1. Color the shapes.
a. Cut out shapes and glue them on paper so that there can be different examples of rectangles and triangles especially.
b. Cut out free-standing shapes to accentuate the lines even more. Then the child is holding just a circle, etc. That way it's tactile as well as visual. I did this with card stock, but it would have been good with cardboard to make the shape stand out even more.
2. Create shape pictures.
Notes: We have a game for this, but with different-shaped blocks, this could be done even without the pictures.
3. Reach in a paper sack for shapes.
a. For my three-year-old, he could look in and pull it out and try to identify it.
b. For my five-year-old, I told him a shape to search for and had him try to find it by touch. He already knows the shapes, but it helped him be involved and have fun with it.
Notes: Items I gathered: a ball, some blocks, some foam shapes from the game mentioned in #1, a quarter, a note card, a puzzle piece.
4. Race for shapes.
Notes: Start in one spot. In one direction (for the three-year-old) have the physical shapes. In the other direction (for the five-year-old) have the written words. Send them for a shape and have them "race" back. However, I did emphasize that they weren't racing each other. They were just trying to be as fast as they could be.
5. Hunt for shapes.
Notes: I made my hands into binoculars, but it could be cute to glue toilet paper rolls together for the purpose. Anyway, we called ourselves explorers and we went looking for shapes. We did one at a time. First, we hunted for circles. Then squares, etc. "Do you see any interesting examples of that specimen? Oh, look a triangle!"
Other ideas we didn't end up trying, but might be good:
-- trying to make the shapes with our bodies
-- using some dice that have shapes on them (either the shapes or the words) --> the kids roll the dice and identify which shape it is
