Free Printable Penguin Shapes Fine Motor Mats for Kids

The penguin activity for preschoolers includes 12 shapes: diamond, square, circle, rectangle, star, oval, heart, triangle, crescent, hexagon, pentagon, and octagon. The shapes printable allows early childhood learners to explore many 2D shapes while gaining dexterity drawing the shapes and their names. Add the penguin themed preschool activity to your lesson plans today!

Shape Tracing for Preschoolers

Tracing winter shapes on a preschool worksheet provides valuable fine motor muscle training for small hands. Young learners will call on these same muscles in a kindergarten classroom when they begin to trace and write letters, words, numbers and symbols.

Hands-on learning like tracing fits easily with other theme activities. You can expose young learners to a variety of preschool topics, from winter themes like penguins and polar bears to summer and fall themes like leaves or farming.

Tracing allows preschoolers to improve visual spatial awareness. It also helps them become familiar with a variety of lines (curvy, straight, diagonal, horizontal, vertical). Tracing black and white shapes, numbers, and letters helps young minds “see” what the finished product looks like.

How to Use the Free Penguin Shapes Activity for Preschoolers

Help your preschoolers learn shapes by printing the shape tracing cards. Create one or two sets to use with small groups at a math center, or print individual packets for each student. Laminate the cards, or place them in clear plastic sleeves, to create a hands-on activity that is both durable and reusable.

Some of the shapes the activity includes are also pattern block shapes (square, triangle, rectangle, hexagon). Incorporate pattern blocks into this math activity by placing the correct shape onto those particular penguin mats.

Students can trace with:

• pencil
• crayon
• dry erase marker
• wet erase marker
• marker

Instead of tracing, you could give students small erasers, pom poms, buttons or chenille stems to create the shape with their hands by placing the objects on the shape lines.

Options for Differentiation With This Penguin Shapes Activity

These are important shapes for preschoolers to learn because they are all around in everyday life. If you begin to look through the eyes of a curious learner, you’ll find shapes everywhere. From traffic signs and billboards to shapes found in nature, it can be an exciting adventure to find them.

• Incorporate a paper penguin craft using many of the basic shapes.
• Create a shape scavenger hunt for students to find specific shapes in the classroom.
• Head outside for a shape hunt.
• Post the penguin shape cards on a bulletin board.
• Practice cutting shapes and placing them on top of the correct penguin card.
• Challenge students who are ready to match shape words with the correct card.

More Penguin Activities You’ll Love:

• Penguin 2D Shape Matching Card Game
• Penguin Addition to 100
• Penguin Number Mats 1-10

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