Triangle activity for toddlers

14 Triangle Shape Crafts & Activities

Shape recognition is so important at an early age. These skills will help your little ones grow and provide a good foundation for geometry skills and letter recognition in the future! Understanding a triangle’s form comes from more than just drawing three lines with three points; preschoolers should have the opportunity to explore triangles with all of their senses! That can come from painting triangles, forming triangles with play dough, and even enjoying triangle snacks! Here are 14 resources and ideas for activities to explore triangles!

Here is a great starter activity for preschoolers! These fun crafts instruct parents to draw different-sized triangles (at least two of the same size) and instruct the child which-sized triangles to paint each color. Great for triangle recognition!

Learn More: Number Dyslexia

This website includes several triangle craft ideas using construction paper! They emphasize the importance of shape recognition for later geometry skills. Create this cute chick to practice cutting triangles!

Learn More: Preschool Activities

Before beginning to create triangles, it’s important for students to think about their prior knowledge. What do your children already know of that is triangular in shape? This color, cut, and paste activity allows learners to identify real-world objects that are triangular!

Learn More: Teachers Pay Teachers

This fun activity has links for all materials included in the article! Your children will love pressing triangles into play dough and creating their own designs with colored matchsticks. 

Learn More: Teaching 2 and 3-Year-Olds

Preschoolers love to sing songs, so what better way to learn about triangles than by singing about them? With tunes to classic songs like “Frere Jacques” and “London Bridge”, children will quickly pick up on the words used to identify triangular objects.

Learn More: Step-By-Step CC

Here is a great downloadable and printable worksheet for students to practice identifying and exploring triangles! Great for an independent station activity where students trace, cut, and color triangles.

Learn More: Twinkl

Mixing art with math, this activity requires children to cut colored triangles, glue them onto the dotted outlines, and create their own fish! All you need to do is print out the downloadable worksheet and provide colored paper, scissors, and glue!

Learn More: Class Monitor

This is a cute story with songs and interactive characters made out of recyclable materials. Your children will love watching the triangle meet with a boy and a dog while identifying triangular shapes, like a pizza slice! After watching, challenge your learners to make their own performances with triangular characters!

Learn More: Gargi Sharma

With pizza, sandwiches, watermelon slices, and more, you can have your learners identify triangles in real life! To add more to their lesson, have them feel the sides of their triangular foods to identify the characteristics of triangles.

Learn More: First Cry

This website provides several creative triangle paste activities! This one includes a fun tree craft where students can take pre-cut triangles and a glue stick, and paste them inside a larger triangle.

Learn More: Creative Tots

Great for independent station activities such as triangle lesson follow-up!  This website provides several free downloadable and printable worksheets where students work to identify triangles from simple shapes.

Learn More: Clever Learner

Another follow-up and independent activity, learners can play these triangle games on any electronic device! This is a great game to practice learning and solidifying knowledge of triangular shapes.

Learn More: Tiny Tap

Give your learners a hands-on and mess-free triangle experience with these triangle trays! This website provides several printable activities to put inside your trays that can then handle the mess of glue and macaroni, triangle pattern blocks, and more!

Learn More: Teach My Toddlers

The Greedy Triangle is a great children’s story that guides students in exploring geometric shapes and how the amount of sides on a shape,  changes its form. This website includes the story and several follow-up activities for differing levels; including a beloved geoboard!

Learn More: Teach Junkie

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Toddler Triangle Shapes Activity that Also Builds Fine Motor Skills

You are here: Home / Shapes / Toddler Triangle Shapes Activity that Also Builds Fine Motor Skills

January 16, 2019 by Sheryl Cooper

Inside: Here’s a fun toddler triangle shapes activity that is perfect for with playdough. The pressing motion is a great way to strengthen those hands and fingers, getting them ready for using writing tools. And it’s super easy to set up!

I am often asked how I teach shapes to our toddlers.

Truly, it’s all about exposure. And you can do this in many areas of your classroom or home.

For example, we’ve added shapes to our sensory bin after reading the book The Shape of Things.

We’ve used nesting blocks when stamping squares onto paper.

One of our circle time activities was going on a shape hunt, looking for felt circles.

So, this time I pulled out my big bag of jumbo buttons and came up with a fun way to expose our toddlers to the triangle with the added benefit of strengthening fine motor skills.

CLICK HERE to find a week’s worth of shape recognition activities!

What we used:

• Triangles from our big bag of jumbo shape buttons
• Matching colored plates or bowls
• Playdough
• Colored Matchsticks (optional)

Now, you can adapt this depending on what you have. The most important 2 materials are the triangles and the playdough.

I happened to have matching plastic plates that I had purchased from IKEA a couple of weeks ago. Purely coincidental!

The main goal of this activity is to handle the triangles and press them into playdough, noticing the triangle imprint.

Setting up this toddler triangle shapes activity:

I placed some mounds of playdough on the table as well as the triangle buttons and plates during our free choice centers time.

While the first couple of children started working with the pieces, I looked at those small holes in the buttons and thought how fun it would be to add something that could be pressed through them.

That’s when I remembered the box of colored matchsticks in one of our classroom cabinets.

I pulled them out, added some to the table, and continued to observe.

Sure enough, after the buttons were pressed into the playdough, the children then pressed the matchsticks through the holes.

Talk about an extra fine motor challenge!

Some of the children even matched the sticks to the same colored buttons. Bonus! Now we had color recognition taking place as well as fine motor.

What I love about these types of activities is that in addition to being simple and building a variety of skills, they keep this age group focused for awhile. We all know how short their attention spans can be, so when I can find something that keeps them captivated for awhile, it’s a nice plus.

I simply left this activity on the table for the duration of centers time so that the children could come and go, as they do with all the different activities.

When finished, the materials were put away to be used again for a different activity.

Toddler Shapes Art Activity

Circle Art with Paper Tubes

STEM Playdough Building Challenge

Birthday Party Playdough Fun

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Filed Under: Colors, Fine Motor, Playdough, Shapes, Toddler Fine Motor, Toddlers Tagged With: colors, fine motor, play dough, playdough, 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.

Summary of the lesson "Introduction to the triangle" | Plan-summary of a lesson in mathematics:

Acquaintance with a geometric figure - a triangle.

Age group: second junior

Purpose: introduction to the geometric figure-triangle.

Tasks:

Educational: Introduce children to the geometric triangle. Learn to examine the form tactile-motor way. Learn to see the shape of objects, correlate it with the name of geometric shapes.

Educational: Formation of skills of cooperation, mutual understanding, goodwill, independence, initiative, responsibility, to cultivate the ability to listen to the educator, accuracy when working with glue, develop communication skills.

Developing: - Development of attention and perception, general motor skills, coordination of speech with movement.

Vocabulary work: triangle, angles, circle, square.

Planned results of the lesson: introduce the geometric figure triangle.

Preparatory work: didactic games.

Materials and equipment: Demonstration: toy - Bear, large geometric shapes: circle, square, triangle.

Handout: geometric envelopes, paper handkerchiefs, small triangular and square shapes, glue, brushes, napkins.

The course of the lesson.

Invented by someone, simply and wisely,
to greet each other: “Good morning!”
Good morning sun and birds!
Good morning smiling faces!
And everyone becomes kind, trusting,
And good morning lasts until evening.

Educator. Guys, today Mishka wants to visit us (there is a knock on the door and Mishka appears).

Bear: Hello guys! I heard that today you will get acquainted with one interesting geometric figure. I also want to learn something new. But he did not come empty-handed, but brought you multi-colored envelopes (distributes envelopes to children).

Educator: Thank you Mishka, stay with us and see what we will do. Guys, now let's sit down in our seats, open the envelopes and see what's in there.

Children open envelopes containing geometric shapes (circle, square, triangle). The teacher asks to show the circle first, roll it, then show the square, try to roll it. Remember why the square cannot roll (the corners interfere, ask to show the corners.)

Educator: what kind of figure was left in the envelope? Who knows? (It is very rare when children can name a triangle, so the teacher calls himself, then the children repeat in chorus and individual answers).

Educator: Guys, look, this figure looks like a hill. Let's circle the triangle. Look, at first the finger climbed the hill, rolled down, ran along the path and returned again to the beginning (the children repeat the movements after the teacher). And now let's try to ride it (children try, nothing works). Guys, why is the triangle not rolling? What's stopping him? (Answers of children). Right. Corners bother him. Now let's think about what objects the triangle looks like? Children's answers.

Guys, now try to assemble a house from these figures.

Well done! You did it!

Mishka examines what the children have done and says that he liked these houses very much and invites them to play.

Physical education minute.

We clap our hands,

Clap-clap-clap. (clapping hands)

We stomp our feet,

Top-top-top. (stomp your feet)

And now let's jump,

Jump-jump-jump. (jumping in place)

Jerking with our legs,

Jerking-jerking-jerking. (emphasis on one leg, the other free movement back and forth)

Now we will sit (squat down)

Let's look at each other (turn the head to the right and left)

Bear: and I also prepared a treat for you, baked cookies (cookies round, square and triangular). The bear treats the guys with cookies.

The teacher offers to make beautiful multi-colored handkerchiefs for Mishka, and he will decorate his house with them.

The children sit in their seats and decorate their handkerchiefs with triangular and square shapes. At the end of the work, the children give Mishka their crafts, he thanks for the gifts, promises to come to them again, and leaves.

Guys, let's remember what new things we learned today?

Why can't the triangle be rolled? What's stopping him?

Abstract of the lesson for children of the senior group of the lesson: "Triangle". | Plan-summary of a lesson in mathematics (senior group) on the topic:

Summary of classes for children of the senior group

Theme of the lesson: "Triangle".

Class type: learning new material.

Objectives:

1. Educational:

• introduce the concept of a triangle, its elements, designation;
• introduce children to the “rigidity” of the triangle;
• flexagon construction.

2. Developing:

• develop spatial imagination, geometric thinking, interest in mathematics, cognitive and creative activity of children, mathematical speech;
• stimulate curiosity.

3. Educational:

• - to instill discipline in children, a responsible attitude to educational work, the ability to work together.

Teaching methods: verbal, visual, practical.

Forms of education: collective, individual.

Equipment: glue, scissors, triangle, flexagon reamer.

Course of the lesson

1. Organizational moment.

Purpose: inclusion of children in the business rhythm.

Educator:

Today we dedicate our lesson to

One geometric figure.
Listen to me carefully,
Answer questions,
All the guys, notice,
Don't forget anything.

2. Setting a cognitive task.

Purpose: organization of children to accept a cognitive task.

Educator:

In the Atlantic Ocean there is a place that resembles a geometric figure, which we will talk about today. This place, located between Bermuda, the state of Puerto Rico, the Florida peninsula, is called the “Bermuda Triangle”. And it is also called the “devil's triangle”, “the triangle of the damned”. Its mystery lies in the fact that ships and planes disappear without a trace. The nature of the Bermuda Triangle remains a mystery to this day.

-So, what geometric figure shall we devote our lesson to?

- Triangle.

- The topic of our lesson is “Triangle”. We will get acquainted with the definition of a triangle, its elements, with two properties.

3. Assimilation of new knowledge.

Purpose: to introduce the concept of a triangle, its elements, designation; to acquaint children with the properties of a triangle; to encourage the “extract” of new knowledge.

-You have worksheets on your desks. Let's mark three points in the worksheets. We connect them in pairs (two) by segments on the board. Two cases should be considered: three points lying and not lying on one straight line. What did you get?

- In one case, and in the other case, the triangle did not work out (the triangle “degenerated” into a segment).

-So what is a triangle? Children fill in the gaps in the definition of a triangle in the worksheet /.

- A triangle is a geometric figure consisting of three points that do not lie on one straight line, and three segments connecting them.

- The sign is used instead of the word "triangle". Guys, these three points that do not lie on the same line are called vertices. The segments are the sides of the triangle. How many? The triangle also has three angles. Three sides, three angles, three vertices - all these are elements of a triangle.

And now consider the properties:

1) I have a quadrilateral in my hands. Without changing the length of the sides, can I change the shape? Yes. Try it.

What if we take a triangle?

Triangle is a “rigid” figure. If three of its sides are given, then the shape of the triangle cannot be changed without destroying it. This property is widely used in practice.

1) When making a garden gate, be sure to nail a plank / plank /, sometimes two planks, to get triangles. This gives the gate strength, otherwise it will warp.

3) During the construction of any bridges, triangles are also present in their structures.

The more triangles in any design, the stronger it is.

4. Physical education minute.

One - bend, unbend,
Two - bend down, stretch.
Three - three claps in the hands,
Three nods with the head.
Four - arms wider,
Five, six - sit quietly.
Seven, eight - let's discard laziness.

5.

Let's continue our acquaintance with triangles ...

-The triangle has spatial relatives.

Let's design a geometric paper toy, which is a relative of a triangle, since its surface consists of triangles. This toy is called a flexagon (see attachment). She is amazing in that she suddenly changes her shape and color. To get this toy, take the scan lying on your table. It consists of 10 triangles of three colors (red, green and yellow). Assemble and glue the flexagon together. One side is green, the other is yellow. Let's turn it into a red flexagon. What do the colors of the flexagon resemble? (Traffic light).

Did you like the toy? Let the flexagon remain a good memory of our lesson, which was dedicated to the triangle.

6. Summary.

-Summarize the lesson.

The teacher reads a poem/.

You are at him, you are at me,
Look at all of us.
We have everything, we have everything,
We have only three.
Three sides and three angles
And the same number of vertices.
And thrice-difficult deeds
We will accomplish thrice.
Lev Shevrin.

-What geometric figure is the poem talking about?

-About a triangle.

- Why? (Three sides and three corners, and the same number of vertices).

What are these lines about? (The elements of the triangle).

-What "difficult deeds did we do three times"?

-1) Determined that the triangle.

2) Considered two properties of a triangle.

3) We talked about the spatial relatives of the triangle. Designed a flexagon.

Thank you for the activity, children. Lesson completed. Goodbye.

Appendix

Flexagon is folded from a strip of paper pre -marked with 10 equilateral triangles (colorize three colors of paints):

The strip is bend the strip along the line and turn:

9000

Curling the strip again along the line of CD again , arrange its ends so that the penultimate triangle is superimposed on the first one:

0003

The development of the flexagon must be redrawn and cut out from a strip of sufficiently thick paper about 3-4 cm wide.

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