Most young children are instinctively drawn to shapes. A baby will push plastic shapes through the right holes - much to their delight! - and older children will often make pictures that feature shapes quite heavily. Which is all great news - as shapes are at the heart of early numeracy and visual reasoning it's good to harness our children's interest in shape as early as possible.
In doing so we'll be helping them learn some key numeracy skills, in a fun and informal way. And as they begin to draw shapes they'll also be developing their fine motor skills and pencil control. Here are some ideas to help you get started...
A tried-and-tested classic! Potato prints work best with shapes cut into them, so gather together a handful of potatoes to make circle, triangle, rectangle, star and cross shapes. As well as potatoes you'll need: a sharp knife; a selection of paints; a pencil; saucers or mixing trays; paintbrushes; paper and paper towels. First cut your potatoes in half, ensuring you have a nice flat surface on each side. Your child can blot the potatoes to take off as much moisture as possible.
Then, with your pencil draw a shape template on the potato and use a sharp knife to cut around the shape so your template is raised from the background. Put a thin layer of paint into your saucer or tray and then your child can dip their potato into the paint and begin printing! It's best to press down quite firmly on the paper to get a good result. See what patterns your child can make with their printers, or use the printers to make up pictures - triangle trees or circle flowers, made by adding trunks/stems/petals with your paintbrush.
Activities which involve handling different shaped items are key to helping pre-school children recognise shapes. Simple printing is a great way to do this. To make a circle print you'll need a variety of objects with a circular edge which are easy for your child to hold - items such as corks (which have the added bonus of a nice texture), plastic cups, old cotton reels, cardboard tubes etc. You'll also need some paint, a saucer or tray for the paint to go in and some paper. Let your child then print circular shapes all over the paper, encouraging them to make circles in different sizes.
Have some fun outdoors with a pack of chalk and lots of space to make shapes! Let your child make lots of patterns with their chalks - they'll love having lots of space to play about with and the opportunity to 'think big' with their designs. You could also play shape games - make some big shapes then shout out a shape. Who can jump into that shape the quickest?
Books offer lots of visual representations of shapes and are a very useful way to support your child's early learning. Shapes feature in all kinds of books (the Mr Men series, for example, has wonderful characters in a variety of shapes - the round Mr Happy, the oval Mr Fussy, triangle-shaped Mr Rush, square Mr Strong and star-like Mr Sneeze).
Particularly good for toddlers/preschoolers are the following: My Very First Book of Shapes by the popular children's author and illustrator Eric Carle; Richard Scarry's Pop-Up Shapes; Noddy Look and Learn: Shapes Book 1; Ship Shapes (a beautifully illustrated story about a boy and girl who sail off to sea on a raft to see how many different shapes they can find) by Stella Blackstone; All Shapes and Sizes by legendary author Shirley Hughes (of Alfie fame); and Brown Rabbit's Shape Book by Alan Baker.
Using different coloured paper cut out batches of different shapes, in different sizes (e.g. a few big circles and some smaller ones). Using glue and paper your child can then make collages and pictures using the shapes, such as houses made with triangles for roofs, rectangles for doors and windows etc, or flowers made with a big circle and lots of little circles for petals. Point out the shapes as your child is making their picture to help with their shape recognition.
Have a shape-inspired picnic! Even if the weather doesn't allow for sitting outdoors an indoor picnic of shaped sandwiches and biscuits works just as well. Your child will have plenty of opportunity to handle shaped objects (although they might get wolfed down quite quickly!) and they can help make the food. Easy ideas include making triangular sandwiches (mum just needs to cut the bread diagonally) or round or star-shaped sarnies using cookie cutters. Encourage your child to look at the shapes of the sandwiches, counting the sides of the triangles and tracing around the circles with their fingers.
Other shaped goodies you could feature include triangles of pizza, doritos or hula-hoops, party rings, segments of apple, orange or satsumas, dried pineapple rings...there are lots of shaped foods out there that make great additions to your picnic. Or how about making the Cheesy Corn Triangles, as featured in our food section? And of course you can also use shaped cookie cutters to make your own biscuits - check out our shortbread biscuit recipe on the cooking with kids page (ideal for making shaped biccies) or try the Oaty Biscuits which are made by rolling small balls.
A simple and fun activity. Using a variety of different shaped blocks try building towers, knocking them down (the fun part!), talking about and sorting the different shapes and colours. Block play helps develop large and fine motor skills and a developing recognition of what fits where. Exploring blocks can encourage children to count, match, sort, group, and problem solve.
Ask your child to be a shape detective, on the search for different shapes around the house. Perhaps you could give them a visual reference, such as a sheet with different shapes drawn on it (a square, oval, rectangle, triangle, pentagon, hexagon and circle) to help them find the less obviously recognisable shapes.
A simple, creative way to help your child recognise their shapes. Use our downloadable print outs for your child to have fun colouring in. Remind them of the names of the shapes they're colouring and point out things around the house (rectangular windows, circular table mats, triangular lampshades, etc) which are the same shape so your child starts to make mathematically-linked visual references.
Collect some different shaped items and some lidded jars or small empty plastic bottles. You could use a handful of buttons in different sizes, marbles, play money, dried pasta shapes, dried beans or pulses, pieces of Lego or sticklebricks, etc. Spread your selection of items out in a tray or on the table and then ask your child to sort the items into matching shapes, putting all the circles into one jar, the squares into another and the tubes into the last jar.
Once the jars are filled your child can decorate the jar with stickers and cut-out pictures etc. to make a simple shaker.
Using some card or thick paper cut out some appropriately-sized circles for making hats for your child's soft toys and teddies. Give your child various craft materials - glitter, stickers, crayons, finger paints, etc - to decorate each hat. When they've finished their creations cut through from the centre of the circle down one edge so you can pull the circle together and show your child how their circle has now become a cone shape. Use sticky tape to secure the hat. Voila, a swish new hat for teddy or dolly!