I love to have activities set up for my kids in the morning when they wake up. My toddler is always grumpy, so a quick fun activity can snap her quickly out of her bad mood while I get breakfast ready.
Earlier this week we did a simple Tape Shape Matching game that got my kids moving, identifying shapes, saying the shape names, and matching the shapes.
Materials: cardstock, scissors, and painters tape.
Simple activities are the best with toddlers because you often don't know how long their attention span is going to last. Anything that involves movement is a hit at our house.
Before the kids woke up, I used painters tape to create different shapes on our kitchen floor (triangle, square, diamond, rectangle, etc.). I also did a big X because the kids love that letter. I had some ram board on our kitchen floor from our remodel, so I also drew some shapes on it so we did have a few that weren't actually "tape" shapes. 🙂 I am not talented or patient enough to try and make a heart or circle out of tape.
Once the shapes are taped... just cut out some simple shapes from cardstock that match.
If you have older kids who like using scissors, get them involved with the cutting!
Once the shapes were cut, I handed one to each of the kids and they ran around trying to find the matching tape shape so that they could lay it down on top of it. (Ignore my terrible X 🙂 I was trying to talk to the baby while cutting and wasn't concentrating very well).
If I had been thinking I would've made two of each shape... but my kids were good with taking turns with matching the different shapes. They had so much fun working together to run around and find the right spots.
After we matched the shapes for a little bit, we did our other favorite Tape Shape Game and just ran around doing different actions while we found the shapes.
I would call out things like... "go put your ear on a triangle" or "hop 6 times on the circle." The kids giggled and did the action that I mentioned. My 5 yr old also took a turn and told me and the toddler what to do.
This activity was SO FUN and snuck in a little learning too- my favorite!
Do you have any other favorite crafts or activities that teach kids about shapes?
Here are a few other Toddler Approved favorites...
Great idea! Will have to give it a try with my little one 🙂
This is a great idea for my five year old and his 3 year old little bro who is now learning shapes!
This is a great idea for my five year old and his 3 year old little bro who is now learning shapes!