With items around your home and inexpensive dollar store buys, you can have fun teaching your child colors and shapes! Here are a few ideas to try this summer, including a link to web-based flashcards from Evan-Moor:

1. Color and Shape Matching

What you need: Colored buttons or pompoms, paper, and markers

Use colored markers to draw shapes on white paper. Have your child fill in the shape with the matching color, using a package of small pompoms or colored buttons. Here’s an example with a free printable.

2. Muffin Tin Sorting

What you need: Muffin tin and construction paper

Cut colored paper into different shapes and tape each shape to the bottom of the inside of a muffin tin. (For example, red circles, yellow triangles, blue squares, orange rectangles.) Cut extra shapes and have your child place the shapes into the correct muffin tin. Other ideas:

• Have your child collect small items of different shapes around the house or outdoors and place the similar shapes in the correct muffin tin. (For example, coins, buttons, pebbles, erasers, Post-it notes, magnets, Legos, blocks, and small toys.)
• Have your child collect items of the same color and sort the items in the muffin tin. Using tongs or chopsticks to place items in the muffin tins adds fine motor practice!

3. Shape Sponge Painting

What you need: Pack of sponges, paint, and paper

Cut sponges into geometric shapes such as triangles, rectangles, and squares. Let your child design a creation or give examples of how geometric shapes can form a house, truck, kite, or ice cream cone. These printable pages to cut and color can also be used for sponge painting ideas:

• Locomotive shapes
• Robot shapes
• Butterfly shapes
• Coloring shapes

From Never-Bored Kid Book and Learning Line: Colors and Shapes activity books.

4. Tape Shapes

What you need: Painter’s tape

There are many creative ways to use painter’s tape for learning shapes, such as this clever Tape City and shape ball game. You can use painter’s tape to make shapes on the floor and play various games with the large shapes, such as rolling a ball and calling out the shape or having kids jump in a particular shape. You can also use colored marbles or pompoms to sort colors in each shape.

5. Online activities

What you need: Computer or tablet

Evan-Moor has created online flashcard activities to help children learn colors and shapes. The interactive activities are touchscreen compatible and include a timer that can be used to create a “beat the clock” game or can be hidden from view. Access the free Colors and Shapes interactive activities here.

We’d love to hear your ideas for teaching children colors and shapes! Please leave a comment.

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Contributing Writer

Theresa Wooler has more than 10 years’ experience in K–6 classrooms as a parent volunteer and homeschool educator, has taught high school English, and is currently involved in education through Evan-Moor’s marketing communications team.