Sensory Bin to Teach Shapes to Toddlers and Preschoolers

How to Teach Shapes to Toddlers and Preschoolers -- Moms Have Questions Too

This is the very first post for a brand new series. I’ve been working on teaching colors to Smiley Man for several months now and we did a bunch of color activities and ended our color series with a huge link page for teaching colors. Now that Smiley Man knows his colors so well. I am ready to start a new series. This series will be all about teaching shapes. We’ll do several activities to teach shapes, discuss the age to teach shapes, what shapes kids (specifically toddlers and preschoolers) should learn, and fun stuff like that.

How to Teach Shapes to Toddlers and Preschoolers -- Moms Have Questions Too

I’m starting off the series with a very basic activity to teach shapes. A sensory bin! Actually, a different sensory bin for each shape. I started with a sensory bin filled with circle objects. I knew this would be a great first shape to teach because Smiley Man LOVES balls. Of course all of the circle objects in his sensory bin made him think of balls.

After circles, I did a square sensory bin. It was a little bit more difficult to find objects for the square sensory bin, but I got pretty creative and found a bunch of really great things.

How to Teach Shapes to Toddlers and Preschoolers -- Moms Have Questions Too

I used ABC blocks as a base, then just went around the house and added anything that looked like a square. Well, anything that was shaped like a square AND that I didn’t mind Smiley Man playing with. ;)

After I found a bunch of things, I felt like the bin needed a bit more to it, so I set about making some more squares for the sensory bin.

How to Teach Shapes to Toddlers and Preschoolers -- Moms Have Questions Too

This sensory bin was a huge hit with Smiley Man. He loved discovering all of the square objects, holding them, touching them, and just enjoying them. I let him play with this whenever he wanted, but I made sure to spend at least a few minutes looking through it with him and pointing out all of the squares in the bin.

How to Teach Shapes to Toddlers and Preschoolers -- Moms Have Questions Too

If you are wondering what shapes your toddler or preschooler should learn, here are the shapes I will be teaching Smiley Man throughout this series: circle, square, triangle, rectangle, star, diamond, oval, heart.

*Want to see more themed activities like this for toddlers or preschoolers? Check out our store page where our toddler and preschool series are compiled into Activity Packs for only $1.99! The Activity Packs are full of lesson plans, printables, and a curriculum guide.