This DIY shape matching game is a fun way for kids to learn shapes! Bonus points for making this so you don’t lose the puzzle pieces. The best part about this easy shape activity is that it is fast and simple to make. Keep reading to find out how!

A Shape Matching Game for On-the-Go!

This DIY shape matching game is extra practical because all the puzzle pieces are connected by a string. That means you can keep everything all together and not lose the pieces!

This makes for an easy item you can bring on-the-go whether for just playing in the car or even taking with you on a trip!

All activities should be supervised by an adult. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. This post may contain affiliate links.

Prep Time: 20 Minutes

Printable Bundle All About Shapes! 

If your kiddo is learning shapes, you’ll want to check out this printable bundle, All About Shapes! With over 25 pages of activities, it explores a dozen different shapes. From learning to write shapes, to matching shapes, recognizing shapes in real world objects, and making a shape pizza this is just a few of the many unique opportunities to play and learn with shapes!

Watch the video to see how you can turn these worksheets into a reusable busy book!

For more printables check out our entire collection!

How to Make This Shape Matching Game

This shape matching game is really such a fast, affordable, and easy way to create a fun learning activity you can do at home or beyond. Yay for reusing cardboard for playful learning!

If you need help drawing the shapes, you can always trace real life objects!

By adding velcro stickers ,the shapes are able to hold firmly in place so your kiddo can move onto matching the next shape!

Plus, don’t forget to add the shapes to a string! This is the perfect way to ensure that the kids don’t lose any of the shapes in the process. This means that you’ll never have to worry about losing a piece of the puzzle, and have the flexibility of taking this game on the road!

• Paint Sticks
• String
• Velcro Circles

• Pieces of Cardboard
• Shapes to trace (or an excellent eye for hand drawing them!)
• Marker
• Paint Sticks
• String
• Velcro Circles

Step 4

Stick down velcro stickers on the board and on each puzzle piece.

Step 5

Attach the shapes to a string so that they don’t get lost.

Step 6

Let the kids have a blast matching the shapes. 

Step 1

Cut out shapes from a piece of cardboard.

Step 2

Color the shapes – a fun, bonus, art activity for kids!

Step 3

Trace the shapes on a sheet of cardboard – this will be your puzzle board.

Step 4

Stick down velcro stickers on the board and on each puzzle piece.

Step 5

Attach the shapes to a string so that they don’t get lost.

Step 6

Let the kids have a blast matching the shapes. 

The Educational Benefits of This Shape Matching Game

There are so many great ways to use this shape puzzle as a learning activity. The kids will not only be able to learn about their shapes, but they can also use this to work on their color skills and hand-eye coordination as well. 

One way to really build language development about shapes is to talk about them with your kiddo! Ask them which shape they are matching. If they don’t know the name, say it and have them repeat you!

What’s Next?

This shapes activity for kids is a great way to strengthen shape recognition! Make this puzzle yourself, or download our free printable!

A Shapes Activity for Kids with Over a Dozen Shapes!

This shapes activity is a fun and simple way to help kids understand and learn their shapes. Learning shapes at a young age is excellent for building a strong foundation in math skills and language development. Since everything in the world is made up of shapes, it’s an important topic to help your child grow. 

To play, kids have to match the shapes to the shapes on the train or the caboose. 

The great thing about this activity is you only need few simple supplies to create this fun shapes activity. If you’re running low on art supplies, check out our comprehensive art list for more ideas!

Short on time? We understand grown ups are busy, so we made a free printable version of this activity! Read on to get it!

How To Make and Play With This Shapes Train

This shapes activity for kids is a simple way to help them explore various shapes and also learn how to recognize specific shapes when they see them. This activity will also help them understand the correct names for the shapes as well.

Make sure to watch the video first to see how to make this simple Shapes Train. It will show you how easy it is to create and just how much fun the kids will have when playing with it.

A Train-Themed Way To Help Your Child Learn Shapes

This fun train activity is a great way to help your child learn about their shapes. It’s fun because it can focus on shapes and colors, and all on a fun train!

Older kids can help with this activity as well by helping to cut out the shapes and even draw or make the base of the train.

I set up this activity on a vertical surface. This isn’t necessary, but I often will do this because it has loads of benefits. By making activities eye-level, I’ve noticed how concentration and attention is much more focused, plus it’s great for strengthening arms and shoulder muscles!

All activities should be supervised by an adult. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. This post may contain affiliate links. 

Step 4

Cover the cardboard with adhesive paper, sticky side up (or clear packing tape if you don’t have any!)

Step 5

On the edges, tape the adhesive paper down.

Step 6

On construction paper, trace and cut out each shape for matching!

Printables Shapes Activities for Kids!

Don’t have time to create this DIY game? No problem! I wanted to make things extra easy for busy grown-ups by providing a FREE printable version of this activity!

Just cut out the shapes and match them to the train puzzle!

We also have a printable bundle All About Shapes! This includes over 25 pages that explore a dozen shapes. From tracing the shapes activities, to matching shapes, building a shape robot, and cutting out shapes. That’s just a few of the many ways this printable will have your kiddo exploring shapes!

For more printable activities, visit our Printable Shop. It is filled with easy to set-up activities that help strengthen early childhood education skills!

The Educational Benefits of This Shape Train Activity

This educational shape activity for kids is perfect for helping them learn their shapes. Once your child learns the various shapes, this can then be used as a foundation for learning math, colors, and even language development.

The shapes can also be counted to work on math skills, and as your child progresses, you can even add some shapes with sight words on them to help with reading skills as well. This is also a great way to have them work on listening skills and matching various colors.

The sticking of the shapes onto the train is excellent for their fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination as well.

The more your child uses this shape train activity, the more learning activities you can add in for them!

This Pre K math activity is a great hands on and visual way to learn how to count and do simple addition. Learn more about how to easily set this up, how to get the printables, and how this game will get your preschooler on track to understanding some important basic math skills!

A Hands On Pre K Math Activity

This fun and easy-to-create activity for kids is a great way to work on math and counting. Once they start realizing that it’s possible to have fun and learn at the same time, they’re going to love adding on more and more hairs to count.

This is such a visual and tactile experience. Using simple materials you have in the home for hair, like toothpicks, pasta, and pegs – makes this activity budget friendly and hands on! This means that in just a few short minutes, your little one will be having a blast! (and learning!)

Plus, we made it even easier with a printable that does all the hard work for you. Read on to get it!

Prep Time: 20 Minutes

One Way to Set Up This Pre K Math Activity

This fun counting game is an excellent way for your child to learn the early math concepts of counting and simple addition. One way to set it up is on a vertical surface. Vertical surfaces will improve should strength, encourage crossing the midline, and benefits extending attention span! However, even on a flat surface, this game is, no doubt, a fun way for them to engage their hands and minds simultaneously.

All activities should be supervised by an adult. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. This post may contain affiliate links.

Encourage Creativity and Imagination

One of the best things about this number activity is that you can easily change it up. This makes it fun for various ages and also keeps kids interested and engaged longer. There are 2 different printables available. For toddlers and young preschoolers, you should begin with the printable that is all about counting and number recognition. Older preschoolers and kindergartners will enjoy the printable all about simple addition.

There are so many different ways you can play with this printable. We experimented with both vertical and horizontal surfaces as well as switching up the materials we used as the hair. Spaghetti noodles could be fun, ribbon might be great, or anything else that your little one brainstorms on and wants to use. Note: pipe cleaners were heavy on the adhesive paper, so either make sure you have really strong sticky paper, or use something lighter like ribbons or toothpicks!

• Tape
• Loose Parts to use as hair (for example: pasta, ribbon, pegs, pipe cleaners, etc.)

• Count the Hair Printable and Add the Hair Printable
• Adhesive Paper
• Tape
• Loose Parts to use as hair (for example: pasta, ribbon, pegs, pipe cleaners, etc.)

Step 3

Provide loose parts for your children to add as hair to the people. If doing a vertical surface, use something light! Even the pipe cleaners were a bit too heavy and had to be repositioned!

Step 1

On the non-sticky side of a strip of adheisve paper, tape the printable. You can cut out the people or leave it in the printable page.

Step 2

For a vertical surface, tape the adhesive paper to the wall, sticky side up.

Step 3

Provide loose parts for your children to add as hair to the people. If doing a vertical surface, use something light! Even the pipe cleaners were a bit too heavy and had to be repositioned!

Grab This Pre K Math Printable!

Grown up are busy, and I understand we don’t all have time to draw a bunch of people and create a DIY version of this! So I’ve made it super simple for you with these worksheets for you to print out and use! 

The Count the Hair printable is all about number recognition and is great for toddlers and young preschoolers who are beginning to recognize their numbers and count sequentially!

The Add the Hair printable is great for older preschoolers and kindergarteners who have a stronger ability to recognize numbers and are ready to start adding them together!

Make sure that you don’t miss out on our Number Parking Lot and our Count the Pizza Toppings Game, too!

For more printable activities, visit our Printable Shop. It is filled with easy to set-up activities that help strengthen early childhood education skills!

There is also an excellent benefit for your child of working on their fine motor skills with this fun activity as children pick up small objects and use hand-eye coordination to place them on top of the heads.

The Educational Benefits of Pre K Math

This activity is excellent for combining hands-on learning with early math skills.

Your child will be able to identify numbers fast for repetition and how to problem solve quickly, too. While this hair activity is quite fun, there are excellent educational benefits as well. It helps your child with number recognition, counting sequentially, one to one correspondence, and simple addition.

This then leads to more math learning, such as asking your child what number comes next or working on even larger addition, subtraction, and multiplication problems.

There is also an excellent benefit for your child of working on their fine motor skills with this fun activity as children pick up small objects and use hand-eye coordination to place them on top of the heads.