Activity: Sorting Shapes

Let's sort flat shapes in different ways! You will need some shapes. You can buy some, or make your own like this: Print out Shapes (In Color) and then cut them out Or print Shapes (black and white) on different colors of paper or card, cut them out, then mix them up. Or you might like to color them in yourself.

Now we have our shapes, let's sort them by color:

That was easy!

Now for a harder task, sort them by size!

This was how my shapes ended up ... your result may be different!

NOW, sort them by how many edges they have.

I am not going to show you how, but here are some hints:

• A circle has 1 edge,
• A triangle has 3 edges.
• And there is at least one shape with 8 edges

NOW, sort them by how many corners they have.

Did anything change? What about the teardrop shape?

Next, can you sort them by curves:

• Shapes with a curve
• Shapes with only straight edges

The ones with only straight edges are called Polygons.

And your last task:

Sort them by two methods at the same time! By color, but with the curved shapes on the top row:

Here I am sorting them by color and curved-or-not

Bonus task:

Sort them by color and how many edges

Now just go ahead and combine the shapes into artwork:

Bye-Bye!