Digital Geometry Play
Exploring Shapes with 'Hey Diddle Diddle' in Google Slides
The role of early childhood educators in presenting accurate foundational knowledge and content is critical. We have a responsibility to help students build a clear understanding, while identifying and challenging misconceptions that may have already begun to form in their first years of life.
We see this as children enter school with a variety of exposure to mathematical concepts. For example, many children enter kindergarten with a basic understanding of shapes. As we take time to carefully evaluate their prior knowledge, we often find that students may only recognize shapes when they are in their most commonly represented form, orientation, or size. Very early on, young children have often developed limited schemas about shapes and their attributes. If we miss the opportunity to provide clarification and accurate information in the early years, this will impact their understanding of deeper geometric concepts over time.
Among the challenges that we encounter as we seek to clarify and deepen understanding is the necessity to provide an abundance of high quality spatial experiences for students throughout the course of the year. Addressing this challenge requires educators to expand opportunities to explore content in as many ways as possible. We see this as a valuable entrypoint to balance digital representation and exploration of shapes alongside concrete and pictorial manipulatives and experiences.
Hey Diddle Diddle: The Cow Jumped Over the Shapes Google Slides Activity
The nursery rhyme Hey Diddle Diddle provides many wonderful learning opportunities across content areas in kindergarten. As we weave this playful rhyme into learning and play throughout the week, we introduce this Chromebook activity inviting children to explore their understanding of shapes in this creative digital format.
In this activity, students create their own individual “books” in Google Slides as they learn to insert a shape, orient it in the proper position in relation to the cow, and change the color (some students are ready to learn how to change the size as well). They are challenged to use their knowledge about shape attributes as they select and insert a shape that matches the sentence on the page.
Student Creations as Formative Assessment
When students are finished, they put their slides in SlideShow mode and practice reading their completed book. This serves as an excellent formative assessment as teachers listen to students read and prompt children with the following questions to check for accuracy and understanding:
Does the shape have curved or straight sides?
If it has curves, would it roll like the wheel on a bike?
How many straight sides does it have?
How many points does it have?
Is it open or closed?
Does your shape match the sentence?
Student books may also be printed out or shared with families digitally using the Publish to the Web option in Google Slides.
More ways to learn and play with Hey Diddle Diddle:
The Cow Jumped Over the Shapes in Google Slides with Bonus Extension Activity
Support learning at home with caregivers by offering these nursery rhyme inspired experiences including Hey Diddle Diddle and more: Nursery Rhymes, Songs, and Stories Playing with Words Boards Collection