My Lion Shapes Book for Preschoolers

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One of the more loved zoo animals is the lion, and it is the perfect vehicle to help preschoolers practice recognizing and naming shapes. This FREE My Lion Shapes Book is a hands-on activity that combines math and literacy to practice just that, as well as copying and writing the shapes’ names.

This book includes fourteen pages, including the shapes circle, heart, hexagon, octagon, oval, parallelogram, pentagon, rectangle, rhombus, square, star, trapezoid, and triangle. You can get it at the end of this post.

How to Prepare and Use the Lion Shape Book

To get this hands on activity ready you just need a handful of materials, which are:

This Lion Shape Book can be used in many ways, such as:

Small group activity.
Math center option.
Writing center option.
Take home game.
Quiet area option.

The book includes fourteen pages with lion’s head shape outlines, to be divided in half, and two pages with small lion’s head shapes in color. Each half page includes one lion’s head shape outline in a pretty zoo background and the word representing the shape’s name in dotted lines.

Print a copy for each child, including the small lion’s head shapes, and invite them to choose a shape, say the shape’s name, find the matching pair in the book, glue the lion’s head shape on top of its outline, and trace the shape’s name using a pencil, marker, or crayon. They can also write the word next to the traced one.

When they finish, cut the half pages to divide them and staple them all together to form the book. I suggest making one copy and laminating it for your library and sending the children’s books with them so they can also practice recognizing and naming the shapes at home.

This activity strengthens the children’s shape knowledge, concentration, one-to-one correspondence, visual discrimination, and fine motor skills.

Extension Activities

To extend the activity, you can:

Have the children copy the shapes on a white sheet of paper.
Match each shape with a plastic shape.
Find the shapes they are matching in objects around the classroom.
Spell the names of the shapes using magnetic, wooden, or foam letters.
Use the lion’s head shapes to create a memory or folder game.

You can combine it with other related activities to offer your preschoolers different choices like the ones below. They are all free.

Storybooks About Shapes

It is essential to read to your preschoolers every day. This will help them develop their imagination, learn vocabulary, understand concepts, and develop their pre-reading and pre-writing skills, among other benefits.

Below are some you can use. You can find them at your local library, in your used bookstore, and on Amazon, following my affiliate links embedded in the titles.

Mouse Shapes by Ellen Stone Walsh tells how three clever mice use shapes to find a funny way to trick a sneaky cat.

Shapes by Wonder House Books is a beautiful picture book that introduces children to different shapes. It is filled with well-researched words and eye-catching images, helping them to associate words with pictures and build a perfect vocabulary.

Snippets: A Story About Paper Shapes by Diane Elber is a story that reveals the power of kindness and the beauty of being unique. And it does so through the journey of two different groups of shapes (the polygons and irregular polygons).

Big Box of Shapes by Wiley Blevins tells how Lulu and Max use their imaginations to use shapes found in a box to take in new and exciting ways.

Tangled: A Story About Shapes by Anne Miranda is a charming story that makes learning the names of sixteen shapes as easy as a day in the park.

Pin It for Later

If you are in a rush and don’t have time to read the post and download the printable but want to save it for later, pin it to one of your Pinterest boards to have it available when needed.

I hope you enjoy this free My Lion Shapes Book activity, which will help your preschoolers learn or review their shapes.

Don’t forget to grab your FREE My Lion Shapes Book by clicking on the link below.

Be happy, safe, and creative. I wish you well.

Love,

P.D. Please let me know if any of these ideas worked for you or if you think I need to add or replace something. My goal is to help you in any way I can.