Fun and easy play-based STEAM activity for toddlers, preschool & kindergarten
Creatures of Many Shapes - Fun science & arts experiment about shapes & symmetry
Activity summary
This is not JUST another science activity – it’s a play-based, hands-on STEAM activity. It will keep your children extra engaged & motivated, which helps them learn!
In this activity, your children will be little investigators helping Pi the investigator
to solve tricky problems and find creative answers to the question: What is symmetry? By doing that, they get to practice concepts like shapes, symmetry, and more.
Activity length: 20-30 minutes
Subjects: Science, Arts, Mathematics
Adapt for your age group
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For this activity, you need only these simple supplies:
paper
pencils
scissors
picture of a butterfly
body part printout
glue sticks
colored pencils
You can also use
pillows, mattresses or similar
background music
What will your children learn?
Your children will learn to:
Recognize and observe different shapes.
Classify body parts into groups.
Observe and compare the creatures while you familiarise yourself with the concept of symmetry.
Practice telling right from left.
Empathize with Pi’s situation.
Have fun with the experiment and its possibly surprising results!
while practicing these concepts:
shapes
symmetry
Instructions
Step 1: Introduce the problem with a story letter
Teacher introducing the reseach problem through the letter that arrived from Supraland
In this play-based activity, your children will lead the investigation as an investigator. When children role play as investigators, they learn so much better! Try starting with a little ‘spin’ to get into character!
Then, they can help Pi the investigator solve some tricky problems in their new role.
Before the activity, prepare your supplies and print the letter.
Pro tip:
When children play as scientists, they think like scientists. Try using “scientist jackets” to help them really get into character!
When you start the activity, introduce the research problem in the form of a letter that arrived from Supraland where Pi the investigator lives.
You might be wondering: “Why should I use a story?”
Well, when you introduce a research problem through play and imaginary characters rather than just stating cold facts, children will be extra motivated to solve the problem for their new imaginary friends. Academic research shows this results in increased engagement, better focus, and improved learning outcomes.
You can find the story for this activity below (register for free to print this & many more free activities!).
I was lying in the Secret Forest, looking at everything that surrounded me. The tree leaves and branches, stones, clouds, water droplets… I could see all kinds of shapes!
Suddenly I noticed that between the branches, a large round eye was observing me. After a while, another eye appeared, but it was angular and narrow.
What kind of peculiar creature is observing me? While I was pondering this, another creature started to come down the tree trunk. It sort of looked like a mouse. The creature’s other ear was as large as a leaf and the other as small as a young flower bud! It was waving its two different tails.
Hehe! These creatures are incredibly cute! Suddenly, I recalled a large-winged butterfly I’d seen on Earth; its wings were completely the same – symmetrical! These fancy creatures of the Secret Forest, however, are shaped quite differently. Could you investigate these fascinating shapes with me?
After the child understands the problem, it’s time for some hands-on experimenting!
When children are doing the experiment, remind them why they want to solve the problem – to help Pi the investigator.
This helps them stay engaged. If they get stuck, you can ask supporting questions like: “What do you think might help Pi the investigator to solve this problem?”
If needed, you can get more ideas for guiding questions and adaptation tips for different age groups
(register here to get free weekly activities).
Here are the basic steps for his activity:
Phase 1: Spot the Shapes
Lie on the ground or take any other comfortable position from where you can observe your surroundings.Tip: I If lying on the floor or calming down, in general, seems tricky or the group is restless, the adult can support the situation by enforcing the story and the mental image of Pi’s Secret Forest. Lying on comfortable pillows or mattresses may help the scientists to focus. If possible, you can also put on some calming background music.
Observe the room you’re in and spot different shapes.
Can you spot something round in the room?
Can you spot something angular?
Can you find a circle?
Can you find a square?
Next, you can do some counting.
How many circles can you find in the room?
How many squares?
How many triangles?
Phase 2: Peculiar Creatures
Draw separate eyes, mouths, noses, ears, and other body parts for the creatures on small pieces of paper. Cut out the parts if necessary. OR Take out the printed and cut body part pictures.
Spread the illustrated or self-drawn body parts on the table or the floor.
Classify the body parts into different groups: eyes into one pile, noses into another and so on. Continue like this until you have classified all the parts into the specified groups.
Create your own creatures! Tip: If you want to, you can turn all the eyes, mouths etc., face down on the table and pick the parts for the creature randomly. You can make it into a fun game where everyone takes turns and gets to pick one part out of the piles.
Create and assemble a creature out of the parts on paper. When you’re ready, glue the parts. Finalize the creature by drawing or coloring in the possibly missing parts.
Phase 3: Symmetry
Observe a picture of a butterfly together: What kind of observations can you make about the wings? What colors do you see? What shapes do you see?
If you fold the picture of the butterfly along the middle, what kind of observations can you make about its sides? At this point, you can also use the terms left and right.
State that both sides of the butterfly are entirely similar, in other words, symmetrical.
Next, observe the creatures you made. Are these creatures symmetrical? How could we find out? Discuss different ways to figure it out. For example, you can fold the created creature along its middle and compare the sides or cover the other side of the creature with your hand and compare what you see.
Conclude: the creatures are asymmetrical.
Pro tip: give children the freedom to get creative and explore their own solutions!
Remember: It’s an imaginary world. It’s more than ok if children don’t give the “correct” answers right away – give them time to practice their skills.
Academic research shows children learn best through child-led play and inquiry rather than following strict instructions or memorizing facts because play allows them to build meanings and connections in an age-appropriate way.
This perhaps unintuitive approach is also proven to keep children more engaged and improve their learning outcomes.
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Adult wrapping up a play-based activity by encouraging children to share their findings with the character they’re helping.
To encourage children to analyze and share their learnings, you can gather in a circle to report to Pi the investigator.
Again, lead with the problem the character was experiencing in the letter. Encourage sharing wild and creative solutions without correcting children if they don’t fully understand the concept.
Remember: in playful learning, we’re not leading with scientific explantions – we’re putting the problem at hand into a context that makes sense to them. We can start building meanings from there.
Scientific explanation (for adults!)
Symmetry means that different sides of a subject are alike or look similar. At its simplest, you can prove symmetry by folding a picture of the observed subject along its middle, placing a mirror along the fold and comparing the mirrored image and the subject with each other. If the subject and the mirror image are similar, you can say the observed subject is symmetrical.
Symmetry is common in nature, and it also helps animals and plants to defeat challenges in their habitat. For example, it is easier for a butterfly to fly when its wings are similar. Also, a tree will more likely stay rooted if its branches grow symmetrically.
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This program is incredible. The characters, the stories, the experiments are so much fun. I do not need to spend any time planning. Everything I need is given to me be Kide Science.
Elsa
Kindergarten Teacher
Super easy to plan, and the items are usually things that we already have. Planning is made very easy & the children are very motivated!
Marju
Parent
Was just observed doing one of these lessons. Principal was shocked and so was I - one of the kids with pretty severe attention issues was engaged the entire time!
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Activity length: 20-30 minutes
Subjects: Science, Arts, Mathematics
60 min lesson
Medium prep.
Easy preparation
