Geometry Work Stations

Our kindergarten math book only has one short chapter on geometry, so I probably don't spend as much time on it as I should. However, I think learning about shapes is something kindergarteners really enjoy. Some of my favorite geometry materials are geoboards, 3D wooden blocks, pattern blocks, attribute blocks, and attrilinks.

If you've never used attrilinks (or linking shapes as my kinders call them) you might want to consider getting a set. They are sort of like attribute blocks since they have shapes of different sizes and colors, but they're links instead of blocks. My students love sorting them-so that will definitely be one of my geometry work station activities.

I also plan to use my geoboards as one of my geometry work station activities. I let my students do some free exploration with the geoboards, but also have some task cards available for them to practice making different shapes. Click here to download a copy of my geoboard task cards.

One of the games I made to help my students learn 2D shapes is called Spin a Shape. Click here to download a copy of the game. For this game, students use the spinner to spin a shape, tell their partner the name of the shape, and then cover up the shape with a bingo chip. Students try to cover up all of the shapes on their game board. This game is just for practicing 2D shapes, but I'm going to try to make a version with 3D shapes as well this week. I got the idea for this game from a similar game that Lakeshore sells-wish I had the money to buy all of their neat games!

Another idea I had was letting my students make pictures out of shapes (either foam shapes or di-cut shapes) and then having them count up the different shapes they used to make their picture. Click here for a copy of the page I made to go with this activity. I'd probably model for them how I could make a little house out of a square with a triangle on top or something simple like that (I imagine my students will probably be making much more creative pictures-like aliens and robots out of their shapes!). A similar activity for 3D shapes might be letting the students build something out of blocks and then tally up how many of each 3D shape they used in whatever they built (I'd just have to make sure the block corner had a variety of 3D shapes!).

I hope you've gotten a few ideas for geometry work station activities that you can use with your students. Mrs. Patton is hosting this week's chapter, so head on over to Patton's Patch for some more great work station ideas!