I created this printable shapes craft initially as an exercise to help my 3-year old daughter recognise and name shapes. I used colored match sticks to create and talk about the basic shapes. But what was intended to be a 5-minute activity became a prolonged exercise, as she asked me to create other things out of the colored match sticks (you can also use tooth picks). We created a star, a pentagon, a castle and a rocketship, to name a few. So that you can do this craft for preschool aged kids with your little one, we included the link to a free printable template of the Princess castle and rocketship below.

I started by creating 3 basic shapes (triangle, square and rectangle) out of colored match sticks. I extended on this by…

asking her to count how many sides there were in a triangle, a square and a rectangle

asking her how many equal sides there are in a square and how many in a rectangle

putting a match stick diagonally on the square and asking her what that created (2 triangles)

putting a match stick vertically in the middle of the rectangle and asked her what that created (2 squares)

This activity only took about 3-minutes. After which, she asked me to create a house, a star and a princess castle using the colored match sticks. As I tried to create a princess castle for her, she went ahead and did her own little creations. One of which was a shape with 5 sides. She asked me what that was. We counted the sides, then I told her she created a 5-sided shape called a ‘pentagon.’ She repeated the word. And although she probably won’t remember that big word, she was beaming with pride that she created such a shape.

After we had created a Princess castle and a Rocketship together, I then realised that this would be a great craft activity that she could do on her own. So I then created this Printable Shapes Craft templates…

What you need to make this shapes craft for preschoolers:

Free Printable Shapes Craft Template (click on the link to get a pdf file of all 3 templates)

Glue stick

What the children need to do:

Simply apply glue stick on the lines. Then carefully stick a colored match stick on the outline. Each match stick is 2 inches long. I created the printable shapes craft templates to allow each match stick to be glued in without the need for cutting it – with the exception of the doors and windows on the Princess castle and Rocketship where each match stick needs to be cut in half.

Make this an open ended activity by allowing the kids to create things from their own imagination.

Is there any other object your kids would like to recreate using colored match sticks? We’d love to hear your ideas… maybe one day, we can create a free printable template of your idea!

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