Do your children recognize the shape of a ball, an ice cream cone, or a book? If not, what would you do to teach them the different shapes they encounter in daily life? It is needless to say that shapes are an integral part of life. You can see any object or a thing resembling one shape or the other. Therefore, it is essential for kids to learn the different shapes they see around them for better learning outcomes. Learning shapes is an important part of mathematics. It is one of the crucial topics for kids in elementary school. They learn concepts to find the perimeter, area, length, breadth, and height of an object or things related to some shape. Before this, it is better to introduce shapes to preschoolers or kindergarteners so that they can learn the basic concepts of shapes and gradually move to the complex information.
Once your children learn the alphabet and numbers, you can introduce them to shapes in a creative way. You must ensure that the shapes you start with are simple so that they can relate to what they are learning. It is better to teach geometric shapes to kids using real-life examples. For example, you can teach them about a circle, a rectangle, a cuboid, a sphere, a cone, etc., by showing real-life examples, such as a ball, a book, an ice cream cone, etc. You can prepare a list of shapes for kids to learn. Also, you must start with simple shapes, followed by complex ones depending on their understanding abilities. Kids must learn about shapes and their types to make accurate geometric calculations or solve other mathematical problems from an early age.
Shapes are categorized into two and three-dimensional shapes. The former is something that has length and breadth, whereas the latter has length, breadth, and height. The two-dimensional shapes are the square, circle, rectangle, triangle, etc., whereas the three-dimensional shapes are the cuboid, cube, cylinder, cone, etc. You can teach kids to recognize, read and write the names of shapes while having fun. To make it more interesting, you can conduct engaging activities for kids so that they pay attention to what you are teaching them carefully. Most importantly, it will help them learn and memorize different shapes with the help of these fun activities.
Fun Activities to Learn Shapes for Kids
Kids are very active and energetic when it comes to playing. Therefore, you can make the best use of their energies in learning shapes. You can conduct a few fun activities to keep them engaged in learning the different shapes they encounter daily. Littles ones might recognize the shapes with their appearance but not with their names. In such cases, conducting activities will play an essential role in teaching children all the information related to shapes effectively. Some of the fun activities to teach shapes to kids are mentioned below.
- Identify shapes: In this activity, you must hang a shapes chart on the wall of your home or in the classroom. Then, you must call out the names of shapes to kids and ask them to identify the shapes on the chart. You can track the performance of children based on the number of correct answers they give.
- Hunt shapes: In this activity, you must assign a few shapes to kids and ask them to hunt them in the house or the surrounding area. You can declare winners based on the number of correct shapes identified within the given timeframe. This activity will help kids to recognize different shapes effectively.
- Create shapes: In this activity, you must provide playdoughs to kids. They must make different shapes assigned to them using playdoughs. It gives immense joy for kids to make shapes using dough. This activity will help kids enjoy the learning process and memorize the shapes at the same time.
- Sort shapes: In this activity, you must ask kids to sort shapes into two-dimensional and three-dimensional shapes. For example, a square, a circle, a rectangle, etc., will be categorized as two-dimensional shapes. In contrast, a cuboid, a cone, a cube, etc., will be categorized as three-dimensional shapes.
- Match shapes: In this activity, you must ask kids to match the names of shapes with their respective images. This activity will help them differentiate between shapes and help them memorize quickly.
Benefits of Learning Shapes for Kids
Learning different shapes enables children to understand geometrical concepts and solve mathematical problems accurately. Additionally, they will learn to relate shapes with the objects they see around them. Most importantly, they will learn to differentiate shapes based on their properties. Conducting fun activities will help children learn shapes faster. Learning crafts for kids is an effective way to introduce different shapes. They will learn to use shapes creatively to make beautiful craft items. Besides this, more activities contribute to teaching children about different shapes. The benefits of learning shapes for kids are mentioned below.
- It helps children to identify objects based on their shapes effectively.
- It enables children to make fast and accurate calculations in geometrical shape-related problems.
- It helps children differentiate between two and three-dimensional shapes creatively.
- It improves knowledge about shapes and their properties for better understanding and learning outcomes.
