Shape Sorting Worksheets
Being able to sort similarities and differences is a huge win for preschool students. This is where they begin to form problem solving skills and the art of making a comparison. This something students often show up to school being able to already do. It is most likely because they had a shape sorter as a baby. Teachers will often assess this early in their curriculum and often choose to just skip this altogether, since students already have this skill mastered. I would caution you on that approach since it is a great time for students to experience some success in the classroom. This helps them enjoy school and builds up their self-esteem. This should be one of your fundamental goals when working with those grade levels. These worksheets and lessons help students learn how to sort shapes based on similar characteristics and differences that exist between them.
Aligned Standard: K.G.B.5
- Shapes and Shaped-Sets: Step by-Step Lesson- You have sets of objects that form a shape. It always reminds me of college football parades.
- Guided Worksheet -We find shapes in real world objects.
- Guided Explanation - A little bit of line drawing and underlining.
- Independent Practice Worksheet - Some of these are very easy, but I think it is a nice mix.
- Matching Worksheet - See if this one confuses you. Some people tell me that it's brilliant or others, just the opposite.
- Answer Keys - These are for all the unlocked materials above.
Lesson Sheets
Students learn to count corners and sides of shapes. Naming shapes is next.
- Lesson 1 - We can simplify the triangle like this. The arrows point to the corners.
- Lesson 2 - This is called a rectangle. Rectangles have four sides and two pairs of sides are the same or equal lengths.
Practice Worksheets
A nice mix of naming shapes and finding shapes in the real world.
- Practice 1 - How many sides and corners does this shape have?
- Practice 2 - This is called a square. Squares have four sides that are all equal lengths.
- Practice 3 - A corner of a shape is a place where two straight lines meet.
- Practice 4 - A side is a line that joins two corners.
- Practice 5 - Find the 2 basic shapes shown in the car.
Tips to Help Preschoolers Sort Shapes
Children are exceptionally creative and want to make sense of everything they do in this world. Similar is the case of identifying different shapes. Now, there are various ways to identify them, and this is where different sorting activities are designed. Sorting deals with identifying similarities and differences between different shapes. Children classify different shapes based on different objects ever since their infants. For instance, if you want to stop your baby from taking your cellphone, you can give it a rectangular block. Similarly, if you want preschoolers to sort objects, you need to make sure they are full of characteristics. Such as color, size, and shape of an object. If they are aware of these characteristics, the kids can solve puzzles. Once a child starts to match two or more objects, then they learn sorting. They can then do the opposite as well.
As a teacher or parent there are a number of different ways to approach this. We got all whole staff together and took the teachers that have taught either preschool or kindergarten and had them share their best activities for practicing and learning to sort shapes. Here are what our staff agrees on as the best two activities of the bunch.
Bag of Stuff - Just as it sounds, you give students a bag of stuff. The only caveat is that each of the objects in the bag have a definitive shape. You then take a big shape which is either drawn on a piece of paper or you can make out the shape on the floor with tape. Have students take the objects in the bag and place them into the shape that fits accurately. Our teachers suggest that begin with just two shapes and once they master it, move on to working with three and four shapes.
Matching Shapes - Create cards, which if you Google really quickly are premade, that have two different appearing shapes. You may have a set of shapes that are blue and others that are green or a series that differ by their size. Whatever you do just make sure there is some type of difference between them. Have the students shuffle the cards and place all the cards face up. They should take turns with a partner of picking two that match until they match all the shapes. Then you can have them play the classic game memory with the same set of cards. This really helps the concept sink in.