These Circle Cut Outs will quickly give you templates for classroom decoration or student activities.
This triangle cut outs activity has children sort 12 shape cards and cut out big triangles. Made for Preschool to 2nd Grade, with an answer key included for quick checking.
This star cut outs activity lets PreK to 1st grade children count star points and sort star cards, then color and cut big stars. A practice page and answer key included.
This making new shapes activity helps K to 2nd grade students build and name composite shapes with cut-out pieces and self-check cards, answer key included.
Children sort shape cards into flat shapes and solid figures in this 2d 3d flat shapes solid figures activity for kindergarten to 2nd grade, with a practice page and answer key included.
This making shapes from shapes activity helps K through 2nd grade students build bigger shapes from triangles, rhombuses, trapezoids and squares. Answer key included.
This apple shape book activity lets K-2nd grade children color, cut out and write their own apple story on cover, picture and writing pages with kid-sized lines.
This matching shapes activity is a partner clue game for 1st and 2nd grade: hear clues about sides, corners and faces, name the shape, and race to FINISH. Answer key included.
This name that shape sorting activity lets PreK to 1st Grade students sort 25 colorful shape cards under five shape names, with a practice page. Answer key included.
This barn shape book activity helps K-2nd Grade children color, draw and write their own farm story, then cut out and staple the barn pages into a book to share.
Using this Defining Shapes Category Activity, students sort pictures of 2D shapes into the category that best describes which shape is shown.
This house shape book activity helps K-2nd Grade children color, draw and write their own story about home, then cut out and staple the house pages into a book to share.
These balloon cut outs give children big oval balloons to color, cut and turn into a birthday book or a pattern garland. A fun art and shapes activity for preschool to 2nd grade.
UsingDominoes Same Different Shapes Activity, students match dominoes by finding two shapes that are the same.
This boy shape book activity helps K-2nd Grade children color, draw and write their own story, then cut out and staple the boy-shaped pages into a book to share.
Using this Flower Shape Book Activity, your students can create quick and simple books about themselves or stories about flowers or Springtime.
This computer shape book activity helps K-2nd Grade children color, draw and write their own story about computers, then cut out and staple the pages into a book to share.
This comparing shapes sorting activity has kindergarten and 1st grade children sort 12 object picture cards by the solid shape they look like. Answer key included for easy checking.
This building objects with shapes activity has Kindergarten to 2nd Grade children build six flat shapes with crayons, then count sides and corners on a recording sheet. Answer key included.
Sides, corners and shape puzzles
First graders go beyond naming shapes. They learn what makes a shape that shape, called defining attributes: a triangle always has 3 straight sides and 3 corners, no matter its color or size. They put shapes together to make new ones, like two triangles making a square, and build 3D shapes from cubes and cones. They also split circles and rectangles into two and four equal parts and name them halves and fourths: 2 halves = 1 whole. The click moment comes when a child says "It's still a triangle, it's just upside down!"
Shapes click when kids build, break and talk about them. These moves do all three.
Give kids pattern blocks and ask them to make a hexagon using only triangles. Then try trapezoids. Building composite shapes shows that shapes can be combined, which leads straight to fractions.
Why it works: going from real objects to pictures to symbols is a core recommendation of the U.S. Department of Education's elementary math guide.
Try it withMaking Composite Shapes WorksheetWorksheetsOpen it →Show a composite picture, like a house made of a square and triangle, and ask kids to name every shape they see. They outline each one in a different color. It trains eyes to see parts inside a whole.
Why it works: pairing a picture with each word gives kids two ways to remember it, a well-tested principle of how people learn (Mayer, 2009).
Try it withLooking at Composite Shapes WorksheetWorksheetsOpen it →Flash 3D shape cards and have kids name the shape and one real object that matches. Quick daily checks keep cylinders and cones from mixing up.
Why it works: researchers who compared ten study methods found practice testing is one of the two that work best (Dunlosky and colleagues, 2013).
Try it with3D Shapes Word WallFlash CardsOpen it →Shapes are basically art supplies. Let's create!
WorksheetsKids create a picture using only shapes, then count how many of each shape they used.
Open Shape Art Worksheet →
ActivitiesCut out triangles and see how many new shapes you can make by putting them together.
Open Triangle Cut Outs →
VideosSing about three sides and three corners, then hunt for triangles around the room.
Open Triangle Song (Original Music Video) →Teacher favorites right now: Circle Cut Outs, Triangle Cut Outs and Star Cut Outs.
First graders work with 2D shapes like circles, triangles, squares, rectangles, trapezoids and hexagons, and 3D shapes like cubes, cones, cylinders and spheres. They focus on what makes each shape unique.
Defining attributes are features that make a shape what it is, like the number of sides and corners. Color, size and direction are not defining attributes.
A composite shape is made by putting two or more shapes together. Two squares side by side make a rectangle, and six triangles make a hexagon.
Yes, a little! First graders split circles and rectangles into two and four equal shares and use the words halves, fourths and quarters.
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