We tried to make these shape monsters scary-looking for Halloween. We really did. Do you see the spikes? The fangs? The creepy goatee? But try as we might, our monsters just looked silly. It was still a lot of fun, though! And now my 5-year-old can say with confidence, “Do you have any more of those trapezoids, Mom?” and my heart swells with pride. Because even if our monsters did end up looking goofy, at least she learned a new shape!
If you’re in the mood for a fun monster/creature/robot(?) craft – and you want to sneak some math learning in there – try this silly shape monster activity. See if you can make your monsters scarier than ours.
This preschool craft is so easy to set up. All you need are some shapes of various sizes cut from colored construction paper, plain white paper for the background, and a glue stick.
I made my own shape monster alongside my three girls (5, 4, and 2) to help spur their creativity – and it was a lot of fun! But the best part was listening to my 5-year-old describe the creatures she was creating.
For her first monster, I thought she glued on some spiky insect legs.
As it turns out, this was no killer insect from her nightmares. It was Humpty Dumpty, sad and broken from his fall, with one green cheek sliced off and a third ear “in case he needs it.”
My 5-year-old’s second shape monster looked robot-like at first, but she assured me that it was NOT a robot.
Imagine my surprise, then, when she explained that she’d turned my husband into a monster! And he looked mean!
Then she proceeded to explain that the red triangle spikes were actually his “whiskers”. The black rectangles were his “ouchies” because, “Dad’s always covered in ouchies” (this is true – tool safety is not a high priority for him). And the tall blue triangle above his ear is “a radio so he can talk to someone.”
My younger children enjoyed the shape monster craft as well. We were able to name each shape and color and count the number of sides. My 2-year-old learned that triangles always have three sides but that two triangles can look very different from each other.
And then there are my own monsters:
