6 Best Shapes Worksheets for Preschoolers

In this post I’ll walk you through the six basic shapes that preschoolers need to know before they become kindergarten students. I’ll also give you free math worksheets that will be a fun way to teach your child these different shapes.

If you’re wondering where to begin and teaching your child shapes you’re in the right place. This post will give you all the information you need to talk to help your preschooler learn shapes.

If you want to skip ahead and grab your free preschool shapes worksheets, you can grab the pdf download here: Free Preschool Shapes Activity Book

PRESCHOOL GEOMETRY

Preschoolers need to know basic 2D shapes. They need to know shape  names and be able to describe the shapes.

In kindergarten your child will need to learn about 3D shapes.

There’s nothing wrong with introducing your child to those earlier, but I would be sure that they have a solid understanding of 2D shapes before moving out to 3D shapes.

FREE PRINTABLE SHAPES WORKSHEETS

I’ll show you all of the shapes included in the Free Preschool Shapes Activity Book and then I’ll guide you through using these free printable shapes worksheets to teach your child shapes.

The first activities included are a shapes chart and draw the shapes coloring page.

There are also great preschool shapes worksheets focused on individual shapes and I’ll dive into those in a minute.

SHAPES CHART

The shapes chart included in the Free Preschool Shapes Activity Book includes dotted line shapes and names for the 6 main shapes:

• square
• circle
• triangle
• hexagon
• rectangle
• star

Those first 5 shapes are the most important for our preschoolers to learn and start is an added bonus because they likely already know that one and it’s fun.

This chart is a great way to teach your child shape names.

You can hang it in a place they’ll see it often so they’re constantly exposed to these shape words.

SHAPES WORKSHEETS FOR PRESCHOOLERS

Next in the Free Preschool Shapes Activity Book, you’ll get shape recognition worksheets for each of the 6 main basic shapes.

Here’s what those look like:

On the top the shape work is written in bubble letters, so your child can color that in if they want to.

Then there is a large outlined shape. This is perfect for your child to trace with their finger.

They can also color in that shape.

Then on the bottom of the page, your child will need to find the matching shapes.

This is a great way for them to use what they’ve learned and decide if each small shape is the same or different than the shape they’re looking for.

Here are the variety of shapes included in these printable worksheets:

• square
• circle
• triangle
• hexagon
• rectangle
• star

These could be used to teach your child at home or laminated and used as math centers for preschool students.

SHAPE ACTIVITIES

There are many shape activities that you can do with these free shape worksheets.

Here are some ideas to get you started:

MATCHING SHAPES

You could print out 2 copies of the shapes chart, have your child cut the shapes out on the dotted lines (yay for fine motor skills) and then use the shapes cutouts for matching.

To make this even more fun, you could have your child color them and then hide the shapes around the house or in a sensory bin.

Then they’ll need to find the shapes and match them together. It’s a really fun game for preschoolers to practice finding the matching shape.

FUN COLORING IDEAS

You could assign each shape it’s own color and have your child color code the shapes they find.

So if circles are red, the big circle on the top of the worksheet will be red and the circles they find below will also be red.

Maybe triangles are orange, so then all the triangles they find will be orange.

Coloring is such a great too for building in extra practice for fine motor skills too!

COLORS AND SHAPES

Shapes and colors are great preschool math skills to learn together because they are both so visual.

It’s easy to have child practice these skills together.

I wouldn’t introduce colors and shapes at the same time but I absolutely encourage you to practice them together once your child is familiar with them.

Which Shapes Should My Child Learn First?

Our goal is for young kids to know all 6 of these basic shapes when they enter kindergarten, but they don’t need to learn them all at once.

I actually encourage you to teach your child just one or two shapes at a time because more than that can be really overwhelming.

The first 3 shapes your child should learn are:

• circle
• triangle
• square

You can teach them in any order, but that’s the order I’d pick.

After your child is very comfortable with those shapes, you can move on to the next 3.

I’d go in this order:

• rectangle
• hexagon
• star

And when you are practicing these new shapes with your child be sure to use the free worksheets I’m giving you with the shape word on top.

ABOUT HEXAGONS

You might not think of hexagons as a basic shape, but these days they are considered one.

I wouldn’t choose hexagons as the very first shape to start with but it is one you’ll want to introduce to your preschoolers before they go off and become kindergarten kids.

Of course, hexagons are very easily confused with octagons (and many other polygons) so be on the lookout for that.

Teach your child that you can count the sides to tell them apart.

SHAPE VOCABULARY

While you’re helping your preschooler learn shapes, it’s perfectly appropriate to use some math vocabulary.

Specifically, sides & corners.

You can touch each side and count the sides. Then you can repeat with the corners.

It’s great to talk about how many sides and corners each shape has.

When Should I Start Teaching My Child Shapes?

You can start introducing shapes to your child at age 2 or truly even earlier than that.

Your child may have had one of those shape sorter toys as a baby and you probably mentioned the names of those shapes sometimes, so this has been a long time in progress.

If you haven’t really been working with your child to learn shapes yet, don’t worry.

Just start now.

NOTICING SHAPES IN REAL LIFE

A great way to start learning about shapes with your preschooler is by recognizing the shapes you see in real life.

Notice and name the shapes that you see in your real life environment. 

Start with just one shape at a time – usually, circle is the easiest one to start with.

Point out the circles you encounter with your child. This might sound like, “this plate is shaped like a circle.” 

These simple observations will make your child more aware of shapes.

After a while, start to notice other shapes as well. 

Add in one more shape at a time: square, then triangle, then rectangle.

Encourage your child to notice the shapes in their environment and tell you about them too! 

START LEARNING SHAPES

Now you are ready to start teaching your preschooler shapes!

You have some great shapes worksheets for preschoolers and you know everything you need to be successful.

You know the basic shapes to start with and you have a free download to get you started! Choose a shape activity to do first and begin.

The Free Preschool Shapes Activity Book is a great resources for teaching preschoolers these geometric shapes. And it’s so much fun!

Want more free printable activities for preschoolers?

Best Worksheets for Preschooler for Numbers

Tracing Worksheets for Preschoolers