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When I decided to teach my 4 and 5 year olds together this year, I knew that I was going to be teaching them ALL the subjects together. We started doing My Father’s World Kindergarten which doesn’t include a lot of “fluffy” math. I say fluffy because there are very few worksheets and math concepts are mostly taught very naturally through real life experiences. I have one child in particular who actually loves worksheets, so I am using these Q-tip painting shape worksheets among others to teach my kindergartners and preschooler all about shapes!

Printable Q-tip Painting

Q-tips are the perfect tools for preschoolers to use when painting because they really help them fine tune their fine motor skills. Also, they are cheap and disposable. Simply squirt a little craft paint onto a paper plate and give your child some q-tips and these fun shape printables.

Children can either fill in each dot with paint, or they use their q-tip to trace the shape.

How To Teach Your Child Shapes

When using these printables, show your child one printable at a time and tell them the name of the shape. Have them use their finger to trace the shape. Let your child decide what color they want and let them dot paint their shape!

After you have introduced a shape to your child, you can begin looking for real world objects with the same shape. Look for rectangles in windows, circles on the wheels of your car, a square table, and triangular peaks on house roofs. If you very casually bring up shapes, your child will have them memorized in no time!

Q-tip painting in preschool is definitely one of our very favorite activities. My kids just adore painting, so this is an activity we do more than once. With our rainbow q-tip painting printable we even get a little more fancy and try to q-tip paint the rainbow according to the correct colors!

Writing with Q-tips

Our Q-tip painting shapes PDF includes the names of each shape so that children can trace the letters and begin working on their fine motor skills for letter formation, as well. Learning to write and draw shapes with q-tips is a great introduction to basic drawing skills, as well!

Shape Books for Preschool

If you’re teaching shapes to your preschooler or kindergartner, don’t forget to add in some fun books! Below are a few of our favorites!

Our favorite shape books!

Here you'll find our favorite shapes books for preschool and kindergarten!

Tangled: A Story About Shapes

"One day a little circle,

just as happy as could be,

got caught inside a jungle gym,

and couldn’t wiggle free.

When the neighborhood shapes go climbing on the park jungle gym the last thing they expect is a tangle. First the circle, next the triangle and then the square. One by one soon all sixteen shapes are trapped. They push and pull and tumble and cry for help. Who will save them? One special shape can set the others free. Can you guess which one it is? This charming story makes learning the names of sixteen shapes as easy as a day in the park."

Mouse Shapes

"What can you make with one oval, two circles, and eight triangles? Just ask three clever mice—who even find a funny way to trick a sneaky cat. "

Round Is a Tortilla: A Book of Shapes

"In this lively picture book, children discover shapes all around them: rectangles are ice-cream carts and stone metates, while triangles are slices of watermelon and quesadillas. Many of the featured objects are Latino in origin, and all are universal in appeal. With rich illustrations, a fun-to-read rhyming text, and an informative glossary, this playful concept book will reinforce the shapes found in every child's day!"

The Greedy Triangle (Scholastic Bookshelf)

"Bored and dissatisfied with his life, a triangle visits a local shapeshifter to add another angle to his shape. Poof! He becomes a quadrilateral. But then he gets greedy and keeps adding angles until he's completely transformed. Kids will enjoy this boldly colorful introduction to shapes and basic math concepts."

You may also be interested in these other shape and math resources for preschool and kindergarten!