Casey, B., Goodrow, A., Schiro, M., & Anderson, K. (2002). Teeny visits Shapeland. Chicago, IL: The Wright Group/ McGraw-Hill.

This description of the book is excerpted from the article written by Casey, B., Kersh, J. E., & Mercer Young, J. (2004). Storytelling sagas: An effective medium for teaching early childhood mathematics. Early Childhood Research Quarterly: Special Issue on Mathematics and Science, 19, 167-172.

 
"In Teeny Visits Shapeland, a pre-kindergarten and kindergarten book, the children meet Teeny the Turtle. After he learns that his body is round like a circle, he dreams about Shapeland where he makes many new shape friends. The stories and activities address many of the NCTM Pre-K-2 Focus Areas relating to geometry, and are designed to help children move beyond simply naming shapes, to understanding and identifying the properties of 2- and 3-dimensional shapes, and the relationship between them. The children are asked to explain and justify their thinking — for example, to tell how they sorted (e.g., straight or curved edges, corners or no corners), and to explain why some shapes may be grouped together into families.
 

As children describe, compare, and classify shapes, they begin to construct spatial concepts and develop generalizations or categories of shapes."

Comments from the classroom:

"After we completed this activity, it was snack time. As the children in my classroom went to get their snacks, they spontaneously began to notice and comment on shapes in our room. One girl commented that our tables are like circles with things cut out of them (the tables are indented at each child's place). Another child said that a banana made a semi-circle. She borrowed another banana to make a circle! And finally, one child took the hexagon from the set of pattern blocks, and commented that it was like a circle, but it had corners."

 
 

Click Here to View an Example of an Activity

From Teeny Visits Shapeland

 

  

Click Here for Information on Ordering Teeny Visits Shapeland

 

  

Here is a Sample Activity for you to use

 

Click on the images below for information on each of the books in the 'Round the Rug Math series: