Overlapping Shapes Art

This colorful shape activity helps kids recognize shapes, explore color blending and build focus—all while creating a bright, hands-on art piece to be proud of.

  • Category: Shapes

You’ll Need:

  • Large sheet of white paper or poster paper
  • Marker or black crayon (for outlining the shapes)
  • Crayons, colored pencils or washable markers
  • Tape (to secure the paper on the wall or floor)

Let’s Make it:

  1. Tape a large sheet of paper to the wall or floor so it stays flat and easy to color.
  2. Use a black marker to draw big overlapping shapes like circles, squares, triangles and rectangles and let your kid name each shape as they color it in.

Why We Love It:

  • Combines shape recognition, color learning and creativity in one hands-on activity.
  • Encourages focus, fine motor control and early problem-solving.
  • Easy to set up and perfect for open-ended exploration.

Creative tips:

  • Count and compare: Talk about each shapes’ sides and corners and ask fun questions like “Which shape is the biggest?”, “Which one has the most points?” or “Can you find all the triangles?”
  • If you’re learning about color blending, instead coloring the small bits in different colours let the shades from the shapes blend together and point out how new colors appear where shapes overlap, then chat about which colors mixed to make them—it’s hands-on color science for little artists.
  • Spot shapes in real life: Look around the room and find matching shapes — “The window is a rectangle! The clock looks like a circle!” — to connect art and learning to the world around them.

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