Preschool Math Lesson Plans for Shapes
From the round sun to the square blocks kids play with, shapes are all around us. Learning about shapes is one of the foundational building blocks for math, which is why it’s so important for young kids to learn about them. The preschool math lesson plans for shapes offers practical strategies to make learning fun and engaging for young children.
This guide will show you fun and easy ways to teach shapes to preschoolers. Shape lessons will become a fun and important part of your math activities for preschoolers. Let’s shape young minds together!
Learning about shapes is more than just knowing what a circle or square looks like. It’s the foundation for kids to think creatively, solve problems, and understand the world around them.
Research shows that early exposure to shapes helps kids develop important skills like problem-solving and creative thinking, which are useful for school and everyday life.[source]
From a young age, children are naturally curious about shapes. They start to notice the differences between round balls and square blocks. Helping them explore and understand shapes in a fun way is key.
These shape lesson plans will help you easily create engaging activities that help your preschoolers or kindergarteners become shape experts!
How Do Preschoolers Learn About Shapes?
Preschoolers are primarily tactile and visual learners. This means they learn best by interacting with the world around them rather than through abstract concepts. This hands-on approach is particularly effective when it comes to understanding shapes.
Here are some strategies that are specifically applicable for preschoolers:
- Sing Songs and Rhymes: Singing songs and rhymes that incorporate shapes is a fun and catchy way for young children to learn.
- Use Manipulatives: Provide children with manipulatives, such as blocks, playdough, and shape sorters, to help them explore shapes in a tactile way.
- Read Books: Reading books that focus on shapes is a great way to introduce new vocabulary and concepts. Additionally, books with “look and find” shapes are a fun and excellent way to practice shape recognition and identification.
- Play Games: Play games that involve shapes, such as shape bingo or matching games.
- Get Moving: Incorporate movement activities into your lessons, such as having children trace shapes with their bodies or sort shapes by moving around the room.
What Shapes Should a Preschooler Know?
Preschoolers typically begin their exploration of shapes with the most basic forms: circles, squares, triangles, rectangles, and ovals. These are the foundational shapes that children easily recognize in their everyday environment. For instance, a plate is round (circle), a book is rectangular, and a slice of pizza can resemble a triangle.
Preschoolers are ready to tackle more complex shapes as their cognitive abilities develop. Hexagons, with their six sides, and diamonds (or rhombuses), with their four equal sides, present a slightly higher level of challenge. These shapes can be introduced in a playful and engaging manner, encouraging children to identify them in objects in their environment or in nature.
It’s important to note that while this is a general guideline, individual children may progress at different rates. Some may grasp more complex shapes earlier, while others may need more time to solidify their understanding of basic shapes.
Shapes Preschool Math Lesson Plans
Effective shape lesson plans incorporate various activities that cater to different learning styles. Include hands-on exploration, games, songs, and art projects to make learning engaging and enjoyable.
Our Daily Lessons in Preschool Shapes Unit is a collection of activities designed to spark young minds’ curiosity about geometry. Preschoolers will learn to identify basic shapes and better understand their properties through hands-on exploration. These interactive experiences foster critical thinking as children discover the characteristics and attributes of different geometric figures.
These shape lesson plans are created for preschool programs that run five days a week. However, you can easily adjust them for shorter programs by picking and choosing activities to fit your schedule.
Shapes Activities For Preschool
If you are looking to incorporate shape learning into your preschool curriculum, be sure to prioritize engaging, hands-on activities aligned with children’s developmental levels.
When searching for shape activities, consider the following key elements:
- Alignment with learning objectives: Ensure the activities support the desired learning outcomes, such as shape identification, attribute recognition, and spatial reasoning.
- Child-centered approach: Select activities that encourage exploration, discovery, and problem-solving.
- Variety of materials: Incorporate diverse materials to cater to different learning styles and interests.
- Differentiation: Provide individual and group work opportunities to accommodate varying skill levels.
Our Daily Lessons in Preschool Shapes Unit includes several hands-on lessons that help with shape recognition, learning shape attributes, and using pattern blocks to build spatial awareness and create 2D shapes.
Check out several of the unit activities highlighted here:
Discovery Activities/Math Photo Cards
Discovery activities are super fun! Every week, you can look at a real picture or drawing. These cards feature real-world images of objects in different shapes. Children can identify the shapes within the pictures, enhancing their observation skills and understanding of shapes in context.
Daily Dip
The Daily Dip is a quick and easy way to reinforce what your kids have already learned. As you look through these review lessons, you’ll find helpful tips to make teaching even easier. This approach involves incorporating shape-related activities into daily routines. For example, during snack time, children can identify the shapes of their food items. This helps reinforce shape recognition in a natural and engaging way.
Teach and Engage
This strategy focuses on direct instruction combined with interactive activities. You can introduce new shapes through stories, songs, demonstrations, and hands-on exploration. Each day brings a brand-new lesson packed with exciting things to learn.
Shape Centers for Preschoolers
Shape centers are like fun play areas for kids to learn! We’ve got lots of cool things for preschoolers to play with and sort. It’s great for them to learn on their own, but it’s always good to have a grown-up nearby just in case.
Some fun Shape Center activities include:
Shape Formation Mats
For this activity, provide children with shape-formation mats and manipulatives. Imagine big pieces of paper with different shapes drawn on them. Give kids some cool stuff like blocks, buttons, or small toys. Let them go wild and fill up those shapes with whatever they like! It’s like creating their own shape puzzles.
Shape Clip Cards
These cards feature outlines of shapes that children can fill by clipping corresponding objects. You’ll need things that match those shapes, like round buttons or square blocks. Kids can clip the right shapes onto the cards. It is a fun matching game!
This is a super fun shape activity, especially for your train enthusiasts!
Piece the train shapes together to create one long train on the table. Then roll the number and shape die to move your counter along the train, identifying shapes as you go. Play continues until all players get to the end of the train…and then you can play again! Choo-choo!
Shape Puzzles
Children are invited to identify a gray shape and then find the matching puzzle piece with the same colorful shapes. This center also offers a great opportunity for children to make their own puzzles by drawing the shapes and creating matching pieces.
Everyday Shapes I Spy
Go on a shape hunt! Look around your classroom or outside and find shapes everywhere. There might be round clocks, square windows, or even triangle-shaped roofs. It’s like playing hide-and-seek with shapes! Children search for specific shapes within their environment, enhancing observation and shape recognition.
Get some play dough and shape cutouts. Kids can squish the playdough into the shapes. It’s messy fun that helps teach shapes, while promoting fine motor skills and tactile learning.
Everyday Shapes Sorting Mats
Make mats with different shape outlines. Give kids stuff like buttons, coins, or bottle caps. Children sort objects based on their shape, strengthening classification skills.
Spin and Cover Everyday Shapes
This is like a board game. Spin a spinner with shapes on it. Then, find that shape on your game board and cover it. The first one to cover all their shapes wins! This game is fun and enhances shape recognition and turn-taking skills.
Building a strong foundation in math begins in preschool, and understanding shapes is a crucial starting point. Following the tips and lesson plans outlined in this guide, you can create engaging and effective preschool math lesson plans for shapes to help your preschoolers develop a love of learning and a strong foundation in shapes.
A well-planned preschool math curriculum emphasizing shape recognition is essential for developing children’s spatial reasoning and problem-solving skills. Educators can foster a love of mathematics by providing engaging and hands-on learning experiences and preparing children for future academic success.
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.
