Shapes Lesson Plan

Notes:

This is a really fun, interactive lesson for learning shapes and it has some great activities. If possible, teach this lesson after you have taught the Parts of the Body lesson (as you will be recycling vocab from that lesson).

Lesson Procedure:

Warm Up and Maintenance:

See our "Warm Up & Wrap Up" page.

New Learning and Practice:

1. Teach the shapes vocab
Before class, prepare the shapes from the shape craft sheet. Cut out the shapes from the sheet for yourself and also enough for each pair of students (these will be used in a pair work activity later on). It would be a good idea to print on card or even laminate the shapes so you can reuse them.

Start off by showing the large square and teaching / chorusing "square". Hand the square to a student who says "square" and passes it on to another, each student saying "square" as they pass it around. Do this for all the shapes. You can also elicit colors and sizes (e.g. a "big, yellow, square", "a small, blue square", etc.).

2. Play missing shapes
Spread the shapes out on the floor and gather everyone around. Tell everyone to close their eyes. Take away one shape and say “Open your eyes”. Everyone must guess which shape is missing.

3. Play shape touch
With the shapes still spread out on the floor, say "Hands up in the air" – once all hands are up say “touch a (green) circle” – and have everyone quickly touch (not slam!) a green circle. Do this for all of the shapes.

4. Do "Play-doh" shapes
Put kids in small groups and give each group some pots of play-doh. Have some play-doh for yourself. Everyone is going to make play-doh shapes. Start with a shape and model how to make it with the play-doh and have everyone make the shape. Do this for all four shapes.

5. Show the Mr. Shape Face craft
Everyone will be unaware that the cut-out shapes actually make up a facepicture. Bring everyone's attention to the board. Make sure each of your shapes has some sticky plastic or blue-tak on the back. Hold up the large square and elicit the shape. Stick it to the board. Then hold up the large triangle, elicit that shape and stick it to the nose position. Keep doing this with all of the shapes until you have a complete head. Everyone will enjoy watching a face grow out of the shapes they have been playing with. Elicit / teach the face vocab for each face shape (e.g. a triangle nose, a rectangle mouth, etc.).

6. Play "teacher says" for face vocab
With the shapes still on the board, get everyone to stand up and say "Teacher says touch your (nose)". Everyone should touch their nose. Do this for all of the face vocab. Then say "Touch your hair" without the "Teacher says" part and indicate that they shouldn’t touch when "Teacher says" is omitted. As everyone gets the hang of it go faster and faster.

7. Sing the "Mr. Shape Head" song
Keep Mr. Shape Head on the board and use it with the song. The song poster is also helpful as it shows the order of the shapes as they are sung in the song – so you can put this on the board as well. Play the song through one time, pointing at the shapes on the board as they are sung. Next, get everyone to stand up – teach the gestures (see below) and then play the song again and sing along doing all of the gestures.

Lyrics for "Mr. Shape Head"

Chorus:
Mr. Shape Head, how are you?
Mr. Shape Head, how are you?
Mr. Shape Head, how are you?
How are you this morning?

Verse 1:
My eyes are square, but I’m okay
My ears are circles, but I’m okay
My nose is a triangle, but I’m okay
For I am Mr. Shape Head

Chorus

Verse 2:
My head is square, but I’m okay
My mouth is a rectangle, but I’m okay
My hair is a triangle, but I’m okay
For I am Mr. Shape Head

Chorus

(download MP3 here)

Gestures for "Mr. Shape Head"

Some simple actions can be used with this song:

For the Chorus, touch your head for the "Mr. Shape Head" parts and then do the question gesture (palms up, looking puzzled) for the "How are you?" parts.
For the verses, make shapes with your fingers for each shape and place on the part of the face as it is sung (e.g. "My eyes are square" – make two square shapes with your fingers and place over your eyes; for "My ears are circles" make two circle shapes with your fingers and place over your ears; etc.).
For the part of the verse "but I’m okay", do a thumbs up with both hands.
For the end of each verse "For I am Mr. Shape Head", move your already thumbs up gesture to point your thumbs inwards to your body.

We also have a video that you can stream in class to sing along with (Internet connection required):

8. Read classroom reader "Mr. Shape Head"
Let's follow the song with a reader which uses the structures from the song. Before class, download and print off the reader "Mr. Shape Head" and its corresponding reader worksheet from our website. Give the worksheets to your students to color as you read through the story. As you go through each page, point to the shapes in each picture and elicit the shapes, colors and face parts, for example:

Teacher: (reading from page 4) "Let's put your head back on. Where is your square head?" ... Ok, what shape is his head?
Students: Square!
Teacher: (pointing at a square eye) ... Is this his head?
Students: No!
Teacher: (pointing at a circle) ... Is this his head?
Students: No!
Teacher: Where is his square head? (invite a student to touch the picture)
Student: Here.
Teacher: Ok, let's check (turns over to page 5) ... Yes, good job! What color is his square head?
Students: Yellow!
Teacher: Yes, that's right! Ok, color the yellow square on your worksheets.
etc.

Read classroom reader "Mr. Shape Head" Get the students really involved in the story by asking lots of questions and getting them to touch their face parts along with the story.

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Alternatively, watch our video version of the reader (Internet connection required):

9. Do the Mr. Shape Head craft
Put students in pairs and give each pair the shapes. Together they can make Mr. Shape Head. Circulate as everyone is doing the activity and ask questions (e.g. "What is this shape?", "What is this?"). You can play the Mr. Shape Head song in the background as everyone is doing this activity.

Do the Mr. Shape Head craft

Extension activity – an optional, fun game is to play a version of "Pin the tail to the donkey". Blindfold one student and give him a shape to put on the yellow square. Then get another blindfolded student to add another shape. Keep going until all the shapes are used up. The final head will be all over the place but it will have been great fun!

Do the Mr. Shape Head craft