What shape do you imagine a square would adopt if smashed hard enough to tilt to one side? There’s a term for that tilting square. Known as the diamond to most of the kids, the exact name of this shape is Rhombus!
As the saying goes, “Every square is a rhombus, but not every rhombus is square.” Therefore, clearly expounding this to the kids can sometimes be a piece of labour. And this is where some fun and exhilarating activities can come into play!
These activities can elucidate the rhombus to the kid in a way that when they next see a kite, a signboard, or even a piece of jewelry, they would be able to facilely recall the rhombus shape which they learned, grasped, and retained through these activities.
Teaching the rhombus shape to preschoolers
Shapes are the foundation of many mathematical tasks, and children must see examples and learn the differences between them to identify them. Prekindergarten kids have already begun to adopt various mathematical behaviors that will help them enhance their numeracy skills.
Rhombuses appear in our daily lives in a variety of forms. We can see rhombus in various items, including playing cards, kites, jewelry, signs, and crystals. And therefore, it becomes imperative for little learners to identify the shape without calling it a square accurately!
During the early years of schooling, a child knows what a circle, triangle, and square look like, but to elucidate better and enlighten the kid to be aware of all the shapes is crucial right from the beginning. Hence, introducing the shape through some activities or daily use objects can help the preschoolers to a great extent.
Square vs. Rhombus: Bewildering?
A square has four equal sides, but so does a rhombus! When a square is tilted to a particular angle, it does look like a rhombus, and that is the reason why a lot of little learners are often confused between a square and a rhombus, and ultimately they end up calling a rhombus a square!
Most of the kids, when asked, either call a rhombus a square or a diamond. But it is crucial to know that a rhombus is a type of parallelogram with all sides equal, which will excite your Child’s interest. The difference between a square and a rhombus is that the angles in a square must all be perfect right angles, while the tips in a rhombus do not have to be precise. A right-angled rhombus forms a square as an outcome. However, teaching angles to little learners at the preschool level can be a bit exorbitant!
Then how would one differentiate between a square and a Rhombus without getting into too many technicalities?
Here are a few differences that make the Rhombus shape not only unique but different than a square too! Knowing these differences will help a little kid understand the distinction between both shapes.
Apart from this, a Rhombus shape can be explained to a preschooler by showing some everyday use items, like –
- Kites
- Jewellery
- Sign Boards
- Gardening tools
- Spear Blade
- Mats
- Tiles
- Cardigan Patterns
Activities to inculcate the rhombus shape
1. Memory Game
Arrange a variety of things of various shapes on the table. Show the kids objects that are rhombus-shaped. Hide the objects by covering the table with a cloth. Ask the youngsters to list the rhombus-shaped things they found and how many there were.
This activity would be a big step forward in helping the child identify and retain the properties of a rhombus. To make it even more exciting, educators and parents can take this activity to the next notch by asking questions like ‘why do you think this is a Rhombus-shaped item?’, or ‘Are you sure this is not a square, but a Rhombus?’ This way, the kid will try to give their explanation, which in turn clear their concepts about the particular shape. So rather than being just a guess-work activity, this will clear their basics about the Rhombus.
Apart from this, memory games encourage critical thinking, which aids in the development of children’s attention to detail. Other brain processes such as attentiveness, focus, and vision can improve by playing memory games. Visual recognition can enhance when playing memory games.
2. Sticky Note Wall Bop
Make ten little rhombus charts in various colors. One can take stick notes, which do look like a Rhombus when tilted angularly. Place these charts in random order on a door or wall. A few meters away from the door, draw a “start” line. With a softball or crumpled paper, have the kids stand behind it. Tell them to shoot their object at the “Green colored rhombus” or the “Red-colored rhombus.”
Alternatively, write different point values on each chart and give your child ten throws. So when the educator asks the kid to throw on a particular colored rhombus chart, and they successfully hit it, they get the point value mentioned on the chart. At the end of the game, add up the scores at the end of the round to determine a winner.
To make the activity more interesting, the stick note can be placed as a square and can be cut into different shapes like a rectangle, trapezium, rhomboid, and much more. Next, ask the kid only to shoot the ball on Rhombus-shaped sticky notes. This way, the child would have first to identify the rhombus-shaped charts and then make an aim.
3. Walk like a rhombus
This game will keep the kids moving and help them learn the shapes. All you have to do is draw different sizes of rhombus on the floor using chalk pieces. Ask the kids to stand on their favorite one as the starting point. Give them instructions to follow that will lead them to their next destination. For example: “Move to the smallest rhombus, hop like a frog to the largest rhombus, Run to the rhombus nearest to your right side.”
Another variation that can be brought to the game is by making different shapes with the chalk. A square, a rhomboid, a rectangle, and much more. To reach from the starting point till the ending point, the kid only has to step on rhombuses to reach the goal. If they step on any other shape, they are out of the game, or they lose a point or go back to the start. This will aid in identifying the shape and retaining it for a much longer time.
Drawing shapes that look like a rhombus, that is, a square or a rhomboid can make the child question themself, which makes the concept of the shape even more lucid and explicit in their minds.
4. Musical shapes
Make rhombus-shaped chart pieces with big letters and spread them around the room. Play some music while kids dance and then stop and call out one of the letters. Kids have to find the letter and sit down on it immediately.
If they pick the wrong one, have them do fun activities like five jumping jacks or frog hops or whatever age-appropriate movement you decide. Scaling this activity will help you know the concentration power of the kids.
Parents and educators can also mix other shapes to confuse the kids. This level-up would not be to bewilder the kids but to create an understanding of the shape in them. Basically, when from amongst different shapes, they pick out the rhombus shape with the correct letter, they are multitasking and understanding the shape even more explicitly.
5. Rhombus Hunt
This activity will help kids analyze their surroundings and increase their visual ability. Give the kids a notebook and pencil to write. Ask them to go around the room with the notebook and to note down the name of the item they find that corresponds with rhombus shapes. For example – Kite, earrings, cards, fish-shaped charts. They should return to you with a list of items you placed in the room.
For a better experience, draw rhombus-shaped items beforehand if there are no rhombus-shaped articles in the room. To scale up the activity, the kids can be given targets to collect ‘n’ number of rhombus-shaped items. For example: Collect any 10 rhombus-shaped objects that you see around the house in 10 minutes.
This will not only help them with identifying and clearly understanding the shape but will also help them work time-based which enhances so many skills like creative thinking, multitasking, executive functioning and much more.
6. Passing Game
This activity is a great fit for kids as by the end of the activity, it will have everyone giggling. Ask the kids to sit on the floor in a circle. Turn on some tunes and have them pass any object like a ball, cushion. When the music stops, the kid holding the cushion or the ball would have to name an object that looks like a Rhombus. If they are not able to, they would have to dance or sing a song. These activities can be decided by students themselves, or educators. But the whole idea is to make learning a fun process.
This activity encourages the students to think of items that look like a Rhombus, and then relate it with an object. This way, the comprehension of the shape becomes easy and long-lasting. Moreover, if they are not able to name any object, the activity they would be performing as a penalty would make this game a hit amongst them!
7. Touch-and-feel box
Look for any box with a lid. Make a hole in one of the box’s sides large enough for the youngsters’ hands to fit inside the box. Get creative and paint the box with glitter and question marks if you wish. Place jewelry, toy kites, spinning tops, or other rhombus-shaped things inside the box when you’re ready to play and have your kids guess what it is.
If they need to, they can question the item. You may make it competitive by awarding a point to the first kid who correctly names the object.
This activity can be carried out in another way. That is, by placing different shaped items in a box and then asking the kids to take out only the rhombus-shaped objects. This will broaden their understanding of the particular shape. Later, educators and parents can also question the kids as to why they took out this particular object, and why do they think it is a rhombus.
8. Visualize and draw
Draw rhombus shape on a chart or paper. Ask the kids to draw related objects they see in everyday life like fish, sunflowers, Kite, etc. While it is imperative to make the kids visualize, in order to enhance their thinking ability. To do so, one great wary would be to indulge them in visual games. To make the activity even more exciting, the parents and educators can ask kids to make different things in the shape of a rhombus. For example, draw a rhombus-shaped laptop, or a rhombus-shaped glass and bottle.
To make the activity more interactive and unique, you can ask the kids to draw something like: Draw a table, make 6 big rhombuses, 6 small, and color just 4 of them. This will help them comprehend the shape, and also help the little learners with numbers.
Conclusion
Shape and space are basic mathematical concepts that children should master. They must grasp the fundamental concepts, improve their existing knowledge, and learn to communicate what they have learned. Shapes may appear uncomplicated and straightforward, but they teach our children far more than we might expect. Teaching about shapes through activity, especially to little learners can act advantageously as these exercises are bound to keep them excited, hooked, and interested for a longer period. These activities can be conducted at home, birthday parties, daycares, tuitions and even at school. So make sure to host these activities whenever you are introducing the concept of the Rhombus to your little one! In case we missed an activity that you think would be fun to incorporate, do leave it in the comments below!
An engineer, Maths expert, Online Tutor and animal rights activist. In more than 5+ years of my online teaching experience, I closely worked with many students struggling with dyscalculia and dyslexia. With the years passing, I learned that not much effort being put into the awareness of this learning disorder. Students with dyscalculia often misunderstood for having just a simple math fear. This is still an underresearched and understudied subject. I am also the founder of Smartynote -‘The notepad app for dyslexia’,