Shape Tasting Activities

• Cut food into different shapes. For example, carrots can be cut into circles while sandwiches can be cut into triangles, squares or rectangles. Many foods also come in a variety of shapes and can be put together for a meal filled with different items of the same shape; look at breakfast cereals, crisps and crackers for different ideas. Making biscuits is another fun activity that will reinforce shapes when your child rolls balls of dough or uses cookie cutters to cut out various shapes.
  
  

Tactile Shape Activities

• Using shaving cream suitable for sensitive skin, smear a big blob onto a mirror and let your child trace or draw various shapes. Use angel pudding on a large tray or sand in the sandpit and let your child use her whole hand to trace or draw shapes. As she draws, remind her how many corners and sides the shape has. Another idea is to use a "feely bag": place some wooden blocks or small household shapes into an old handbag and let her put her hands in the bag to feel a shape, identify it and then pull it out. Even if your child struggles to verbalize the names of shapes, this activity will help her to understand the properties of shapes. Instead of having her name the shape that is in her hands, let her point to a picture of the shape.
  
  

Kinesthetic Shape Activities

• Show your child how to form the shape with his body -- for example, looping his arms around to make a circle or forming a triangle with his fingers. Another idea is to make a hopscotch game using different shapes at each jump and have your child call out each shape as he jumps onto it. A fun jumping or hopping game to reinforce the number of corners involves drawing a large shape on the ground with chalk and asking your child to hop or jump along the outline, making a point of stopping and turning at each corner.
  
  

Visual Activities for Shapes

• Matching shapes of different sizes and colors helps your child realize that the properties of a shape remain constant. Help your child find the "shape of the week" in the grocery cupboard, in the bedroom and in picture books. Let your child sort various shapes of pasta, buttons and LEGO blocks into different cups of a muffin tray. Shape sorters and visual perceptual games such as "Brainy Blocks" will also reinforce the properties of shapes.
  
  

Fine Motor Shape Activities

• Cutting shapes with scissors is a hands-on activity that reinforces the properties of shapes. Have your child cut out the same shape in a variety of sizes and colors to make a picture or craft. You could use circles to make a caterpillar or rectangles to make a robot. Get the most out of the fine motor activities by letting your child trace around the shapes with color crayons before cutting them out.
  
  

Tips

• Teach just one shape at a time and take a week for each shape, doing a variety of different activities to reinforce learning. Start with circles, rectangles and triangles before moving onto other shapes.