2D shapes

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By Judith Harries – teacher

Explore activities using lots of 2D shapes involving printing, painting, collage, modelling, cooking, clay and dough, songs and rhymes, and even seeks inspiration from famous artists such as Piet Mondrian and Paul Klee.

Shape hunt

This is a good starting activity for creative work on shapes. Talk to the children about being ‘shape detectives’. Explain that they can choose one or more shapes to look for as they walk around the environment.

Give younger children a laminated example of their chosen shape to hold as they start their hunt. Older children can use clipboards and record how many different shapes they can find. Look inside and outside your setting. Take photographs of buildings or places showing lots of shapes. These can be displayed alongside artwork using shapes from later activities.

Printing with food

Help children to create printing shapes from potatoes. Halve the potatoes and carefully cut a circle shape to stick out from the flat surface. Make several different sizes. Let children place in a shallow tray of paint and print different coloured circles. Repeat with different shapes – rectangles, squares and triangles, cut into the potato halves.

Use different fruit and vegetables to create shapes. Cut carrots in half widthways and lengthways to create circles and rectangle prints. Use orange and lemon halves to create lots of circles. Can the children choose another fruit or vegetable to experiment with?