Circle shapes for preschool
Teaching Circles to Toddlers and Preschoolers
You are here: Home / Shapes / Teaching Circles to Toddlers and Preschoolers
by Sheryl Cooper
Inside: These 15+ activities are great for teaching circles to preschoolers. Great for young toddlers who are just beginning to learn shapes!
Throughout the school year, we focus on different shapes with our little ones.
At the beginning of the year, our toddlers are still very young, so we like to keep things simple.
That’s why we start off with the circle as our first shape.
Circles are pretty easy for preschoolers to identify- they do not have to count any sides to know which shape it is.
And of course, the best way for them to remember the shape is by working with them hands-on to begin to recognize circles in their daily lives.
These 15+ easy circle activities help your toddlers and preschoolers learn how to recognize and create the shape of a circle.
👉 Scroll down to find free circles packet printable you can use with your toddlers and preschoolers!
Toddler Circle Art with Paper Tubes – Fun process art activity for stamping circles onto paper.
Spool Stamping – Recycle empty thread spools for stamping circles. Lots of action!
Circle Hunt – Add some large motor while inviting your toddlers to find hidden felt circles.
Color Matching Circles – Have toddlers fill in colorful circles with watercolors or markers to practice making the shape of a circle. (Playing House in Maryland)
Circle Suncatcher – Press circle shapes made of tissue paper onto a larger circle shape of clingwrap for a suncatcher full of circles. (Our Crafts N Things)
Easter Egg Circles – Stamp colorful circles onto the paper using the edges of easter eggs. (Buggy and Buddy)
Cereal Circles – Trace the shape of the circle using round cereal such as cheerios or fruit loops. (Everyday Chaos and Calm)
Trace and Color – Free coloring page for tracing and coloring in the circles.
(Kidzone)
Circle Themed Sensory Bin – Create a sensory bin with all round items, such as cotton balls and buttons. (My Life of Travels and Adventures)
Q-Tip Painting – Free printable sheet for preschoolers to practice dotting the shape of a circle with paint and q-tips. (From ABCs to ACTs)
I Spy Shape Hunt – Have a shape hunt to find circles around the room. (Munchkins and Moms)
Playdough Mat Shapes – Print out these circle playdough mats for toddlers to practice making a circle with playdough. (Free Homeschool Deals)
Learning Shapes with Cars – Create a circle car track to practice tracing the shape of a circle. (Adventures and Play)
Car Color Match – Match the circle to the correct color of car with this printable. (Childcareland)
Circle Treasure Basket – Create a basket of circular objects for little hands to explore. (Play Adventures)
Velcro Block – Create a velcro block to stick and remove circles. (Memorizing the Moments)
Circle Lacing – Use shoelaces and a circular lacing card to practice lacing around the shape of a circle.
(My Life of Travels and Adventures)
When teaching circles to your toddlers and preschoolers, what activities do you like to do?
Download this FREE packet when teaching circles to your toddlers and preschoolers:More shape activities:
How to Teach Shape Recognition to Preschoolers with Fun Activities
Learning about Squares
Learning Shapes in Preschool Using Toys
Shapes Fine Motor Activities
Now available: Shapes fine motor activities pack. Fun activities that work on building fine motor skills all with a shapes theme!
Prep once and use over and over again.
Contents
•Shapes Roll and Color – Dice and Printable
•Shape Cotton Swab Painting – 2 Options
•Shape Manipulative Printables – 9 Shapes
•Shape Tracing Cards – 16 Cards
•Shape Dot Marker Printables – 15 Options
•Shape Craft Sticks Task Cards – 8 Options
•Shape Play Dough Mats – 13 Options
58 Total Pages
Click Here for Download Information
FREE CIRCLE TIME PLANNER!
Get your FREE circle time planner as a gift when you subscribe to my free weekly newsletters.
Here is my Privacy Policy
Filed Under: preschool, Shapes, Toddlers Tagged With: circles, preschool, printables, shapes, toddlers
About Sheryl Cooper
Sheryl Cooper is the founder of Teaching 2 and 3 Year Olds, a website full of activities for toddlers and preschoolers. She has been teaching this age group for over 20 years and loves to share her passion with teachers, parents, grandparents, and anyone with young children in their lives.
12 Learning Games About Circles for Young Kids
- Share
Teaching your kids about shapes and need some ideas for learning about circles?
The best way to teach young kids the early maths skill of shape recognition is to let them see, feel and experience shapes in a hands-on, concrete way.
There is no better way than by learning through play.
Try these fun games about circles with your preschoolers and kindergartners. They are suitable for home and school.
Some can be played with one child, others with a small or large group of kids.
1. Hide and Seek
Play a game of Hide and Seek with a twist.
Make paper or cardboard cut-outs of circles and hide them in the garden, house or classroom. Let kids search for them. Hide enough shapes so that everyone has a chance to find a few.
You can use the circles after the game for an art activity, such as pasting them onto paper to create a picture out of circles. Draw the details on with markers or crayons.
2. Find the Circles
For this game, instead of searching for hidden paper shapes, challenge kids to find items in their environment – the living room, classroom or garden – that have circular shapes.
Collect all the circular items and discuss them after the search. This is a great opportunity to teach children the vocabulary of shapes.
Here are examples of questions:
- What do you call a three-dimensional circle?
- Is this a circle or a sphere? (2D and 3D shapes)
- Does it have straight or curved edges?
- Is this item perfectly round?
- How many circular faces does this clock have?
- Is it flat?
3. I Spy A Circle
Play a game of I spy with my little eye, with circles.
Sitting in a circle, each child gets a turn to spot something in the room that has a circle shape on it. They must use descriptive language to give clues and let the others guess the object.
Here are some examples:
- I spy with my little eye a circle that…has hands on it and is used to tell the time.
- I spy with my little eye a circle that…is green and lives on a poster on the wall.
- I spy with my little eye a circle that…is purple and is on someone’s jacket.
For very young children, make up the clues yourself and keep them basic, as in the clues above.
4. Musical Circles
For this variation of the classic game, play music as children dance about. When it stops, they must all quickly join hands and make a large circle together.
This is best played outdoors with a big group.
You could also split kids into smaller groups. When the music stops, they must find their group as quickly as possible and form a circle.
This is also a fun listening activity for kids.
Another way to play this game is to lay out large circles on the ground, one per person. Hula hoops work well for this activity.
When the music stops, each child must run and stand on/in a circle. A child who doesn’t get to a circle in time is out. Each round, one circle is removed until there is one winner left.
If playing with very young kids, there is no need to remove circles and have them go “out”. There is enough fun in trying to find a circle, without standing on one that’s already taken, or bumping into others.
This game is good for learning position in space.
5. Body Circles
Teach kids to feel the shape of a circle with this movement activity.
Challenge them to form a circle with their body parts, such as their fingers, hands, legs, or their whole body.
They can also try to make a circle with a partner or a group of children. They will have to get creative to think of ways to do this.
6. Cross the River
Play a balancing game with kids where you pretend to cross a dangerous river.
Make large cutouts of various shapes, including circles. Tell kids that the circles are rocks that are safe to stand on. Assign objects to the other shapes – such as plants, water, crocodiles, etc.
Lay the shapes across a room, making sure to place the circles close enough together – but not in a straight line – with the other shapes in between them.
Kids must cross the river by making sure to step on rocks only. Get their imaginations going as they try to remember what they are stepping on and what they are trying to avoid.
They might get wet if they accidentally step onto a rectangle (water) but the consequences will be greater if they step onto a crocodile (triangle).
This is a great way to build kids’ visual perception and shape recognition.
This is also something you can do with chalk. Draw the shapes on the paving in various colours and have kids cross the chalk river.
7. Circle Puzzles
Using construction paper/cardboard, make your own circle puzzles. Laminate them if possible to make them sturdy and long-lasting.
Cut them into any shapes and get kids to build them. Store each circle puzzle in a separate plastic bag.
They can be cut into shapes like a pie graph, random shapes, or classic jigsaw puzzle shapes, like in the picture below.
8. Matching Circles
Make different-sized and coloured circles out of paper or cardboard, then get kids to match them. They must be of identical size and colour to be a perfect match.
You can also turn this into a memory game for children by using small square cards and pasting circles on the other side in pairs of various sizes and colours.
Kids take turns to turn over two cards at a time and if they match, they keep the pair. This is challenging as all the pictures are circles so make sure to only offer a few cards for younger kids.
9. Circular Hopscotch
Play a game of hopscotch, but instead of drawing the standard court, try this circular court. It will give children a real sense of the shape of a circle as they move around the formation.
This is how to play Hopscotch with a preschooler. You will need to adapt it slightly to play circular Hopscotch.
10. Circle Creation
Give kids a set of circle shapes each, with a variety of sizes and colours. Provide markers, scissors and glue sticks and ask them to think of something to create with their circles.
Try not to let them see what the other kids are making, then have a show-and-tell at the end where each child explains what they created.
11. Tic-Tac-Toe
Tic-tac-toe is a fun thinking game that can also be played in pairs to teach circles.
Instead of playing it with noughts and crosses, play a game of circles and triangles by cutting out sets of these shapes. One player will be triangles, the other will be circles.
12. Things That are Round
As a group, play a game where you think of as many things as possible that are round/have a circular shape. Think wider than the class or home, to include nature, the community, the world, and while you’re at it, the universe.
Here are some examples of circles around us:
- Wheels
- Clocks
- Balls
- Rings
- Planets
- Beads
- Meatballs
- The power button of a computer
- Cakes
- Plates
- Peas and other round vegetables
This kind of game will get kids to think a lot. Turn it into a challenge by making 2 teams and giving points for each new object they think of.
I hope you’ll enjoy these hands-on games for teaching circles!
Get FREE access to Printable Puzzles, Stories, Activity Packs and more!
Join Empowered Parents + and you’ll receive a downloadable set of printable puzzles, games and short stories, as well as the Learning Through Play Activity Pack which includes an entire year of activities for 3 to 6-year-olds.
Access is free forever.
Signing up for a free Grow account is fast and easy and will allow you to bookmark articles to read later, on this website as well as many websites worldwide that use Grow.
- Share
Thematic kit "Circle"
Materials for classes with children on the topic "Circle", which will help the child remember this geometric figure.
Mats for laying pebbles and guides. First, it is better for kids to circle the figure with a finger, and then with a pencil.
Find and circle all round objects. You can also look for such items in the environment.
Hide the mouse from the cat. To make it more interesting for the children, I take a toy cat, and the children have to shade the mouse so that it is not visible. We hide three mice in burrows of different sizes under the covers, repeating the concept of more or less.
nine0003
First, the children trace round hollows, and then glue owls there. Owls can be cut out by both the mother/teacher and the children themselves.
Find a pair task.
Find a pair task. Sort the figures by size.
Mandalas. You can color it yourself. And you can cut it in half and look for halves.
Mats for Gyenes blocks, if there are no blocks, cut out cardboard circles can be used. nine0003
Find and draw a circle. Color only the circles.
Grids for Lay Like Me and Memory Grid. In the first game, the adult lays out circles of different colors and sizes in the cells, and the child must lay them out as well. For all its apparent simplicity, it is sometimes very difficult for kids. In the second game, we do the same, only the adult covers his figures, and the child must lay them out from memory.
Creative templates:
Application or drawing "Snail house" from circles of different sizes.
nine0003
Modeling "Car service" - we make plasticine wheels for cars.
It is also important not to forget that when working with kids it is very important to use their motor activity and love for play. Indeed, in movement and play, they learn knowledge better and more firmly. Therefore, in addition to printed materials, I use such games as:
"Wonderful bag" - I put figures of different shapes in an opaque bag and ask me to pull out only circles, or only small circles, without looking. nine0003
"Houses" - circles of different colors are laid out on the floor, children walk between them with a calm step. When I call out "Yellow Circle" or "Blue Circle", the children should quickly jump into it.
"Harvest" - I distribute bags or baskets of different colors to children. Children turn into hedgehogs, who must collect apple circles in the clearing of the same color as their bag.
"Path" - from circles we build paths from one animal or person to another.
nine0003
"Turret" - we build turrets only from circles.
Download the thematic kit "Circle"
If you like the material, I will be grateful for reviews and comments)
Similar posts:
Square thematic 9000
Thematic set "Rectangle"
Add a comment
"Geometric figure - circle" | Outline of a lesson in mathematics (middle group):
"Geometric figure - circle"
The purpose of the lesson: to introduce a plane geometric figure to a circle and its properties.
Tasks:
Educational: to learn to see round objects in the environment and in the picture. Develop the ability to identify and express in speech signs of similarity and difference of a circle based on polysensory perception. Develop the ability to make a circle figure from several parts. nine0003
Correctional and developmental: to develop mental operations attention, memory, tactile perception, holistic perception, spatial analysis and synthesis.
Educational: to cultivate the ability to understand and perform a learning task, to develop interest in classes on the formation of elementary mathematical representations.
Equipment:
Display material: laptop, rabbit toy, bear picture, cart picture with round and triangular wheels,
Handout: Red circles, coins, buttons, rings, plates, crayons, dotted wheel cart drawing, mixed lengths of string, activity sheets, color-coded activity circles, toy bag, quarter circles for each child, glue.
Course of the lesson:
1. Organizational moment
Hello guys! Today in the lesson we will get acquainted with the geometric figure of a circle, learn how to find round objects, and we will also help fairy-tale characters, and we will also learn how to assemble a geometric figure from parts. So, the topic of our lesson is a geometric figure - a circle. nine0003
Today at the lesson I will give you parts of the circle, the one who will be the most attentive and complete all the tasks, at the end of the lesson will be able to assemble a geometric figure.
2. Main body. Introduction to the topic.
Guys, today I want to tell you a story about the hare Kasyan (there is a toy hare with a wheel on the table).
Kasyan the hare has a family: a hare and rabbits. Just like you and me. Name your family, who do you live with? (mom, dad, brother, sister).
So, the hare Kasyan also lives with his family in the forest. nine0003
The hare Kasyan once went looking for mushrooms and sees that the wheel is lying on the ground. I want the hare to take the wheel home, but he doesn’t know if it’s possible. I flew past a magpie, which knew about everything in the forest. She said that the wheel is nobody's. Kasyan decided to take the wheel home. I tried to lift it, but it can't, it's very heavy.
- What do you think the hare should do to bring the wheel home? (the wheel needs to be rolled to the house). Well done!
Kasyan rolled the wheel home. The hares saw, were delighted and shouted: “What a big coin! What a big button! And Kasyan says: “This is not a coin or a button.
It's a wheel." nine0003
Talk about the content of the story:
- Did you like the story?
- Guys, what did the hare find in the forest? (wheel)
- How did the hare bring the wheel home? (rolled the wheel home)
- What did the rabbits call the wheel? (coin, button)
- Let's look at the items that I have prepared for you (coins, buttons, rings). Children examine, manipulate with objects.
- Name these items. What can these items do?
(Wheel, button and coin can roll.) Well done! nine0003
And these objects have the same shape - the shape of a circle. Today we will talk about the circle with you.
Listen to the poem: (presentation)
I have no corners
And I look like a saucer
On a plate and on a lid,
On a ring, on a wheel.
I am an old friend to people.
They call me a circle.
Look carefully -
You will definitely see.
Let's repeat and see what objects the circle looks like (children look at the pictures and name objects that look like a circle - a plate, a ring, etc.
). nine0003
Explore the circle exercise
- Guys, I have circles. What color are they?
- What can a circle do? (Roll).
- Why do you think the circle is rolling? Let's find out together.
Show the left handle - press the circle to the table with your left hand and circle around the edge with the finger of your right hand. Are there corners? They are not here! A figure that has no corners and that can roll is called a circle!
- So why can our circles roll? (because there are no corners). nine0003
- Look at the two laces in front of you. What color are the laces? (red and green).
- What else can be said about them? (the red lace is long and the green lace is short).
- What do you think the circles will be?
- Let's make circles out of threads.
- What are the circles? (small and large)
- Why is the red lace circle larger than the green one? (lace was longer).
- Look, a palm can fit in a large circle, and only a finger can fit in small circles.
nine0003
- Let's make a circle of fingers (connect the thumbs and forefingers of the right and left hands together, form a circle). Well done! For a correctly completed task, you get parts of a geometric figure.
Didactic game "Help the bear" (solving a problem situation).
Guys, hare Kasyan received a letter from his friend the bear. The bear sent a drawing of a cart that he made himself (I'm attaching it to the board).
But the bear does not know why his cart is not moving and asks for help. (Children look at the picture and find out that the wheels are triangular. And in order for the cart to go, you need round wheels, which means you need to replace the triangular wheels with round ones). nine0003
- How to help a bear? (replace wheels)
- What should he do? (make round wheels).
- Let's draw round wheels on the cart and send a letter to the bear.
Children draw round wheels on the cart along the dotted line with colored pencils.
- Well done! For a correctly completed task, you get parts of a geometric figure.
Exercise "Close the figures that look like a circle"
- Guys, while we were repairing the bear's cart, rabbits came from school. At the forest school, they also study a geometric figure - a circle and ask for help to complete the task. Let's help them. (children receive colored circles and worksheets). nine0003
- Guys, different objects are drawn on your card, but we will cover round objects with colored circles. Let's take a look at you and name the color of the circles (yellow, red, green, blue). What do you think is yellow, blue, red, green? (the sun is yellow, the ball is red, the water is blue, the grass is green). Well done!
- You and I will cover round objects with a circle of such a color as this object can be. For example, the sun is round and can be yellow or red. (then the children perform in turn). nine0003
- For a correctly completed task, you get parts of a geometric figure.
Count how many parts you have? (three). Well done!
Fizminutka (movements in the text)
“Girls and boys! Imagine that you are bunnies!
One two three four five
- Guys, while you and I were playing, the rabbits to the mother of the Bunny in the kitchen mixed up all the items. Let's help Mom Hare and take out only round objects from the bag to the touch. A didactic game "Wonderful bag" is being held. (Children take turns taking out an item and calling it; at the end of the game, open the bag and look at what items are left and explain why). nine0003
- For a correctly completed task, you get parts of a geometric figure.
- Guys, let's count how many parts you have. All 4 parts? Gather a circle. (Children collect a circle from quarters).
- What figure did you make?
- Guys, you are great fellows. You learned a lot about the circle and learned how to find round objects among those around you.
And now let's make a postcard for our hare Kasyan.
