Foam Bead Shape Sorting Activity Tray -

Sometimes I forget what wonderful activities can be created from supplies we already own. I was wanting a way to practice shape sorting with Lil’ Red and realized I had all the supplies I needed to create a shape sorting activity tray! Since we keep craft supplies handy it mean we do not have to rush out to the store to buy things every time I get an idea.

We have had a bucket of foam shape beads for years and I almost forgot that we still had some left. We were cleaning off the back porch to reach some puzzles and games the other week when I discovered the bucket of foam beads them! I noticed which shapes and colors were left and since I wanted to reinforce shapes I decided to pick out all the green shape beads.

This would allow Lil’ Red to focus on the shape and not be confused by the colors of the beads. We can do a color sort another day! I looked in my felt box to see what colors of felt I had and then discovered I didn’t have a full sheet of felt in any neutral color! Off to look into the foam sheet box. Yes, I have lots of craft supplies.

I found a sheet of black foam and thought it would be the perfect choice for this shape sorting activity. I got to work finding large cookie cutters that I could trace for the sorting mats. I traced the heart cookie cutter, star cookie cutter, and circle cookie cutter and then set to cutting them out. I used a rounded square sandwich box as my square sorting mat pattern.

Next I grabbed our grey plastic serving tray, the foam shape beads, the foam shape mats I had just made and a small box from a 4 piece of Russel Stovers chocolates that my mom had saved from a church event and passed the empty boxes along to me for projects.

I set out the tray on the front porch for Lil’ Red to begin his work in sorting the shapes. He got right to work and thought it was great fun!

If your child is older or more advanced then making this activity a little more challenging might be better suited. You can increase the difficulty level of this shape sorting activity by adding more then one color for each shape.