3D Shapes Matching Cards

These are 3D shape cards for matching and learning about shapes. I made them this afternoon. I used pieces of straws, pipe cleaners and uncooked spaghetti. The round shapes are made from the pipe cleaners, the triangles and rectangles are made from straws and the squares are made of spaghetti. When I have more patience and materials, I’ll add trapezoids, hexagons, half circles and different types of triangles. I thought of using tin foil, yarn and other materials to make the shapes too, but I didn’t have any of those things on hand. I’d like to make different colored shapes, but I used what I had and I can always add more later.

To make the shapes, I either bent or cut the straws and pipe cleaners. I broke the spaghetti into four equal parts to make the squares. They are crooked on the card because they slid when I stuck the tape to them. I covered all the shapes with tape so they wouldn’t fall off the card or come apart. Another thing I’d suggest is to tape the shapes to cardboard or thick poster board because as you can see, the index cards are bent from the taped shapes. If they were on cardboard, they’d last longer. You can even have your kids help you make the shapes.