Printable shapes worksheets

What are the most common 2D shapes?

The most common flat shapes are the circle, the square, the triangle and the rectangle. Next come the rhombus, the trapezoid, the parallelogram, the pentagon, the hexagon, the octagon, the oval and the star. On this page you can print a chart with all twelve shapes and their names, plus sheets for tracing, coloring, counting and cutting out.

How to use it

1. Pick the activity: chart, trace the dots, color by shape, count the shapes or cut out.
2. On the tracing, coloring and counting activities, tap Shuffle the picture to change the sheet.
3. On the counting activity, tick the answer option if you want to print the sheet with the amounts.
4. Tap Print the sheet. In the print window, keep the scale at 100% (or choose Fit to page on Letter paper).

The five activities

• Chart: twelve shapes in a firm outline, each with its name and number of sides. For the classroom wall or a notebook cover.
• Trace the dots: all twelve shapes, large, on two sheets. The child starts at the black dot and runs the pencil over the dots.
• Color by shape: a house, a robot, a train or a rocket made only of shapes. The key gives the color of each shape in words, so the sheet prints in black and white.
• Count the shapes: the same kind of picture, with a line to write how many circles, squares, triangles and other shapes there are. The answer is worked out from the picture itself.
• Cut out: 22 large pieces with dashed lines. Squares, rectangles, triangles, circles, a trapezoid and an oval, in sizes that fit together.

Activity ideas with shapes

• Shape hunt: with the chart in hand, the class looks around the room for objects of each shape. The clock is a circle, the door is a rectangle.
• Build pictures: with the cut-out pieces, make a house, a boat, a robot or an animal and glue it onto a sheet. Then count how many pieces of each shape were used.
• Which shape am I? Give clues: "I have 3 sides", "I have 4 equal sides", "I have no straight side". The child points to it on the chart.
• Sort by sides: group the cut-out pieces into 3 sides, 4 sides and curved outline.
• Shape dictation: "draw a circle inside a square", "draw a triangle on top of a rectangle".
• Compare the cut-out pieces: two small squares side by side cover half of a large square, and two large squares cover a large rectangle.

Shape names: three things to watch

• Every square is also a rectangle and a rhombus, because it has 4 right angles and 4 equal sides. On the counting and coloring sheets, each shape goes only on the line with its picture: a square counts as a square.
• A rhombus has 4 equal sides. On the chart it stands upright, taller than it is wide, so it is not mistaken for a square.
• The circle and the oval have no straight sides. A 5-point star has 10 sides.

Frequently asked questions