Look For Circles Day – they’re everywhere!

No one knows how this started, but in the United States, 2 November is 'Look for Circles Day', and it’s a great way to remember that finding shapes in our environment is a fun and stimulating activity to share with your child, anywhere, any time.  

Circles are everywhere: car wheels, plates, buttons. Your little one will have fun finding circles in their environment with you. Identifying shapes lays a foundation for recognising letter shapes later on. Children naturally see connections in their environment, and you can encourage this too by pointing out shapes when you see them whilst out and about, or when playing with your child. For example, “look at the shape of your train track, it’s made a circle”, and as they get older you can introduce letter names, “this part of your building has made the letter ‘L’”. If you have fun with this and point out shapes you see, your child will naturally want to copy you and do the same. They will be showing you shapes on your travels that you may not have noticed!  

Young children see things with fresh eyes almost every day. As adults, it's easy to get stuck into our routines and not notice the little things. Take some time this week to explore your home, street or local playground with a fresh perspective and talk about what you see with your child. It can be nice for you to look at your familiar environment in a new way too. 

Ask your friendly library staff for picture books about circles and dots, as there are lots to find. However, every book contains shapes in letters, so once you see them – share them!