These shape crafts and shape activities for kids will help you get your creative juices flowing while teaching your kids about shape recognition, patterning, symmetry, and other geometry-related concepts! Toddlers and preschoolers love to play with shapes, and this selection of fun shape activities is an easy way for them to develop their creativity and learn the basics of geometry in a fun, hands-on way.
These shape activities for toddlers and preschoolers are perfect for the classroom or home. You'll find sensory shape activities, shape art, shape crafts, and even a handful of holiday shape activities to try when Halloween and Christmas come around.
Teach kids to identify circles, ovals, triangles, rectangles, squares, pentagons, hexagons, hearts, stars, and plenty of other basic shapes.
Let's get going!
Shape Activities
2D Shape Activity
With popsicle sticks and playdough, you can make loads of fantastic shapes in this 2d shape activity. Plus, adding the letter tiles helps children recognize the word for each shape and how it's spelled in a fun way.
Circle Art Painting
Practice making circles in different sizes with our circle art painting ideas for toddlers. It's super easy to set up. Just grab some circular objects in various sizes, such as lids or cans, and a few colors of washable paint to get started.
Kandinsky Shape Art
Encourage your toddlers and preschoolers to explore colors, shapes, and the work of a renowned artist with our educational Kandinsky shape art activity. Paint sticks or gel crayons work well for this activity, but feel free to explore any mediums your child may be interested in.
2D Shape Painting
Practice 2D shape painting with empty toilet paper rolls! Shape the cardboard tubes into hearts, circles, squares, and triangles, and provide lots of different paint colors. Your toddler or preschooler will create a shape masterpiece in no time.
Road Shape Mats
Learning shapes just got a lot more fun. Any kid who loves toy cars will have a blast with these road shape mats from Preschool Play and Learn. Print the shapes and laminate them so they'll hold up better to tough play.We also have shape roads available as part of our alphabet, number, and road shape bundle!
Pattern Block Mats
Although these pattern block mats from Little Ladoo have a fun summer theme, your child can enjoy them all year long. Little ones will use the pattern blocks and each template to make a boat, sun, fish, crab, ice cream, and more. Put the pages in sheet protectors in a binder for a great quiet-time activity that's educational and fun.
Masking Tape Shapes Activity
It's time to get into the floor for a little shape-themed fun! Kids can play with these masking tape shapes by Home with Hollie in so many ways! Put Legos along the lines, drive toy cars around each shape, or walk their fingers along each one.
Farm Themed Shape Mats
Use play dough, dot markers, cereal pieces, and other manipulatives to mark the dots that form the shapes on these adorable farm-themed shape mats from Look, We're Learning. Preschoolers can build fine motor skills while working on shape recognition.
Wooden Shape Puzzles
Make some DIY wooden shape puzzles for the kids to play with. These shape puzzle blocks are durable and will last ages! It's super easy using some scrap wood that you have stored away from other projects. You could also grab some small wooden tiles or coasters to use for this project from In the Playroom if you don't have scrap wood on hand.
Shape Hunt
Go on a shape hunt! This activity from Teaching Ideas encourages kids to get up and move. It's perfect for a group of kids in the classroom or at home. You can tape shapes up all around the school or your home or have kids try to find the "shapes" in everyday objects like a clock, a tv, a drawer, etc.
Shape Slime
This shape slime from Pockets of Preschool is sure to be a hit in your home or classroom. It's stretchy, squishy, and oh-so-fun! Make sure to use clear glue to get a crystal clear slime that makes it easy to spot the shapes.
DIY Cardboard Shape Puzzle
Make a DIY cardboard shape puzzle using cardboard and recycled juice bottle caps. Your toddler will ask to play with it again and again! This puzzle from Barley and Birch is just as fun as the wooden puzzles, but for a tiny fraction of the price.
I Spy Shapes Book
This I Spy shapes book from Parenting Chaos is perfect for kids who are struggling with learning their shapes. It helps them focus on one shape at a time. Not only can you work on shape identification, but also spelling the shape words as well.
Marshmallow STEM Shape Activity
Get in some science and a sweet snack with this shapes marshmallow STEM activity from Home with Hollie. Preschoolers look at each shape and try to build it using toothpicks and mini marshmallows. Younger children can start with simple shapes like triangles, squares, and rectangles, while older children can create stars, hexagons, and more.
You could use our marshmallow and toothpick shape 2D shape printables to guide your shape building!
Shape Bubble Wands
Get crafty and make some shape bubble wands and then head outdoors for an afternoon of blowing bubbles. They'll love this activity from Go Science Kids. Ask the children what shape they think the bubbles will be before they start blowing them.
Touch and Find Shape Game
How fun is this shape touch and find game by Pink Stripey Socks? You can make the shapes out of any old cardboard you have lying about and put them all in a paper bag for a shake-up. When your child pulls one from the bag, ask them to identify the shape, the angles, the sides, etc. This simple activity works for toddlers through first graders.
Shape Sensory Bottle
Play shape hide and seek with one of these shape sensory bottles by Pocket of Preschool. There are three different versions to choose from, or you can come up with your own design. Add them to your math center in the classroom or at home. The idea is to encourage the kids to turn, flip, twist, shake, and move the bottle around to find as many shapes as possible.
Pet-Themed Shape Playdough Mats
These shape playdough mats from Fantastic Fun and Learning have a fun pet theme that any young child will enjoy! Fill the bowl with pet food in the shape of circles, triangles, etc.
Shape Crafts
Under the Sea Shape Craft
Our under the sea shape craft is a colorful, fun shape craft. It's the perfect activity to make as part of an ocean unit at home or in the classroom. Did you know you can make so many cute sea creatures with simple shapes like circles, squares, triangles, rectangles, and semi-circles?
Shape Monsters Craft
Our shape monsters allow kids to mix and match their photos with circles, triangles, squares, and more to create adorable little monsters. Mix and match different colors, various shapes, and facial expressions to make an endless number of monsters using our handy printables.
Woodland Animal Shape Craft
These woodland animal shape crafts are simple to make using our templates. You can make a bear, fox, and raccoon. They would be fun to make for an animal or woodland-themed project.
Shape Buddies
These cute shape buddies from 123 Homeschool 4 Me are perfect for toddlers through kindergarteners and are a fun and engaging way to learn about and play with different shapes. All you need is paper, googly eyes, and a marker to build lots of shape buddies with your little ones. It's a low prep activity that kids, parents, and teachers will love.
Rocket Shape Craft
Ready to blast off into a cute craft with your kids? Toddlers and preschoolers will love building their very own rockets made with simple shapes that are easy for little hands to cut. This rocket shape craft from Simple Everyday Mom is perfect for a space-themed unit study in the classroom. With construction paper, scissors, and glue, you're all set to get started.
Owl Shape Craft
Whooooo wouldn't love this adorable owl shape craft from Kids' Craft Room? It's bright, beautiful, and so fun to make! Each owl is made of 11 different geometric shapes, so it's an excellent way for kids to explore both shapes and color.
Sponge Geometric Art
Cut sponges into different shapes for this fun and easy sponge geometric art from The Craft Train. Make houses, tall buildings, stars, the sun, a road, and so much more. Kids can make a village out of their sponge stamps.
Holiday Shape Crafts and Activities
Bat Shape Craft
This bat shape craft is the perfect non-spooky craft to make with little ones this Halloween. They'll make terrific decorations for the classroom as well or for your Halloween party at home.
Vampire Shape Craft
These shape vampires from Kids' Craft Room go along perfectly with our shape bats above. The vampire is made of nine different shapes like triangles, circles, pentagons, hexagons, etc. Even older children can learn a little about shapes with this spooky craft.
Shape Turkeys
Get ready for Thanksgiving or the holidays with this adorable shape turkey craft. The turkey's bodies are different shapes, as are their tail feathers. Kids will love the bright colors, too.
Pumpkin Shape Matching
Pumpkins come in all sorts of fun shapes with this fun pumpkin shape matching game from Kindergarten Worksheets and Games. Your toddler can practice matching pumpkins all through October and November.
Shape Christmas Tree
When Christmas is on the way, this shape Christmas tree craft is just what you need to entertain the kids during their break from school. You only need paper, scissors, and glue to make it, so it's super easy and inexpensive. It would make an adorable card to send to a family member, too.
Santa Shape Craft
Santa's on his way to help your kids learn their shapes! This Santa shape craft from Non-Toy Gifts is a cute change of pace from the regular Santa crafts because it teaches geometry while keeping with the festive theme.
Shape Printables
Shape Hunt
Can you find these shapes around the house? This is such a fun activity to do with toddlers and preschoolers. Simply print out the shape hunt worksheets and see if you can find the matching shapes in your house.
Shape Playdough Mats
These shape playdough mats are great for toddlers and preschoolers learning to recognize and draw shapes. Print the shape playdough mats out, laminate them for prolonged use, and then use playdough to create the shapes. These mats could also be used with drywipe markers for children wanting to use a marker to draw the shapes.
Shape Coloring Activity
Spot and color the shapes to complete the picture! How fun are these shape coloring pages. There are three different pages to color, a shape house, a shape butterfly and a shape rocket.
Feed the Monster Shape Game
This feed the monster shape game is a lot of fun! Read the cards and feed the monster something shaped like the named shape. You could even attach the monster printable to a cardboard box and cut out the mouth so it looks like the monster is eating the shapes!
Printable Shape Crafts
Our printable shape crafts are fun and easy to prep. They make great shape activities for toddlers and preschoolers working on scissor skills as well as shape recognition. Each shape craft comes with all the shapes needed and a small image of what the completed shape craft should look like.We have 3 different sets of shape crafts to choose from, transportation shape crafts,
Printable Transportation Shape Crafts
There are 10 different transportation shape crafts included in this pack. There is everything from a rocket, to a car, to a ship!
Printable Animal Shape Crafts
There are 12 different animal shape crafts included in this pack. This set of colorful animals includes a cat, dog and fish alongside many other animals.
Printable Dinosaur Shape Crafts
There are 10 different dinosaur shape crafts included in this pack. Have fun making various different dinosaurs from shapes.
How to Draw Shape Animals
Learn how to draw shape animals using this fun set of printables. These step by step drawings will teach you bhow to draw 10 different animals using various different shapes as a starting point.
We hope you have a lot of fun with these fun shapes crafts and shape activities for toddlers and preschoolers! Don't forget to pin this post to save it for later.
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