Today's blog post is all about S H A P E S! Shapes are one of my favorite things to teach my little ones. I love seeing their faces light up when they start finding shapes everywhere! Like at the kitchen table: "Mom, this plate's like a circle!" Or "Hey, that sign looks like a triangle!"

There are so many benefits to learning shapes! They help children identify and organize visual information. It also supports them in other areas such as reading, math, science, as well as understanding other signs and symbols.

There are so many fun and easy ways to practice learning shapes, so today I'm sharing just a few ideas (plus free downloads!) you can quickly prep and do at home.

Shape Matching

You will need:

• Felt or colored paper

• Scissors

• Fastener/velcro dots (optional)

• Shape matching printouts (free download below!)

Instructions:

1. Cut out the dashed shapes to use as your pattern for your colored paper or felt (I bought this pack of felt from the dollar store. It's a fun way to mix it up, but paper works just as well!)

2. Place cut out shapes on felt or paper. Then cut out the outline of each shape. Tip: use the edges and corners of your felt as part of the shapes so you'll have less sides to cut and save more material!

3. Attach the velcro dots to the cut out felt or paper shapes, and the printouts showing the outlines and names of the shapes. Note: This isn't necessary, but it was super simple to add! My kids love using velcro to stick things together. We found this little pack of fastener dots at the dollar store as well--can you tell we love that place?!

4. Now have your child match the shapes and name them as they go! My girls put this together so fast I couldn't snap photos quickly enough! So we took them off and played the game again--slowing down to study and name each shape. It was so fun!

Free download!

Pipe Cleaner Shapes

All you'll need:

• Pipe cleaners

Instructions:

Yep, this one is super duper easy! Just grab a pack of pipe cleaners and have your child bend them into whatever shape comes to mind. I had to help my 3 year old with some of the shapes she wanted to create, but my 5 year did pretty well on her own! This helped them work on fine motor skills as well.

The sparkly pipe cleaners were a hit with these girls!

Pasta Shapes

This activity also helps with fine motor skills in addition to practicing shapes! This is great if you have extra pasta in your pantry. And it doesn't take much to create these classic shapes!

You will need:

• Pasta

• Glue

• Printout (free download below!)

Instructions:

1. Have your child glue the outline of each shape.

2. Place and line up pasta on the glued outline.

3. Let the glue dry.

Free download!

DIY Shape Stamps

You will need:

• Paper towel or toilet paper rolls

• Paint (we used washable finger paint)

• Paper

• Painting smock or old t-shirt for child to wear to protect their clothing (we learned this the hard way!)

Instructions:

1. Fold toilet paper rolls into a variety of shapes. We used a paper towel roll and cut it into several smaller rolls. Tip: fold one corner of each shape at a time then fold all the way down the side of the roll. Repeat with each corner. I found that this was a bit easier with shorter rolls!

2. Dispense paint onto a paper plate or sheet of paper.

3. Have child dip the shaped rolls into the paint. Each time my child picked up a roll we named the shape.

4. Stamp shapes on paper to create a work of art!

And that's it! Enjoy learning and practicing shapes with your little one!