How to Make Stencil Flashcards for Geometric Shapes

Making flash cards with your kids is a fun way to help them learn math concepts. To help your child learn simple geometry and names of shapes, you can make these fun flash cards that double as stencils.

Things You'll Need

• thick card stock or poster board
• X-Acto or utility knife
• stencils with various shapes
• markers

Instructions

1. Cut out at least 14 cards of equal size from the poster board or cardstock. The 14 basic shapes that kids learn in school are: pentagons, hexagons, octagons, circles, ellipses, squares, rectangles, trapezoids, parallelograms, rhombuses, equilateral triangles, acute triangles, right triangles, and obtuse triangles.

   One flash card for each shape is a good start, but you can add others to make a larger collection of stencils.

2. Next, write the name of each shape on one side of the card, along with its description. The descriptions can include the number of sides (if any), special properties of the angles and sides, or how the figure is constructed.

   Leave room to cut out an image of the shape.

3. Use another stencil to trace each geometric shape on its own stencil flash card. Then, use a sharp craft or utility knife to cut out the shape. The stencil flashcards are complete!

4. When you quiz your child on the names of shapes, hold out the card so that only the cut out shape faces your child. The cards can also be used as stencils to practice drawing geometric shapes.