Shapes can be incorporated into learning games and activities with ease. Organize a shape hunt for your kindergarteners or first graders while they are at lunch or recess. Choose a shape like a circle and cut small, medium and large circles to hide around the classroom. Make enough so each student can collect five. When students return, instruct them to find five circles of any size then sit on the carpet to wait for their classmates to finish. When everyone has completed the task, have the students bring the small circles to the pile at the center of the circle. Do the same with the medium and large circles. Count out each pile and write the number on the board. From there, figure out which size group has the most and which has the fewest.
Teach your younger students shapes through collages and shape rubbings. Use their projects to make a bulletin board for your classroom. Begin by reviewing shapes your class has been studying. To create shape collages, have children cut a large shape of their choice from a piece of black construction paper and then cut a smaller version from a piece of colored paper and glue it on the black shape. Have your students label the shape inside the colored shape before placing it on the bulletin board. Create shape rubbings by cutting sheets of sandpaper into shapes. Take the outer paper off crayons. Tape the shape each student has chosen onto their desks. Have students place their paper on top of the shape and rub with the side of the crayon until the shape appears.
This particular lesson is best suited for second graders. Using colors and math problems, students will identify geometric shapes. To prepare, cut out forty shapes. Use five different colors of neon construction paper and cut a circle, square, diamond, rectangle, triangle, hexagon, octagon and pentagon from each sheet. Have an extra set of shapes with labels for students to refer to. Place math problems on the backs of the shapes. Use magnetic tape to fasten the forty shapes to a magnetic board or two-sided tape to fasten them to a chalk or whiteboard. Divide your students into two teams. The first player picks two cards by calling out, for example, red circle and yellow hexagon. The names of the shapes are reinforced and the students must complete the math problems on the back to receive points for their team.
This lesson can be modified to use for grades one to four. Depending on your grade level, decide ahead of time which shapes you want to focus on. Review shapes with your students and how they can determine what shape something it is. For example, a triangle has three sides and three points, or for older students, a square has four equal sides and four right angles. Read students, "The Greedy Triangle" by Marilyn Burns. Tell students to listen for the different names of the shapes in the story. When you are through, ask them to tell you about the shapes in the story. Have your students work in pairs to create a shape from the story. They may be as creative as they like. Supply plenty of materials such as blocks, other manipulatives and art supplies. Each pair will describe their shape in detail and display it as a reference for classmates.