For toddlers and preschoolers, learning to recognize and understand shapes is a fundamental step in developing spatial awareness, problem-solving skills, and early math concepts.
This collection of engaging shape activities is designed to make learning fun and interactive for young children. From hands-on crafts to active games, these ideas will help little ones explore circles, squares, triangles, and more in exciting ways.
Let’s discover different shapes in the most playful and educational ways.
1. Super Simple Shape Sorting Activity
The Super Simple Shape Sorting Activity involves sorting various objects or cutouts into different shape categories. Students are presented with a selection of objects or cards representing different shapes such as circles, squares, triangles, and rectangles, along with labeled containers for each shape.
Learn more: Busy Toddler
2. Identifying Shapes on Snack
This unique and enjoyable approach combines the excitement of snacking with the fundamental skill of shape identification. By incorporating everyday items, we’ve transformed the process of recognizing shapes into a delicious adventure.
Learn more: We are Teachers
3. Driveway Shape Maze
Transforming the familiar space of a driveway into an interactive learning canvas, this activity brings shapes to life in a dynamic and engaging way.
Learn more: Creative Family Fun
4. Build a Truck
As children assemble and design their own trucks using various shapes, they actively engage with geometric concepts in a playful manner. This activity is not just about shapes; it’s about fostering teamwork, spatial awareness, and unleashing the joy of building.
Learn more: Little Family Fun
5. Shape Play dough Mats
Shape Playdough Mats are educational resources featuring outlines of various shapes printed on paper or cardstock. Shape Playdough Mats provide opportunities for students to explore geometric concepts and spatial relationships while manipulating the playdough to match the outlines of different shapes.
Learn more: Planes and Balloons
6. How to Make Craft Stick Shapes & Color Activity
This Activity involves creating shapes using craft sticks of different colors. It offers an interactive way for students to learn about shapes and colors.
Learn more: Surviving Teachers Salary
7. Make Amazing Square Bubbles!
This Activity involves creating square bubbles, also known as tensile bubbles, using a special solution and a frame. It offers a captivating way to explore the properties of bubbles and surface tension.
Learn more: Babble Dabble Do
8. Shape Pizza
Shape Pizza is a hands-on activity where students create pizzas using different shaped toppings. To make this DIY shape pizza, students can cut out various shapes from colored paper or felt to represent toppings like circles, squares, triangles, and rectangles.
Learn more: Mr. Thompson
9. Creative Shape Art Activities
These activities include cutting, coloring and sticking papers together to create unique artwork. .
Learn more: Teachers Mag
10. Shape Hunt
Students become shape detectives, armed with curiosity and a keen eye, while teachers get to witness the classroom morph into an interactive realm of learning.
Learn more: Nurture Store
11. Popsicle Stick Shape Mats
Popsicle Stick Shape Mats are educational tools featuring outlines of shapes printed on paper or cardstock. Students use popsicle sticks to outline or fill in the shapes, reinforcing shape recognition and spatial skills.
Learn more: Taming Little Monsters
12. Sticker Shapes Activity
The Sticker Shapes Activity involves using stickers to create various shapes and patterns. It offers a creative way for students to explore geometric concepts and develop spatial reasoning skills.
Learn more: Busy Toddler
13. 3D Shapes Mystery Bag
The 3D Shapes Mystery Bag activity involves placing various 3D shapes inside a bag, hiding them from view. Students then reach into the bag, feel the shapes, and try to identify them based on their tactile properties.
Learn more: Susan Jones Teaching
14. Shape Graphs
Shape Graphs are visual representations used to display data related to shapes. Students create graphs by counting and recording the number of different shapes according to the guide that the activity paper provides.
Learn more: Playdough Potato
15. Shape Monsters Art
Shape Monsters Art is a creative activity where students use basic geometric shapes to create imaginative monsters. Students select and arrange various shapes such as circles, squares, triangles, and rectangles to form the body parts of their monsters.
Learn more: Fantastic Fun and Learning
16. Shapes Hunt Sensory Bin
The Shapes Hunt Sensory Bin is an interactive activity where students explore a container filled with sensory materials such as rice, beans, or sand, along with hidden objects representing different shapes.
Learn more: Fun with Mama
17. Popsicle Sticks Shapes Puzzle
The Popsicle Stick Shapes Puzzle is a hands-on activity where students arrange popsicle sticks to form various geometric shapes. Teachers can provide students with a set of popsicle sticks and challenge them to create shapes such as squares, triangles, rectangles, and more.
Learn more: Toddler at Play
18. Shape Flashcards and Scavenger Hunt
The Shape Flashcards and Scavenger Hunt Preschool Activity combines visual learning with hands-on exploration. Students are presented with flashcards depicting various shapes such as circles, squares, triangles, and rectangles.
Learn more: Preschool Play and Learn
19. Sticky Shape Rainbow Activity
Imagine the joy of peeling off triangles, circles, and squares, arranging them in a spectacular arc of brilliance.
Learn more: Fun Learning for Kids
20. Shape Recognition Activity
Students are presented with fabric pieces representing different geometric shapes such as circles, squares, triangles, and rectangles.
Learn more: From Under Palm Tree
21. Magnetic Block Puzzles
Magnetic Block Puzzles are educational games consisting of magnetic blocks with various shapes and colors. Students use these blocks to solve puzzles by arranging them to match a given pattern or design.
Learn more: Little Learning Club
22. Giant Shape Art for Kids
Get ready for a colossal burst of creativity with “Giant Shape Art for Kids,” an adventure that turns ordinary shapes into larger-than-life masterpieces!
Learn more: Taming Little Monsters
23. Black Glue Shape Art
Black Glue Shape Art is a creative activity where students use black glue to outline and fill in shapes on paper or canvas. After allowing the glue to dry, students use watercolor paints or other coloring materials to fill in the shapes with vibrant colors, creating contrast against the black glue outlines.
Learn more: Taming Little Monsters
24. Easy Shape Sorting Sensory Bin
The Easy Shape Sorting Sensory Bin is a tactile learning activity where students explore a container filled with sensory materials such as rice, beans, or sand, along with objects representing different shapes.
Sort the objects based on their shapes by placing them into corresponding compartments or containers within the bin.
Learn more: Taming Little Monster
25. Free Shape Lacing Printable
Imagine intricate shapes waiting to be brought to life with colorful laces, turning learning into a dynamic and engaging experience.
Learn more: 3 Dinosaurs
26. Road Shapes
This is an educational resource consisting of printable templates depicting various shapes such as circles, squares, triangles, and rectangles arranged in the form of roads.
Learn more: Pre-K Pages
27. Tracing Shapes
This activity isn’t just about tracing lines; it’s an opportunity for students to hone their fine motor skills while discovering the intricacies of shapes.
Learn more: Teach Pre-school
29. Move and Learn Shapes with a Ball
Calling all students and teachers to step into the dynamic world where physical activity and geometry collide in a playfully educational adventure. Imagine this: a classroom buzzing with excitement as students use a ball to roll, bounce, and pass their way through the exploration of circles, triangles, and squares.
Learn more: Hands-on as we Grow
30. Finding Shapes at the Playground
This activity isn’t just about playtime; it’s a chance for students to explore geometry in their everyday surroundings, while teachers witness the playground become an interactive canvas of learning.
Learn more: Buggy and Buddy
31. Feed the Hungry Shapes Monsters
In this activity, you can create monster shapes from paper or cardboard and cut out mouth openings. Students are then provided with shape cutouts such as circles, squares, triangles, and rectangles, which they “feed” into the monsters’ mouths.
Learn more: The Imagination Tree
32. Learning Shapes with Spaghetti Noodles!
Learning Shapes with Spaghetti Noodles is a creative and tactile activity where students use cooked spaghetti noodles to create different shapes. Teachers can guide students to bend and arrange the noodles into shapes such as circles, squares, triangles, and rectangles on a flat surface.
Learn more: Teaching Mama Org
33. Shape Sensory Squish Bag
A Shape Sensory Squish Bag is an interactive learning activity where students explore shapes through tactile sensory play. Teachers create the squish bag by filling a sturdy plastic bag with a clear gel or liquid substance and adding small shapes or confetti inside.
Learn more: Still Playing School
34. Stamping Shapes in Kinetic Sand
Stamping Shapes in Kinetic Sand is an engaging sensory activity where students use shape stamps to create impressions in kinetic sand.
Learn more: Still Playing School
35. Learning Shapes and Colors with Rainbow Rocks
Students sort and categorize the rocks based on their shapes and colors, identifying shapes such as circles, squares, triangles, and rectangles while also recognizing colors.
Learn more: Fun a Day
36. Learn About Shapes Using Paper Plates and Yarn
Calling all students and teachers to embark on a hands-on adventure that turns simple paper plates and yarn into a captivating lesson in geometry.
Learn more: Laughing Kids Learn
37. Floating Dry Erase Rainbow and Shapes Activities
This activity isn’t just about drawing; it’s an opportunity for students to engage with colors, practice shape recognition, and let their creativity flow like water.
Learn more: Active Littles
38. Shape Necklace Craft
Vibrant strings adorned with circles, triangles, and squares, creating a personalized necklace that doubles as a lesson in geometry.
Learn more: Buggy and Buddy
39. Foldable 3D Shapes
Foldable 3D Shapes are interactive tools used to teach students about three-dimensional geometric shapes such as cubes, prisms, pyramids, and spheres. Teachers provide templates or pre-printed cutouts of these shapes on paper or cardstock.
Learn more: Math Geek Mama
40. Shapes and Word Activity
A Shapes Word Shape activity is a word puzzle where students arrange letters to form words that are related to shapes. Teachers provide students with a set of letters, and students rearrange them to spell out words such as circle, square, triangle, rectangle, and more.
Learn more: Pre-K Pages
41. Blocks Painting
Blocks Painting is a creative art activity where students use wooden or foam blocks to create unique patterns and designs on paper or other surfaces. Teachers provide students with an assortment of blocks in various shapes and sizes, along with a selection of paint colors.
Learn more: Taming Little Monsters
42. Kandinsky Shape Art for Kids
Kandinsky Shape Art for Kids is a creative activity inspired by the abstract art of Wassily Kandinsky, where students use geometric shapes to create their own unique artwork.
Learn more: Messy Little Monster
43. Recycled Shapes Art
Recycled Shapes Art is a creative activity where students use recycled materials to construct artworks based on geometric shapes. Teachers provide students with a variety of recycled materials such as cardboard, paper tubes, bottle caps, and cardboard boxes.
Learn more: Moss wood Connection
44. Shape Button Sensory Bin
Prepare a bin filled with a tactile material such as rice, beans, or sand, and add various buttons in different shapes, sizes, and color.
Learn more: 3 Dinosaurs
45. Which Shape is Stronger
Teachers provide students with tall cardboard shapes such as cylinders, prisms, and rectangular prisms. Students then experiment with applying pressure or adding weight to each shape to observe how they respond.
Learn more: Science Sparks
46. Magic Disappearing Shapes
Teachers provide students with paper or cardstock and encourage them to draw or paint shapes using the watercolor markers or paint and wet them to disappear.
Learn more: Gift of Curiosity
47. Sticker Shapes Fine Motor Activity
First draw and color some shapes and then put stickers to the outer edge of each shape.
Learn more: Taming Little Monsters