At a Glance
This St. Patrick's Day shape sorting game has toddlers and preschoolers matching six themed shapes - square, circle, rectangle, triangle, pentagon and hexagon - to their outlines on the shape mat. The hands-on math center builds shape recognition, visual discrimination and fine motor skills, with plenty of room to weave in language development through naming and describing each shape.
Need a simple way to boost those shape recognition skills this season? Then this simple St Patrick’s Day shape matching game is here to help!
This St Patrick’s Day printable includes 6 themed shapes and a shape mat with the shape outlines to place them on.
It’s pretty easy to prep, just print it off, cut the shapes out and let them test their shape knowledge in a fun way!
I hope they enjoy it!
You can check out some more early math printables here.
What Skills Can Your Little Ones Learn?
For a simple shape sorting game, there’s actually quite a lot of skills that can be learnt and practiced!
With this St Patrick’s Day shape game your little ones can develop:
- Visual discrimination skills– the ability to notice differences between objects and symbols is actually an important early reading skill (letters are just shapes really). Your children will have to learn to look closely at the shapes to make the correct pairings!
- Fine motor skills – as they’ll need to be able to pick up the shapes, and hand-eye coordination and hand control as they ensure they are placing them on the matching space on the sheet.
- Speech and language skills – If you make sure you are getting them to talk about the shapes they can see when they are matching. It’s a good chance to get them to describe what they can see. What shapes can you see? Do you know anything else that’s that shape?
- Shape recognition – an important early geometry skill.
- Counting – counting the sides of shapes can be a great way to help develop this essential skill.
- Patience and persistence – They’ll have to carry on even if they find it tricky at first.
Who’d have thought such a simple game can help your children develop so many skills – that’s the power of play!
How To Prepare This St Patrick’s Day Shape Sorting Activity
Firstly, download the shape game by clicking on the download box at the bottom of the page.
Then, print the pages out on to paper or card.
Next, cut the shapes out.
There’s 6 shapes – square, circle, rectangle, triangle, pentagon and hexagon.
I’d advise laminating them after as it will keep them nice if you want to use them again.
Now you’re all set and ready to play!
How To Use This St Patrick’s Day Shape Sorting Activity
Christmas Shape Matching
If your little ones are just starting out on their shape identifying journey, then you may want to just hand them one shape at a time and see if they can match it to the correct space on the shape mat.
If you really want to help them improve their shape knowledge it’s important here to say the name of the shape as you give it to them and point out key features, this is a circle and it just has one big round side.
If they’re getting more confident you can place all the shapes down next to the mat and get them to match them on their own. Try and get them to say the name of the shape as they do it so that the knowledge gets embedded.
If they’re feeling really confident now, it might be fun to time them to see how fast they can do and see if they can beat their previous record! You could always call out which shapes you want them to find as you go.
Shape Flash Cards
You could also use the shapes as mini flash cards to help your little ones learn the names of some of the shapes as well as what they look like.
Again, it’s important to say the name of the shapes and get them to say them back to you as well as pointing out the shapes features.
Some Tips to get Some Extra Language Development In
I mentioned above that these kinds of matching games can be great for language development as well as improving visual discrimination skills.
Talking about what they can see while they’re playing is always great.
Ask them about the shapes. What shapes are there? What else do you know that is that shape? Can you see anything in the room that’s that shape?
Talking about shapes can be great to enhance their early math skills as well!
This kind of questioning will keep them engaged and help embed the knowledge into their ever-growing brains!
I hope you and your little ones enjoy this St Patrick’s Day shape sorting activity! Please let me know in the comments below.
