Printable Shapes Activities for Preschoolers

Teach and reinforce shapes and their characteristics with these printable shapes activities for preschoolers.

These free preschool printables are perfect for teaching shapes to children ages 4-7. There are lots of fun activities in this pack.

It’s easy to download and print this set for your students today. Because they are print-and-go, they are perfect for busy preschool moms and teachers.

You can use these worksheets at home and in the classroom. They are good for occupational therapists and children’s librarians, as well.

What shapes should preschoolers know?

Shapes are an essential part of preschool and kindergarten curriculums. Children are typically first introduced to basic geometric shapes, such as circles, squares, and triangles.

As they progress, they learn about more complex shapes, such as rectangles, hexagons, and octagons. By the time they reach kindergarten, most children can identify and name a variety of shapes.

However, preschoolers don’t need to know all the different types of shapes in order to be successful in school.

Instead, they should focus on learning the basic properties of shapes, such as how to identify them by their geometry and how to compare them by their size and orientation.

With a strong foundation in shape recognition, preschoolers will be well-prepared for the challenges of kindergarten and beyond.

How do I teach my child shapes?

One of the first things that preschool and kindergarten students learn is their shapes. This is a basic building block for future math skills, so it’s important to give your child a strong foundation. There are a few different ways that you can teach your child shapes.

One is to use everyday objects to help them visualize the shape. For example, you can trace around a plate to show them the circle or cut out a square from a piece of paper.

You can also use songs and games to help them learn the shapes. There are many great resources available online or at your local library.

With a little patience and creativity, you can easily teach your child all about shapes.

Shapes Activities for Preschoolers

To prepare these alphabet tracing worksheets for use, just print them out, gather writing and coloring tools, and your kiddos are all set.

However, you can make these worksheets reusable by laminating them or slipping them into a dry erase pocket.

Have children use a dry erase marker to complete the activities and then wipe the pages clean when they are done.

Preschool Shapes

The first three pages are teaching pages. You can leave them intact or cut them apart to create task cards.

At the top of each page, students will trace one of six shapes – circle, triangle, rhombus, square, pentagon, rectangle.

Next, students will read or listen to you read a sentence about the shape. This sentence includes the shape’s name and a description.

Finally, kids will build the shapes with playdough. This is a great fine motor activity for preschoolers.

Shapes for Kids

Students will identify the six shapes on the page. This page includes a circle, triangle, square, rectangle, pentagon, and rhombus.

Then, they’ll color each one according to the color code at the top of the page. Colors include gray, green, orange, brown, yellow, and blue.

You can take a moment to discuss the shapes, colors, and animals featured on this page. What sound does a tiger make? How many sides does the square have?

Shape Matching

On the next page, students will identify the shapes at the top of the page. They’ll draw a line from the shape to its name at the bottom of the page.

Visual Discrimination

Visual discrimination is the ability to visually identify differences between objects. Being able to visually discriminate between a circle and a square can be helpful when learning about different geometric shapes.

Therefore, developing strong visual discrimination skills early on is important for academic success.

The visual discrimination page happens to be my favorite. Kids will look at the robots and identify the shapes on each one. They’ll use the color code at the top of the page to color the shapes on the page.

Shape Flashcards

The final page in this pack is a set of shape flashcards. Print and laminate this page. Cut apart the flashcards. Use these to identify the shapes, shape names, and the number of sides each shape has.

PRESCHOOL BOOKS ABOUT SHAPES

Fill your book basket with a great collection of books about shapes. 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.

Walter’s Wonderful Web – A determined little spider named Walter is trying to make a sturdy web that will stand up to the blustery wind. The webs he makes at first are woven in special shapes–a triangle, a square, a circle–but they are still wibbly-wobbly. Can Walter make a web that is both wonderful and strong?

Tangled – When the neighborhood shapes go climbing on the park jungle gym the last thing they expect is a tangle. First the circle, next the triangle and then the square. One by one soon all sixteen shapes are trapped.

Snippets: A Story About Paper Shapes – Snippets is a story that revels the power of kindness and the beauty of being unique. And it does so though the journey of two different groups of shapes (the polygons and irregular polygons)

Teaching Resources

This shape chart set makes it fun and easy to build shape awareness with a fun Mickey Mouse theme. The Disney Shape Chart includes 8 different shapes, 8 sets of hands and shoes, and a corresponding “SHAPES” title all with a Mickey theme.

Use these fun smiling felt shapes to help your child or class learn the different shapes they will use throughout their lives. Bright, colorful and fun shapes make learning fun.

Send your little ones on a hunt for shapes with this Free Printable Shapes Scavenger Hunt!