When it comes to education, I am all into hands on fun. Geometry should be no different. Yes I can teach a circle and square by showing the kids a picture and having them copy it, but that is just not fun. I was thrilled when I found this shape game.When I opened the box, the first thing that struck me was the quality of the pieces. They are made of a heavy duty plastic that will stand up to a lot of uses. As for the cards, they are paper but made of a much thicker quality then most games.The game play is very simple. I have my girl start with the easies card. It was a square. On one side, it shows the pieces needed while on the other it shows how to assemble it. This is great for planning. It is important for kids to be all set up before they get started. I have them first select what they need and then they have to copy the picture. This is very straight forward and will teach the kids the basic shape through hands no touch. If this is not enough, on the bottom, it asks a question to test the logic. For example make this shape larger. The child now has to use different pieces to make a larger shape.My only issue, is that sometimes the connecters are a little loose. I would have like a product that snaps into place.The overall quality and durability of this product is amazing. It has been through a lot and still looks like new. I am very happy that kids can learn thorough hands on experiences geometry starting with the basic shapes and moving onto more advances 3-d shapes. It not only shows the kid what to do, but also tests some logic after the basics are mastered.

My kids love building shapes with it and I really like the activity cards for discussion points and challenges. They have fun and learn!

I received this product in exchange for my honest opinion - my opinions are still 100% my own!The Dive Into Shapes geometry building set comes with 114 building pieces and 15 double-sided, shape-building cards to challenge, inspire and encourage children to work on geometry skills. The cards included vary in difficulty and seemingly build on concepts learned from the other cards. My six-year-old thought this was the greatest set and set to work right away building as many shapes from the cards as she could. She really loved the three dimensional shapes and I loved watching her think through the process of how to get to the shape. Each brightly colored card tells the child the number of pieces required to build the shape, along with a clear photo. It also follows up with a post-build challenge – to change the size or think more broadly about the shape and what else you can do.Even my four-year-old was able to get in on the building action and enjoyed exploring her creative geometry side by building cubes, prisms and attempting a sphere. We had build-off challenges where the girls were each given the same pieces and challenged to make a particular shape.

Disclosure - free sample provided.Spring Break is almost here for my 7 and 9 year old. This is the perfect time for us to play with our learning toys. I like to find fun activities for my children, but I also love when they are educational. Learning Resources has a massive selection of items to make learning fun. They offer learning toys for all different levels, and for all different subject areas too.I received Learning Resources Dive into Shapes game. This is a game that is great for the classroom, but it's also great to use at home. My 7 year old wouldn't stop asking if she could open it. She is really interested in math, so this was perfect for her. The game comes with all the pieces you need to build a variety of different shapes. You can build single dimensional shapes or three dimensional shapes with these. It also includes a set of cards. The cards can be used to help teach your child how to build specific geometrical objects. The cards tell you how many of each piece you will need to create the shape. The cards also include a question that is something like What else in your world is the shape of the sphere? This really helps your child think about the shapes that are all around them.We put the Dive into Shapes game to use with my son's 3rd grade math homework. He had some questions in his math book that asked him to draw a 3 dimensional cube. He was having a hard time visualizing how to do this. I pulled out the Dive into Shapes pieces and we constructed the cube out of these. It really helped reinforce the concept and made it click!

Hands on! That says it all for me. I’m constantly looking for new and engaging ways to interest my students and get their ‘hands on’ items that will help them learn. So when the folks at Learning Resources sent me their new Dive into Shapes, I knew my students were going to go crazy over it.My little guys can never seem to get enough fine motor work, and if I can couple fine motor and working with shapes then I'm one happy teacher. Plus, look at all those bright fun colors. I have to admit, I couldn't resist diving in and working with these fun manipulatives. (It was actually a little bit addictive to tell you the truth.)Dive into Shapes comes with a ton of colorful curves and straight plastic pieces including connecting balls. These coupled with the playing cards included, had my kinder friends loving this activity during our learning stations. The easily manipulated the pieces and quickly got into the groove of replicating the different shapes on the cards.The cards provided just enough guidance for those that needed it, but also differentiated and extended learning by offering challenges beyond the basic shapes. As an instructor, I could quickly assess to see which of my students could easily replicate the pictures and identify those that really needed more practice.Since we had been studying 3D shapes as well, this activity was especially fun for students when I challenged them to make a cylinder, sphere, cube or cone (that was a tricky one).They loved the bright colors to make patterns and come up with their own designs and creations or just work off from some of the ones on the cards. This was definitely one of the quietest stations this go around as they seemed to engaged and were really concentrating on getting the pieces to fit 'just so.'

These are great. My kids loved them and I know my first graders will too

Nice. Easy to use.

With straight sticks and curves, your little one will love using their imagination to explore geometrical shapes. Whether they are making a hat, treasure chest, or castle, they will be exploring their shapes, using fine motor skills, and having a ton of fun. 15 double sided cards also provide suggested activities for you little one to help get them inspired.Love this set and recommend it.

Excellent toy for creative kids. A visual way to teach kids about geometry.

We love thinking toys and today my daughter made a person out of these.

I use these in my kindergarten classroom. My kids LOVE them. Always a favorite at free choice center. Plus it really helped me teach them the difference between plane shapes and 3D shapes. They learned how to count the pieces they needed and follow the directions on the cards to build shapes. They bring it up to me and say, Look! I built a cylinder! They could build hexagons, spheres, cubes, triangles, you name it. We built and compared shapes. All part of the more rigorous common core. Kids need hands on learning. This is an amazing learning tool.

My four kids (11, 8, 6 and 4) REALLY like this set! The sticks are flexible rubber, which allows you to more easily make shapes, but they don't stay together as well. Also, if the kids are just free-building (not following the designs on the cards), they sometimes have trouble with the holes on the balls being at the correct angle...like they are making a square and need the holes to be at a 90 degree angle and they are actually at a 45 degree angle. Not sure if that makes sense. Just a minor frustration for my 4-year-old. Overally a very fun building set!!!

These are great as a classroom center when introducing 3-dimensional shapes. They are also a popular activity during indoor recess. Great for first graders.

These are a great way to explore two dimensional and three dimensional shapes.

My kiddos ages (8, 10, and 13) are loving this set. They are having fun not only making the items on the picture cards but they are also having fun making their own creations. The only problem is that the set is really only enough for one kiddo to have fun and create at a time. Ideally I need about 4-6 of these sets to satisfy my kiddos building fun. I would highly recommend this set!!! It is fun, educational, and great for abstract thinking. My kiddos have been arguing over the set since we got it in the mail. I have to allot a certain amount of time per kiddo. I guess that is a good problem to have. I love hands on building sets.

The kids loved it

My son loves this set. We had a great time going through the cards and making the different shapes. It comes with about 30 different designs, (15 double sided cards), and they are a lot of fun. Highly recommended for kids into learning. Great introduction to geometry.

Great for geometric solids.

It is great.

My students love this product.