Shape Lotto Teaches Shapes to Kids

Shape Lotto teaches shapes to kids. It is a simple and fun game that you can play with kids who are just learning their shape names and identification. I made a simple printable for you to help make it easy for you to play with your own kids. Some kids are able to pick up on shape names and identification with no trouble. Other kids need a lot of repetition to learn these new words. Shape sorters are great. As you are doing them with your children, make sure to use the shape names repeatedly to assist in retention. Puzzles are fabulous too. Shapes are an easy concept to talk about in every day life. You can easily point out the tire that is shaped like a circle or the top of the table that looks like a rectangle. Incorporating learning into every day conversation and life speeds up the learning process. However, some kids still require extra help. This is a simple, fun game where kids can really learn their shapes. It can also be adapted to any new concept kids are learning. You could make a board with sight words, and the child needs to say the sight word before they put it on their board. You could do colors, letter identification, numbers or math problems (the board could contain numbers and the cards could be problems).

The first thing you want to do is print out the sheets. If you are playing with more than one kid, you will want to print out a couple copies. You will want to print it on to heavier stock paper so you cannot see through it. You will have two sheets for playing and will want to cut the rest up by just cutting on the lines. These become the game cards. Included are a bunch of “Sorry” cards.

You turn all of the cards upside down. Then, players take turns grabbing a card. You say the name of the shape on the card. With kids that are just learning, you can help them identify the shape on the card. If you have not covered that shape yet, you get to cover it at that point. If you draw a “sorry” card, your turn is skipped. I chose to remove the “sorry” cards once they were drawn. Whoever covers all of their shapes on the game board first, wins.

The game was really geared for Corban (2.5), who is in the middle of learning his shapes.

However, the older girls (age 4 and 6) really wanted to play too.

Abby was my big assistant with Corban when we played. They really enjoyed it, and we’ll be playing more. I hope your early learners enjoy it too. Don’t forget all the ways it can be adapted.