Fall Shapes Games for Preschoolers
Learning shapes is a must in every early childhood classroom. I’m here to share with you my new shapes game! Shape activities for preschoolers come in all shapes and sizes (pardon my pun) but this fall shapes game for preschoolers has an added seasonal twist that makes it loads of fun! Plus, there are over six different ways to play the same game, making this a really versatile learning game!
For even more math activities for preschoolers, we have a BIG list of our favorite math games for preschool learning!
How to Teach Shapes to Preschoolers
One of the first math concepts that preschoolers learn is identifying shapes and colors.
Shapes are everywhere in your preschooler’s world. Learning shapes not only helps children identify and organize visual information, but it also helps children in cross curricula areas, too.
For example, a pre-reading skill that comes even before letter identification is shape recognition. Many letter shapes are very similar, so being able to quickly identify their subtle differences in shape means preschoolers can learn to identify their names and sounds that much faster.
The same holds true for learning the shape of numbers.
Preschoolers learn shapes from a young age. Through play-based activities, they naturally learn many basic shape concepts that prepare them for more advanced shape activities and formal lesson plans.
For example, preschoolers will:
- learn shape names
- build shapes
- match shapes
- differentiate shapes
- learn specific character traits of shapes
- find and identify shapes in everyday items
- manipulate shapes to create new ones
Simple Fall Shapes
Who knew fall shapes could be so fun? These fall pattern block mats encourage your preschooler to combine and manipulate pattern block shapes to create fall favorite objects! From acorns to sunflowers, these fall pattern block mat cards are so great for spatial reasoning and fall math fun.
Shape Manipulatives for Preschoolers
Like any preschool activity, you can get by with minimal materials for teaching shapes. In fact, you could get by on just a few sheets of construction paper.
But preschoolers also respond to variety. They like using different materials, and sometimes new life can be added to an old activity simply by switching out the manipulative being used. From pattern blocks to 3D shape manipulatives, a tiny bit of variety can be hugely helpful in the preschool classroom.
Here are some of our most popular shape manipulatives for preschoolers:
Shape Lesson Plans for Preschoolers
My Shapes Preschool Math Unit includes everything you need to teach beginning geometry and shapes in preschool math!
It gives you the lesson plans and the centers, as well as smaller daily math activities to keep your students learning.
Not only will your preschoolers learn how to identify basic shapes, but they will also develop spatial awareness skills. From matching and sorting to graphing shapes and tracing, your preschooler will gain a strong foundation in geometry with these lesson plans.
With four complete weeks of lesson plans, over 36 hands-on activities, and eight printable preschool centers, your preschooler will love math, too!
Shape Games for Preschoolers
This is a really fun shape activity that teaches so many shape skills! The added bonus to this particular game is that it can be played in multiple ways. Your preschooler might start playing one way, but after a bit of practice may need something more challenging.
What’s Included
This fall shape game includes a printable board game that teaches shape names, shape recognition, and includes fun movement while playing!
Additional Materials
You likely already have everything you need to play! You’ll need a die and game markers (we used faux leaf erasers) to play this game.
The Set Up
Print the game board and grab your materials (dice and game markers). Then get ready for some fun shape play!
How to Play Fall Shapes Game
Play is simple, and with different variations of the game, it’s an effective way to teach shapes to preschoolers because it can target so many different skill levels.
To play, select a player to go first. Roll the dice, identify the number, and then move the corresponding number of spaces. If the player lands on a shape, they must identify it. But if the player lands on a leaf shape or a blank space, nothing happens. Land on a “bonus throw” space, they get an extra turn!
It’s as simple as that.
The directions above are the most basic form of how to play, but in reality, you can get so many more shape activities for preschoolers out of this one game. Here are some more ideas.
When a player lands on a shape, they then have to:
- find an object in the room of the same shape
- draw the shape on a pad of paper
- find another shape on the game board just like it
- count the number of sides
- make the shape with their body
Fall Shape Activities
Why not keep the shape fun going with more fall shape activities? We have hand-picked some of our favorite fall shape printables, puzzles, and task cards for you to use all season long to practice shapes.
- Farm Theme Shape Activities
- Apple Shape Puzzles
- 2D Shape Scarecrow Printable
- Fall Sorting Shapes Printable Tree
- Fall Geoboard Task Cards
Fall Shape Crafts
You’ll ‘fall’ in love with these shape crafts that are perfect for celebrating the beauty of fall and all while learning shape names and shape recognition.
Fall Books for Preschoolers
From pumpkins to apples and fall trees galore, these fall books for preschoolers are full of seasonal facts and photographs that make learning visual and exciting.
Free Printable Shapes for Toddlers
Learning shapes is an important skill for toddlers too! These shape activities for toddlers make learning shape names simple to prep and oh so engaging!
Plus, our play dough shape mats for the entire year include over 250 printable pages for themes throughout the year! And our daily lessons in shapes are the perfect lesson plans to start teaching shapes to your preschoolers.
Get your Fall Shapes Game Here
Think this fall shapes game is a good one to add to your other preschool shapes activities? Answer: you bet it is! Click the image below and the PDF will be sent to your email.
More Shape Activities for Preschoolers
I’m Sarah, an educator turned stay-at-home-mama of five! I’m the owner and creator of Stay At Home Educator, a website about intentional teaching and purposeful learning in the early childhood years. I’ve taught a range of levels, from preschool to college and a little bit of everything in between. Right now my focus is teaching my children and running a preschool from my home. Credentials include: Bachelors in Art, Masters in Curriculum and Instruction.