Math & 123sToddlers24 Comments
These 12 hands on shape activities for toddlers (2 year olds) will make it hip to be square!
Toddlers will have fun learning shapes in a hands on way.
We’ve been having a little bit of fun lately doing some hands on shape activities!
George is on a shapes kick right now, anytime he asks for an activity, he’s been asking for ‘shapes’. I can’t say no to that!
I keep the shapes I work on with my toddlers in activities pretty basic.
Usually the square, triangle, circle.
And then I usually sneak in an odd one here and there just to introduce it, like the octagon (my kids seem to catch on to that one quickly because of stop signs), oval and rectangles.
How to Teach Shapes to Toddlers
First comes recognizing the shapes and then labeling them.
These shapes activities for toddlers are perfect for 2 year olds learning to recognize their shapes.
Building and making shapes is a plus for toddlers, as well as drawing and tracing them. This will come in time… preschoolers will be able to start doing this.
12 shape activities for 2 year olds
These shape activities for toddlers are all very hands on and fun, the learning is just a plus!
I tend to stray away from printables and worksheets, so these activities pass my ‘hands-on’ learning test that all get toddlers very involved in learning shapes.
Shapes are fun to start spotting out in your every day lives too! Your two year old will start seeing wheels as circles, and houses as squares.
Make it a challenge when you’re out for a walk to see what shapes you can each spot!
Call them out and have a good time with it.
I bet you can even find an octagon (Stop signs!). That’s a great way to introduce a new shape like that.
For more learning activities for toddlers, check out these 14 activities that focus on shapes, letters, colors and numbers.
There are also tons of super fun books about shapes for toddlers to reinforce what your learning with activities.
Shapes: My First Pop-up! (A Pop Magic Book) by Matthew Reinhart is a super fun one!
Download the FREE Week of Toddler Activities to do this week!
WANT TO SAVE THIS ACTIVITY?
Enter your email below & we'll send it straight to your inbox so you can access this activity later! Plus, you'll get simple activities from us every week!
Remi Kate says
this article is very useful. l have a little brother and he is really likes such methods. now we are learning fruits and vegetables, this is not advertising, it’s just that this article may also be useful to someone https://wunderkiddy.com/category/vegetables-fruits-and-berries
carol klein says
Love the ideas. I have a story book of shapes That I read to my grand daughter. I write the word or drew the shape on a paper then I challenge her to find the name and shape in the book .. then she challenges me by drawing the shape of just writing a letter she knows and I have to find them..
swetha says
this will be very useful to me as a teacher.
sutton says
I am a home base teacher in Cleveland, ohio and the activities that we were using was boring for the kids. so I found your website which gave me and the children more learning time with the same activity and I have more questions to ask the children during work time. I look on your website everyday for some thing new and different.
Bonnie says
I love your ideas with shapes. I decided to trace my small colored blocks onto a poster board then I had my toddlers match the shape on the board to the blocks in the basket. They loved it. Thanks for sharing your great ideas. Have a blessed day.
Bonnie
Sarah says
Such great ideas! I love the driveway shape maze! In kindergarten (so a little bit older wee ones) we would play ‘guess my shape’. I would start drawing a shape (one angled line for example) and the kids would guess the shape just from that first clue, then I’d add a second line, etc. until they all got the shape. It was great in helping them look at shapes more closely – what makes a triangle different from other shapes? Later in the year the kids would play this game on their own with friends. Love the hands on learning!! Excited to play chalk maze !