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.

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.

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

It is great.

Great for geometric solids.

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.

I use this in therapy sessions (OT) with the kiddos and they love it!

My students love this product.

I've used these in my older preschool classroom and they love them! At this age best it was best with small groups of children and guided instruction. Once shown how to put them together, many were able to do it. Many were able to count how many blue or pink sticks, spheres and put simple shapes together. It also allowed me to challenge naturally gifted students. Just all around great for fine motor manipulation. The adults have fun with them toO! LOVE THESE!

The kids love them!

Bought them for a center in my kindergarten classroom. My students LOVE them! Im going to have to get more because this set didn't really have enough pieces for three student to play with at a time.