These watermelon shape mats are a great low-prep printable addition to your collection of shape activities for preschoolers and kindergarten kids.
Pair the shape watermelons with a variety of manipulatives as your students work on so many early childhood skills. I love that you can explore shapes AND additional concepts with the kids!
You can make adjustments to the watermelon shape printables based on the ages and needs of your students. This allows you to easily customize the printable for each of the children in your class!
Clik here to view.
Related: Free Preschool Printables
I think these shape printables are perfect for a theme focused just on watermelons, but that’s not the only time you can use them! Add them to your summer lesson plans, a fruit theme, or even a nutrition unit.
Of course, you don’t have to have a special focus to use them! Bring them out when practicing shapes with your students, or to go along with a fruity snack.
Watermelon Shape Mats
Read below about tips for getting the watermelon shapes ready, as well as some ideas for using them with your students. Keep in mind that you don’t have to do things exactly the same way I have. Feel free to put your own twist on things!
How to Prep the Printable Watermelon Shapes
First things first – grab the materials you need to prepare the watermelon shape mats. Here’s what I tend to use (I may get commissions for purchases made through links in this post):
Once you have those items, decide on the supplies you want to use in conjunction with the watermelon shapes printable. Here are some ideas:
- Playdough
- Buttons
- Pompoms
- Dry erase markers
- Mini erasers
Clik here to view.
After you’ve gathered all the supplies, it’s time to prep the watermelon shape mats. As I mentioned earlier, it’s super easy to do so:
- Request your copy of the printable shapes via the form near the bottom of this post.
- Print the pages you’d like to use, making as many copies as you want.
- Laminate the pages or place them in dry erase pockets.
And that’s it! Now you’re ready to get the children to use the shapes.
How to Use the Watermelon Shape Mats
There are multiple ways to use the printable watermelon shapes, which makes them a versatile tool to use with your math activities for preschoolers and kindergarten kids. Here are some ideas to try with your students:
- Give the children playdough to outline the shapes on the mats while working on hand strength.
Clik here to view.
- Let the kids use buttons, or various other manipulatives, to outline the watermelon shapes. You can even encourage them to count how many buttons it takes to make each shape.
- See if the kids can use various color pompoms to make patterns as they outline the shapes on the mats.
Clik here to view.
- Ask the children to see how many manipulatives they can fit within the confines of each watermelon shape. Then have them compare the size of different shapes.
Basically, the main use of the watermelon shape mats is to let your students explore the properties of shapes. As they’re tracing over the images on the pages, chat a bit about each shape’s characteristics. Compare the shapes and explain the distinctions and similarities between them.
Other Ideas for the Watermelon Shape Printable
Of course, you can use the watermelon shape mats in even more ways than what I outlined above! Here are some more ideas:
- Challenge the kids to find shapes around the classroom to place on each of the mats (or some of them).
- Pair the watermelon shape printables with a simple sensory writing tray. See if the children can draw the shapes in the tray, use the mats as reference.
- Trace over the watermelon shapes with glitter glue and let it dry. Have your students trace over the dried glue with their fingers to practice shapes. You can even have them use crayons to to create shape rubbings on white paper.
- Use the page with many of the shapes in smaller sizes as part of a scavenger hunt or to work on shape drawing/tracing.
Clik here to view.
Again, a reminder that you can change things up and do something different if you want to! How would you use the watermelon shape mats with the kids?
What Skills are Kids Practicing with the Shape Mats?
The printable watermelon shapes let the children practice a variety of early learning skills. Here are some of them:
- Shape identification
- Fine motor skills
- Patterns
- Shape formation
- Counting
- Visual discrimination
Depending on how you use the watermelon shape mats, your students can explore even more concepts!
More Watermelon Activities for Kids
If your students are excited about the concept of a watermelon unit, I have more ideas for you:
- Watermelon Printable Book
- Coffee Filter Watermelon Craft
- Watermelon Geoboard
- Watermelon Cutting Practice
I think those are all a great complement to the watermelon shape mats!
Watermelon Lesson Plans
Let my sister site, Preschool Teacher 101, make your teaching life a whole lot easier! We have hundreds of early childhood resources that are fully-developed and done for you, so you can save so much planning time. Lesson plans, dramatic play sets, alphabet activities, math games, teacher guides, and so much more.
We even have The Pack, a membership for preschool and kindergarten teachers like you! Our members gain access to all of our materials at a super discounted price.
Click on the image below to check out our watermelon lesson plans:
Here are a couple more watermelon resources to check out:
Request the Watermelon Shape Mats
This free printable is available to members of Fun-A-Day’s free email community. If you’re a member, fill out the form below and the download links will be sent to your inbox. If you’re not a member, you can join us by entering your information in the form. Then you’ll receive the printable watermelon shape mats as a welcome gift!
Be sure to check out my printing FAQ page if you run into any issues.
Clik here to view.
The post Watermelon Shape Mats Free Printable appeared first on Fun-A-Day!.