Preschool Activities: Learning with Shapes

Little Sister has been doing lots of preschool activities this past year. Our most recent preschool theme was learning with shapes. Shapes are all around us making it an easy topic to teach. It is also one of the first things kids learn about in school because of how easy it is to recognize in our everyday surroundings and is a skill used when they learn about letters and math.

Shape Graphics from www.mygrafico.com

One of the activities we did this year was a shapes busy bag for Little Sister to create things with. It’s a great way to encourage imagination and to think outside the box. She plays with it often , even Big Brother enjoys it. I love that is easy to make and clean up – perfect to take along to use while waiting at a restaurant or while on-the-go.

→ See how to make the Shapes Busy Bag.

Books about shapes:

*This post contains Amazon Affiliate links to the books items mentioned in this post.

To go along with the preschool shapes theme, we read the books Monster Knows Shapes and Shapes That Roll.

     

Shape books we own or have read in the past:

 
I purchased  The Learning Journey Match It! Shape Shuffle back when my son was 3 and he still pays with it at age 6. Now Little Sister plays with it all the time so it’s definitely has been worth buying (and it’s under $10!). Unlike the Shapes Busy Bag that we made, this create-a-shape activity uses pictures that the kids have to match. Some are easy, but some use multiple shapes requiring them to think about what gets placed there verses just matching a triangle or circle.

We collaborated with 4 other creative bloggers to bring you several ideas about the same theme all in one place.

Here are the learning with shapes posts from our preschool buddies:

Rachel, from I Heart Crafty Things read a fun book and then made a craft to match it.  Stop by to see which book about shapes they read including a pattern to make the related activity.  She also created a Shapes Memory Game that you may download for free to use with your little ones.

The kids from A Little Pinch of Perfect created a Build & Learn Shape Factory. Katie used it as a ‘building with intent’ activity and presented each step as a problem they had to solve. Be sure to head over to read the creative learning process she used to get her preschooler to think about what they were making.

Leslie from Pink Stripey Socks had fun learning about shapes using a DIY Cardboard Shapes Dice. They played both an indoor game and then headed outdoors for a giant version.

 

Handmade Kids Art did 3 shapes activities using 1 cardboard box: drawing, creating, and building. My favorite is the shape sculptures which are a great way to get the kids imagination going.

More Shape Activities from the Creative Preschool Collaborators:

Single Shape:

• Circle Frog
• Circle Panda
• Circle Polar Bear
• Circle Caterpillar Matching Activity
• My Heart is Like a Zoo
• Square and Cubed Shaped Bubbles

Multiple Shapes

• Touch and Find Shape Game
• Guess the Shape Scissors Practice
• Mouse Shapes
• Shaped Bubble Wands
• Felt Shapes
• Create, Build, and Play with Unconventional Materials
• Playing with Shapes on the Light Table