Teach Preschool Skills with a Feed the Monster Game

Preschoolers will practice shape recognition as they play this Feed the Monster game. The hungry monster is waiting for your kids to feed him his next shape snack.

We did this monster-themed hands-on activity at our library story time a while back. So I can’t take complete credit for the clever idea. But, I’m so glad it was something we could recreate at home!

This shape monster preschool game was super easy to make. One of the best things is you can change it for other concept recognition, as well!

Feed the Monster Game

We took an empty oatmeal canister, cut a hole for the mouth and covered it with construction paper. We used pipe cleaners through holes in the lid for the hair.

My son had a great time helping make shapes to decorate the ‘monster’ and was really pleased with the final product.

Once our canister was transformed into a shape monster, he was ready to be fed! I put shape magnets on the board in front of us, and we sang this song together:

Shape monster, shape monster munch, munch, munch!
How about a (square) for your lunch?

Just change out the name of the shape until you’ve fed him all his lunch!

After we did this activity with shapes, we changed it up and used letter and number magnets to make him a letter monster and number monster.

Once your preschooler has mastered the basic shapes, you can add a challenge by qualifying the shape with a color. Set out several shapes of different colors and call out a “blue square, red circle, etc.”

Maybe this activity will be such a big hit with your little one you’ll want to pitch it as an idea to your local library for story time!

MONSTER PRESCHOOL BOOKS

Fill your book basket with a great collection of monster preschool books. Most of these books can be found at your local library or used bookstore.

If you have a hard time finding them, you can order them through my Amazon affiliate links by clicking the images below.

Monster ABC – Monster ABC covers the full monster spectrum: Some are well-known (e.g., Alien, Ghost, Zombie), some are regional favorites (e.g., Jersey Devil, Sasquatch, Chupacabra) and some come with a passport (e.g., Banshee, Krampus, Quetzalcoatl). These gorgeously quirky monsters and silly verses prove there’s nothing to fear.

My Very Silly Monster Book of Shapes – Learn all about shapes with thirteen brand new and colorful Very Silly Monsters. The fifth book in the My Very Silly Monster series from popular children’s book series, My Very Silly Monster, is sure to be a hit with children of all ages.

Bedtime for Monsters – In this hilarious bedtime story, a monster is licking his lips . . . maybe he’s thinking about eating a bedtime snack? And what if that snack just happened to be you? Gulp! He’s getting closer and closer . . . and his tummy is rumbling really loudly. But all this monster actually wants is a sloppy monster-sized goodnight kiss!