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Shapes Activities

28 shapes activities. Teacher favorites: Circle Cut Outs and Triangle Cut Outs. How teachers use these

Shapes Activities

28 shapes activities. Teacher favorites: Circle Cut Outs and Triangle Cut Outs. How teachers use these

Activity
ActivityKindergartenCircle Cut Outs

These Circle Cut Outs will quickly give you templates for classroom decoration or student activities.

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ActivityPreschoolTriangle Cut Outs

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.

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ActivityPreschoolStar Cut Outs

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.

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ActivityKindergartenMaking New Shapes Activity

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.

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ActivityKindergarten2D 3D Flat Shapes Solid Figures Activity

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.

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ActivityKindergartenMaking Shapes From Shapes Activity

This making shapes from shapes activity helps K through 2nd grade students build bigger shapes from triangles, rhombuses, trapezoids and squares. Answer key included.

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ActivityKindergartenApple Shape Book Activity

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.

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ActivityKindergartenDefining Shapes Category Activity

This defining shapes category activity has K-1st grade students sort shape cards onto shape mats by their defining attributes, with a practice page and answer key included to build strong shape sense.

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Activity1st GradeMatching Shapes Activity

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.

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ActivityPreschoolName that Shape Sorting Activity

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.

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ActivityKindergartenBarn Shape Book Activity

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.

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ActivityPreschoolK.G.2 Common Core Activity

Using K.G.2 Common Core Activity, students name and sort shapes on cards to learn shape names and attributes.

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ActivityKindergartenHouse Shape Book Activity

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.

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Activity3rd GradeArea and Perimeter Pirate Activity

This area and perimeter pirate activity has 3rd to 5th graders solve rectangle cards and match each pirate to the ship with the right answer and units. Answer key included.

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ActivityPreschoolBalloon Cut Outs

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.

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ActivityPreschoolDominoes Same Different Shapes Activity

UsingDominoes Same Different Shapes Activity, students match dominoes by finding two shapes that are the same.

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ActivityKindergartenBoy Shape Book Activity

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.

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ActivityPreschoolFlower Shape Book Activity

Using this Flower Shape Book Activity, your students can create quick and simple books about themselves or stories about flowers or Springtime.

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ActivityKindergartenComputer Shape Book Activity

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.

From our teachers' playbook

Circles, squares and a whole lot of corners

What do kids learn about shapes?

Shapes start simple and get smarter every year. Little ones name circles, squares, triangles, rectangles and ovals, then learn the difference between flat 2D shapes and solid 3D shapes like cubes, spheres, cones and cylinders. In 1st and 2nd grade, kids count sides and corners (vertices) and meet pentagons and hexagons: hexagon = 6 sides, 6 vertices. Older students sort quadrilaterals and classify shapes by their angles and parallel sides. The click comes when kids realize a square turned on its corner is still a square, not a "diamond"!

Our favorite ways to teach shapes

Kids learn shapes by seeing them, touching them and finding them everywhere.

Sing the shapes

Play the Shapes Song and have kids draw each shape in the air as it is sung. Follow up by tracing the shapes with a finger on the carpet or desk. Movement plus music makes the names stick.

Why it works: a catchy, repeating tune gives the brain a hook to hang words on, so sung text is remembered better (Wallace, 1994).

Shapes SongTry it withShapes SongSongsOpen it →

Sort by sides

Give kids a pile of shape cut-outs in different sizes and turned different ways. They sort them by number of sides, not by how they look. Kids discover that a skinny triangle and a wide one are both triangles.

Why it works: kids understand an idea best when they touch it, then draw it, then write it, the order the U.S. Department of Education recommends for elementary math.

Sorting Shapes WorksheetTry it withSorting Shapes WorksheetWorksheetsOpen it →

Flash and name

Flash a shape card and have kids name it and say how many sides it has. Mix in rotated and stretched shapes so they don't rely on just one picture. Quick rounds every day build fast recognition.

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).

Shapes Flash CardsTry it withShapes Flash CardsFlash CardsOpen it →

What's on this page

Teacher favorites right now: Circle Cut Outs, Triangle Cut Outs and Star Cut Outs.

Questions parents and teachers ask about shapes

What shapes should a preschooler know?

Most preschoolers learn circle, square, triangle and rectangle first, then oval, star and heart. By kindergarten, many also start naming 3D shapes like cubes and spheres.

What is the difference between 2D and 3D shapes?

2D shapes are flat, like a circle drawn on paper. 3D shapes are solid and take up space, like a ball (sphere) or a box (cube).

What are vertices?

Vertices are the corners where two sides meet. A triangle has 3 vertices and a square has 4. On 3D shapes, vertices are the points where edges meet.

How can I teach shapes at home?

Go on a shape hunt: clocks are circles, doors are rectangles, slices of pizza are triangles. Building with blocks and cutting shapes from paper are great too.