Here’s a simple and fun activity we did with our preschoolers to help learn about the shapes of objects throughout our classroom.  We took them on a <strong>SHAPE HUNT</strong> by creating outlines of various objects around the room onto some construction paper.  For our 3 year olds, I put 3 shapes per paper, and each child had their own paper.  Before sending them on their hunt, I held up some of the papers and we talked about what objects <em>might</em> fit into the outlines.

Then I sent them off to search around the room to find the objects that would fit into each of those shape templates.  They had to figure out which 3-dimensional shape will fit onto the 2-dimensional outline.

If they needed hints along the way, I would give some clues like “<em>one of your shapes can be found in the art center</em>” or “<em>one of your shapes might be used to build something</em>”.  They would then bring their items to the rug, and fit them onto their paper.  They then wanted to “do it again” – so we would then switch templates with their friends, and they would be off again.

Afterwards, we put all the items they found into a bin and set them on a table, and some children came over and used the outline sheets and materials like a puzzle – trying to fit all the objects onto the template sheets.

It was a simple activity, yet it allowed the children to explore the size and shape of things in their classroom … problem-solving what would fit and what wouldn’t.