5 Ideas for Exploring Shapes with Young Children During Snack Time!

Shapes can be found anywhere and any time– including at snack time! From rectangular shaped slices of cheese to round berries, foods offer an everyday opportunity for children to discover different shapes. Learning about shapes is a stepping stone toward kindergarten readiness and math learning in elementary school and beyond. In this article, we share five simple ways to incorporate learning about shapes into your ECE program’s snack time, so you can make exploring this foundational math skill fun, relevant, and engaging! 

1. Point out Naturally Occurring Shapes in Your Foods

There are a variety of shapes that can be found in the foods that we eat. For example, oranges, blueberries, and cherries have a round, circular shape, while watermelons, grapes, and kiwis are shaped more like an oval. Children might be surprised to see that when certain round foods like apples and oranges are sliced in half, triangles and star shapes can be found inside! As you enjoy different snack foods with children, talk with them about the various shapes in their foods, and invite them to point out the shapes they discover during snacktime! 

2. Use Cookie Cutters of Different Shapes (with more than just cookies!)

Cookie cutters are a cost-friendly classroom material that can be used in a variety of ways to make foods into different shapes. They can be used to shape cookies, fruits, sandwiches, and more! Using cookie cutters is a fun sensory and fine motor activity for young children that engages the small muscles in their hands and fingers to push the cookie cutters into foods of different textures. 

Following are a few ideas for using shaped cookie cutters with the children in your care. 

• This simple sugar cookie recipe is easy-to make, requires minimal ingredients, and can be rolled out to be cut into various shapes. 
• Smaller cookie cutters can be used on fruits like melons and kiwis to create fruit kebabs that feature a variety of shapes. 
• Use cookie cutters to cut sandwiches into different shapes. This will be especially welcome by children who prefer to eat bread without the crust!

3. Offer Shape-themed Snacks

Create shape-themed snacks by offering foods of all the same shapes during snack time. For example, you can offer rectangular slices of cheese and crackers one day to explore rectangles, and offer sliced bananas and rice cakes the next day to compare circles! You might even ask the children in your care for ideas about the kinds of foods that would work for square or triangular-themed snack times.

4. Invite Children to Arrange their Own Shapes

The website Creative Kids Snacks suggests engaging children’s creativity by offering them a variety of foods and inviting them to arrange the foods into new shapes. Encourage little ones to see how many different shapes they can create, using healthy, fresh produce. It’s a great way to get children to explore the world of shapes as they enjoy healthy eating.

5. Invite Children to Sort Shapes into Categories

Offer children snacks that include foods with a variety of different shapes and then invite them to sort the foods into categories. For example, you might offer a selection of crackers in round, rectangular, and triangle shapes. Or, you might spread cereal pieces of different shapes (Lucky Charms, for example) onto a tray. Then, invite children to compare and contrast the different cereal shapes in order to group them into categories. You could even create a construction paper placemat, such as this one, onto which you draw a space for each of the shape categories. Comparing, contrasting, and sorting shapes are all important foundational math skills to practice with the little ones in your care!