boy playing in a cardboard boxInvestigations

Materials:

  • a few empty boxes, such as a cereal box, facial tissue box, cardboard box
  • paper
  • pencil

Unfold one of the boxes with your child and then flatten the box.
Your box might look something like this.

flattened box with four rectangular sections and two square sections

Help your child examine the flattened box; ask them to identify the different shapes. Have your child label the shapes and count how many there are.

For example, your child might see 4 rectangles and 2 squares.

Show your child another box that hasn’t been flattened yet.
Ask them to predict which shapes they will see and the number of shapes they will see when they flatten the box. They could also draw what they think the flattened box will look like.

Help your child to flatten the box to see if they were right. Try it again with another box.

Adapted from Mathies.