Paper Activity: Shape Monsters

My son, like many kids I know, loves monsters. He likes to pretend monsters are coming over for parties. He likes to paint monsters. He was thrilled when I made him these 3D paper monsters from an origami paper cup. He had me drawing silly faces the other day. (He likes telling me what to draw or guessing what I’m drawing even though I’m not a very good illustrator.) I had the idea of drawing the faces out of shapes, so we could practice our shapes. I asked Aiden what shape I should make the eyes. What about the nose? What shapes should we use for the mouth. It was a fun little game.

I thought Aiden would enjoy making his own shape monsters, and so can you.

Make Shape Monsters

Supplies:

• colored paper
• scissors
• glue (optional)

What to do:

1. Cut out shapes of different sizes and colors.
2. Arrange the shapes to look like monsters.
3. Glue together the creations you wish to save.

This is a great activity for practicing shapes, colors, cutting skills, gluing skills, and fine motor skills. You can rearrange the shapes over and over again to create lots of different monsters. When you find a monster that you want to save, glue the pieces together and let it dry. You can even glue the monsters down onto another piece of paper and create scenes.

Aiden (age 2.5) wasn’t into putting the monsters together himself. He enjoyed instructing me where to place the shapes. Just like our drawing game, I asked him what shape he wanted to use for the various parts. He also had to decide on the colors. He told me where to place the shapes until he was happy with the monster creation. Aiden wanted to color on the monsters, and he enjoyed telling stories about them. If your child is struggling with making a monster on their own, try making an example monster or getting them to tell you what to put where.

What kind of monsters will you and your children create with shapes?

You might also be interested in these fun ideas for playing with shapes:

• Math for Kids
• Making Shapes
• Shapes in Nature