3D shapes kindergarten: Hands-on and engaging math centers. Teach 3D shapes to your kindergarten students with these easy print and prep activities.
3D shapes can be a hard concept to teach in kindergarten. There are so many different concepts that they have to learn- how they are different from 2D shapes, what faces it has (which requires previous knowledge of 2D shapes- if you want activities to help out with that check out 2D Shapes Activities), what edges and vertices are, and all their names!
I used some hands-on centers to help our students get acquainted with 3D shapes:
Spin and colour
This fun worksheet has students spinning, identifying a shape, and coloring the matching picture in. This is a great way to work on shape recognition.
Spin and build
This fun spinner can be used in a couple of different ways. The first activity we did with it was with clay and toothpicks (I didn’t get a picture of this!) Students spun and then tried to build whatever shape they landed on using those materials.
We discussed why some shapes were harder to build than others and came up with different ways to build them (they figured out that they did not need toothpicks for a sphere or cylinder because they don’t have edges!).
The second way they used the spinners was to build structures with the shapes they landed on. This student was making a Transformer with 3D shapes! Love how this activity works on shape recognition and their properties (slide, stack, roll), all the while being fun.
Sort 2D and 3D Shapes
These work mats and cards are a great way for students to work on the difference between 2D and 3D shapes. I know my students have a hard time with the difference between the two, so this was a great way to reinforce the concept and help them visualize the different shapes.
3D Shape attributes poster
We used these posters in our classroom to help our students remember the different attributes of 3D shapes. It helped them with the math vocabulary they needed to use, and were a great reference when they were doing centers.
These are a freebie that you can download from my Resource Library !
These centers and more are available in my Easy Print and Prep Kindergarten Math Centers: 3D Shapes. It comes on its own or in a bundle:
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