Looking for a shape game to help your child remember the basic shapes? Try this one!
Today’s game is the first of a new series between This Reading Mama and me! We’re sharing a 6-week summer series for kids entering kindergarten through second grade. I’m using these games with both my Five and my Six, who are headed off to kindergarten and first grade in the fall. Sometimes their big sister (an upcoming third grader) joins in the fun, too!
Print & Play Series
We’re calling our series Print & Play. Because guess what?
No cutting, no laminating, and no color ink required! Just print and play!
Each Tuesday, you’ll find a math game on my site. Each Thursday, This Reading Mama will share a literacy game.
Bonus: Many of our games are designed for one player, so your child can work independently!
In the download you’ll find three versions of the game. This is the simpler one because it includes just five different shapes.
Simply give your child a playing piece (we used a transparent counter), a die, and a Do-a-dot marker or regular marker. Have your child roll the die and move around the game board.
After your child lands on a shape, he names it and fills in a space on the accompanying graph. Which shape will win?
At the end of the game, look at the graph together. Which shape did he land on the most? The least? How many more triangles did he land on than circles? How many ovals and circles did he land on altogether?
My Five (entering kindergarten soon) could answer the basic graph questions, but he didn’t understand what I meant by “how many more triangles than circles.” When it became clear this wasn’t a concept he was ready for, we moved on.
I printed the advanced version for my Six, who is entering first grade. In addition to the basic shapes on the simple version, the advanced version also includes the hexagon, octagon, pentagon and rhombus. Also, the game board is longer and demands a longer attention span.
(Tip! If you want to make the game even harder, print the version without the words labeling each shape. Your child will have to rely on the appearance of the shapes rather than the printed words when finding the matching shape on the graph. This may mean counting the sides on the pentagon, hexagon, and octagon.)
My Eight (entering third grade) thought the game looked like fun and asked me to print a graph for her, too. She actually played several times through so she could fill up the entire graph!
Later in the week, I bought some new clip art and decided to make another version with 3-D shapes.
My Eight played through a game, but informed me that “I already knew most of these shapes, Mom.”
Have fun with these!
Get your free Shape Games!
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Kim
Thank you. I printed and played this with my son this morning. He loved it.
FYI on the first board one of the rectangles says cone.
Anna Geiger
I’m glad he liked it, Kim! Thanks for the edit – fixed it. 🙂
Mary Peterson
Very nice game. I like that it is more than one skill. Not just the shapes, but also and introduction to graphs. PS we love Do-A-Dot markers..
Anna Geiger
So glad you can use, it Mary! As it turns out, we’re using Do-a-Dot markers for most of this series. We love ’em too!
homeschoolingmommie
Awesome..thank you.
Anna Geiger
You’re very welcome!
Jessica
I just love this game. It’s hard for me to find games that my newly three-year-old can do by himself. The easiest version of this shapes game is just perfect for him! And I love that he can continue to use this game even as he gets older because of the differentiation. Thank you so much for sharing it!
Anna Geiger
You’re very welcome, Jessica! I’m so glad this game works for your preschooler.
Chris
Hmmm. I have some pretty smart 4 year olds in my room. I printed out a copy of just the shapes, no words. I’m thinking I will give them each a cup to hold shapes. As they roll the dice and land on a shape and mark it on their own sheet, they will put one shape in their cup. At the end, they can dump out their shapes and count how many of each shape they had, or maybe we will just have a sheet and they can line up their shapes under each shape heading. Perhaps even do a group sheet, although that might get a little crazy. Then go around and see who had most circles, or maybe have them count just the circles.
If anyone has other ideas, I’d love to hear them! Keeping 4 year olds busy is always challenging. They need something new each time in small group.
Anna Geiger
What a great way to extend the activity, Chris! It will take them a bit more time too, which can be very useful. 🙂
Lavern Hollis
First of all thanks for the games Anna. Also, I love your extension idea Chris. I will definitely try it out. Thanks.
Anna Geiger
Thank you so much, Lavern!
Ying Wu
Hello,
Could I know where can I download the worksheets?
Thank you,
Ying
Anna Geiger
It says “get your free games HERE.”
Ying Wu
Thank you very much Anna!
Maribel
Thank you very much for your generosity in sharing your ideas for kids.
God bless you more!
Anna Geiger
Thank you, Maribel!
Tracy Hsu
Hello,
Could I know where can I download the worksheets?
Thank you,
Tracy
Anna Geiger
Scroll toward the bottom of the post. It says, “Get your free games HERE.” Click on the word HERE. If that doesn’t work, there’s a link underneath that you can click on for common solutions.
Tuat
Wonderful! Thank you so much for sharing 🙂
Anna Geiger
You’re very welcome, Tuat!
Courtney
Thank you for sharing all of your awesome resources. They are so great for my kinders.
I had a quick question about your basic shape game. Would there be anyway to modify or get a modified copy with hexagons instead of ovals? Our standards call for the kids to know circle, square, triangle, rectangle, and hexagon. Thanks so much.
Anna Geiger
Hi Courtney! I’m sorry – right now, with a newborn, I’m not able to modify free printables. Maybe in the future though!
Yoko
Thank you so much for this amazing game! I’ve been looking for simple yet fun board games to play with some of my Japanese students aged 6-8 years old. They’re going to love this!
Anna Geiger
I’m so glad you can use this with your students, Yoko! Be sure to check out the rest of the games in this series. I think you’ll find a lot you can use! Just scroll down in this post and find the links to all the games: https://www.themeasuredmom.com/free-printable-games-for-k-2/
Jenny wang
Thank you very much
KIM BRIGHT
I had found Shape Bingo Use with Activity #52: ONE-PLAYER BINGO on your website. I loved it! It worked well with our classroom Can you please direct me back to it. Thank you for all of your creative ideas and your hard work! Such an incredible resource for me!
Thank you
Kim
Anna G
Hi Kim! Activity #52 ONE-PLAYER BINGO is part of a paid product: https://www.themeasuredmom.com/product/preschool-math-curriculum-for-home/