  Within a day or two, she had the circle concept down cold.  We did the same thing with the square and triangle, and by that time she totally understood the idea of "shape" and the rest came really, really easy.

These are the jingles I used - not works of art, but they accomplished their purpose:

Circle:

Circle, circle, round and round

circle, circle, round and round

Square: (to the tune of I'm a little tea pot)

I'm a little square, I have four sides.

One, two, three, four, I have four sides.

I'm a little square, all my sides are the same.

I'm a little square, square is my name.

Triangle:

Triangle, triangle, one, two, three.

Triangle, triangle, sing with me.

Oval:

Oooooooooval, long and round.

Ooooooooooval, long and round,

Rectangle: (with kind of a Carribean beat)

I'm a rectangle, 

looooooooong side, 

looooooooong side, 

short and short.

I'm a rectangle,

looooooooong side,

looooooooong side,

short and short.

 

For star we use Twinkle, Twinkle.

For heart I like to use the Christian song:

I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart! (where?)

Down in my heart! (where?)

Down in my heart! 

I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart (where?)

Down in my heart to stay.

(Repeat replacing "joy" with "love" and then "peace that passes understanding")