Homemade Colored Shapes

When I first learned about laminating with contact paper from the book, The Toddler’s Busy Book, I admittedly got a little carried away with “laminating” everything. One of the things I made was this set of colored shapes to help my toddler learn both his shapes and colors.

Recommended Age Range: Baby/Toddler, Preschool

Time Required: ~2 hours
Difficulty: Easy
Cost: Less than $5 in used supplies

Materials:

• colored construction paper
• a couple sheets of cardstock to make shape templates
• contact paper

Supplies & Tools:

• pencil
• scissors
• shape puzzles or other items to trace to make shape templates

Instructions:

1. Trace the shape puzzle pieces onto the cardstock.
2. Freehand draw any other shapes you may want onto the cardstock (moon/crescent, heart, etc.)
3. Cut out the shapes from the cardstock to make shape templates.
4. Trace one of each shape on each of the different colors of construction paper.
5. Cut out all the shapes in all the colors.
6. “Laminate” the shapes with contact paper.
7. Trim the laminated shapes.

To use these colored shapes with your toddler, gather all the shapes of one color together and ask questions like, “Can you find the circle?” Or you can gather all the colors of one type of shapes (like squares) and say, “Can you find the green square?” Once your child is getting pretty good at identifying all the shapes and colors, he or she can hunt through the whole pile for a specific shape and color (“Where’s the purple rectangle?”). You can also use the entire pile of colored shapes and say, “Let’s find all the blue shapes.” or “Let’s find all the triangles.” In this way, you can held your toddler learn to categorize and organize.

GOOD LUCK!

Related Links

Best Books for Preschoolers
Pre-K Learning
Homemade Preschool Fun