Help kids master their shape recognition while mastering the concept of making a pattern at the same time. When beginning this activity, use no more than two shapes in a pattern and then progress to three when the child understands the concept and clearly recognizes at least two shapes. Use cutouts of shapes and begin a pattern, such as place a square on a table followed by a circle. Ask the child what comes next and continue until all the shapes are used for the pattern.
In the same vein as musical chairs, get kids up, moving and learning with musical shapes. Cut out different shapes and tape them in different spots on the floor. Tell the children that they must carefully move around the room while the music is playing, but when the music stops, they need to stand on a shape. One by one, ask each child to name the shape on which they landed. Remove a shape from the floor at the end of each round and continue until all of the shapes are removed.
Put another shape spin on a classic game, I Spy. Look for things in your classroom or environment that have a particular shape. Give several clues as to what you see and ask the children to look around for the shape of the item that you spy.
On one piece of paper, draw a circle, square, triangle or rectangle. Then, help your child or students to look through magazines to find pictures of items in that particular shape. Cut the items out and let the children glue the items onto the paper to create a shape collage.