For toddlers who know their shapes, this art activity is a fun next-step up, getting them to think about how shapes link together to form familiar objects.

To start, I cut out various shapes from multiple colors of construction paper, including hearts and diamonds, as well as familiar favorites like rectangles and triangles.

Now, guide your toddler through turning these various shapes into things they see in the world. If I put down a square, could she put a triangle on top to make it the roof of a house?

She could! I talked her through what other shapes we might see around a house, like a smaller square for the door, or a circular sun in the sky. The concept was easiest for her if I squirted glue down in a corresponding shape first. So if she saw a circle of glue, she could glue down a circle of paper.

Now she had a moon in her city sky! The same was true as I coached her through triangular mountains or tall rectangles for city buildings.

Of course you can also just let your toddler have fun and glue the shapes wherever he or she wants to! Veronika did a bit of this, too, adding her own creative stamp to the project.

We ended up with a fun variety of scenes, including one that looked like a city at night and another that resembled a mountain landscape.