Prep: 8-10 Minutes / Activity Time: 5-7 Minutes

Playing with a flashlight is a lot of fun for babies. Imagine the fun your baby will have if you transform the light from the flashlight to a geometric shape! With this activity, you can expose your baby to shapes in an interactive, multisensory way.

  • flashlight
  • dark construction paper
  • scissors or craft knife
  • pencil

Step 1: Using the round lens of the flashlight, trace the circle end of the flashlight onto a piece of construction paper. Cut out about three to four circles.

Step 2: Cut out two to three shapes from the circle cutouts (e.g., circle, square, star).

Step 3: Take your child into a dim room that is dark enough for the flashlight to shine brightly. Let your child have fun exploring with the flashlight. Explain to him what the flashlight is and what he is seeing on the walls.

Step 4: Take the flashlight and hold up a cut-out shape in front of the flashlight to make the image appear on the wall. You may want to hold the shape up for a bit and take it away to see if your baby notices the difference. While the cut out image is up on the wall, explain to your baby what he is seeing and describe it. If you are showing him a triangle, you might say:

You are having so much fun with the flashlight! Look, now there is a triangle on the wall. Triangle.

Repeat activity until your baby signals that he wants another fun activity to do.