Shapes are a big part of literacy and math in early childhood education. As young children begin to recognize and identify various shapes, they are exploring important concepts such as spatial perception, logic, patterns, and sequencing.
Plus, shapes are just fun!
Kids learn quickly that everything around them is made up of different shapes, and they tend to enjoy recreating those objects.
This week, my 4 year old (who happens to be a truck enthusiast) and I created a simple truck craft made entirely out of paper shapes.
What we used:
- Glue
- Scissors
- Construction paper (various colors)
We started by gathering our supplies. Zahir (age 4) chose the colors he preferred, and I used scissors to cut a large rectangle, a small rectangle, a square, and 4 circles out of construction paper.
I also grabbed some various paper shapes that we had leftover from our Envelope Shape Sorting Game.
Zahir began putting glue on the back of each paper shape, using those important fine motor skills, while strengthening the small muscles in his hands and fingers as he squeezed the bottle.
Then, I helped him arrange the rectangles, square, and circles to create a truck. As we worked, he named the colors and shapes with no prompting from me.
Next, he decorated the truck with various shapes – hexagon, triangle, trapezoid, and rhombus. These were more challenging shapes and (other than the triangle) he needed help naming them.
He was quite proud of the finished product!
Interested in more shape activities? Be sure to check out 20 Simple Shape Crafts & Activities.
You might also like Picture Books About Shapes.
