Teaching shapes preschool does not need to be boring. This theme can be fun and interactive to teach. When we get children to use their hands, they make concrete connections in their brains. Plus, when children are engaged, typically behaviors can be minimized, and real learning occurs. Teaching shapes can happen daily in the classroom; however, taking a week and focusing on shapes can help boost the education and awareness of shapes in our environments. Once you start highlighting the object’s shapes preschool your students will pick up the recognition skill and start expressing to you which toys resemble which shape.
Shapes Posters
Shapes posters are a great way of using class decor as a means of teaching skills. Children can look at the poster and learn more independently. Books and toys in the class are other tools to help with showing shapes. Some items in the class that can help teach shapes are duplo blocks, magnet tiles, and books. When we use daily meaningful items we make a solid connection in our students’ brains to the topic being taught. I love it when I can boost my teaching efforts and see true connections being made and children learning new skills. Shapes are all around us and showing children that awareness can be the one thing that creates the connections.
Shape Matching Activities
There are many options when it comes to shape matching activities. I like to use multiple activities to help boost engagement and keep the learning level fun. Some fun methods for teaching shape recognition skills are file folder games, matching activities, spin and graph, and I spy. These simple and fun activities help those needing more time to see and be more familiar with the various shapes.
The I Spy game will help teach decoding skills by looking to identify the shapes. Also, the children can use the posters if they are decorated around the classroom to help identify the various shapes. When using shape matching activities I like to use a variety of these tasks to keep the engagement and limit boredom. When using these types of activities I will start with labeling the shapes that I see and then start asking the children what shapes they see. This teaching style can help foster communication skills and work on the main task of recognition and matching skills.
shape activities for pre k
Shape activities for pre k can be interactive and help children build on other skills through a new theme. Some other interactive activities that I love to add are building with playdough or popsicle sticks and tracing. When you give children tools to make and create in this case shapes we use more areas of the brain, and work on fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, and communication skills.
When using playdough the children can start by making the outline of the shape or build the whole shape. The playdough shape cards can help give a visual aid to use to make the shape with the preferred media. The popsicle sticks also have similar mats to help teach how to build that shape. I like to use colored sticks for this activity to see how each stick is a step in making the shape.
The tracing activities help teach hand control and work on how to hold a writing utensil to create meaningful marks. Tracing is another form of building shapes that calls on more brain connections and helps to teach handwriting skills. I like to use dry-erase markers for these tracing activities, at first, to help teach the proper hand movements in a less stressful manner. If a mistake is made we can easily erase it and start over again. This model gives the students more confidence to try the tracing when they know they can fix a “mistake” when needed. I use the dry-erase markers until I think they can try with another writing tool like a pencil or marker.
When we talk about shapes preschool, we are teaching children important skills that will be used later in life. When we do shapes activities it is easy to incorporate color knowledge into the theme. Teaching shapes can help children learn basic math concepts and if you graph children’s favorite shape or a spin and graph the shape it can also build counting skills.
shape learning activities
The shapes preschool theme can help teach this fundamental skill in a creative and hands-on fashion. It is our job as teachers and parents to make learning fun and natural. Click the image below to learn more about this theme.
I also like to teach colors during the shapes preschool theme. Here is the link to the Colors blog post.
Related Links:
Pinterest Shape Activities https://www.pinterest.com/pin/168462842284900651/
My Bored Toddler https://myboredtoddler.com/shapes-activities-for-toddlers/
Shapes Activities for Preschoolers https://www.pinterest.com/personalizednamebooks/shapes-activities-for-preschoolers/
Messy Little Monsters https://www.messylittlemonster.com/2024/03/shape-activities.html
Etsy Store: https://teachingthetotflock.etsy.com/listing/1530063037
