Teaching Shapes

There are many ways to teach kindergartners how to identify shapes. One of the best ways is to use song. By teaching in songs, the children will be able to remember the new information easier. This video goes over the basic shapes and how we can identify them. The video also goes over the basic colors of orange, red, and green. The video gives you a great representation of how you can teach these basic shapes with colors at the same time.
The video goes over the following shapes:

• squares-all 4 sides are the same
• rectangle- 2 long sides, 2 short sides
• circle- it is round and has no breaks
• triangle- has 3 sides

Now that we have identified the basic shapes, we need to be able to identify them in everyday life. This may be the hardest part for some of the younger students. Have them look at the picture and see how many shapes they can find. The following is a list of what shapes are found in this picture:

• rectangle
• square
• circles
• triangles

Once the children have mastered how to find the basic shapes in the train picture above, let them draw their own object using as many basic shapes as they can or give them cut outs of the basic shapes and let them glue them together to make a picture. Some ideas of using basic shapes to make a picture include a house (square body, triangle roof, rectangle door, round windows), rocket ship, stick figure of a human, and many more. Let the children use their creativity and it will surprise you what they can do.

Here is a link to a page with fun stories and television clips that show how to find shapes in everyday objects.