Shapes and craft templates8 shapes
Shapes to cut out
A page of plain shape outlines that repeat down the sheet in the size you choose. It suits preschool and early elementary cutting practice, card making, collage and shape-naming games.
- Set it up your way
- Print or PDF, Letter or A4
- Free, no sign-up
On this page
This sheet gives you a grid of outlined shapes, nothing else. There is no name line and no answer key. The page is built to be cut up, so the whole sheet is shapes.
What prints
The title reads "Shapes to Cut Out", followed by one line of instructions: cut each shape along its outline, then use the shapes as stencils, for collage and cards, or for sorting and naming. Below that the outlines fill the page in rows and columns, and the number per page depends on the size you pick.
With "All eight shapes" selected, the shapes cycle in a fixed order across each row: heart, star, circle, square, triangle, diamond, hexagon, oval. Then the order starts again. Choose one shape and the whole page repeats just that outline.
The settings
- Shape: All eight shapes, or Heart, Star, Circle, Square, Triangle, Diamond, Hexagon, Oval.
- Size: Small is around 1.5 in, Medium 2.4 in, Large 3.5 in, and One per page 6.5 in.
- Dashed cutting lines: off by default, which gives a solid line. On, the outlines print dashed.
- Print the shape names: adds a small grey lowercase name under each shape.
The page opens on All eight shapes at Medium, with both toggles off.
Printing and cutting
Set the printer to Actual size or 100 percent so the inches above hold. Plain paper is fine for tracing and sorting. Use card stock, about 65 to 110 lb, if the shapes will be stencils or hang on a mobile, since thin paper wrinkles around a pencil.
Young children cut better on a thick, solid line, so keep dashes off for them. Dashed lines suit older children, who can follow the path on purpose, and they also stop a solid line from showing on the finished piece. Use blunt-tip scissors, and stay close for the smallest sizes, where little fingers get near the blades. The American Academy of Pediatrics site, linked above, has general guidance on child safety around the home.
Worked example: a shape sort for a kindergarten table
Ms. Reyes prints three pages of All eight shapes at Medium with names switched on, and one page at One per page for the whole-class demonstration. A group of four children each gets a page and cuts out the shapes into a paper plate. Then they sort: which have corners, which are curved, which have exactly four sides. The square and the diamond cause a good argument, because the diamond is a tilted shape with pointed ends. She lets them hold the cutouts against each other to see.
After the sort, each child glues one shape of each kind onto a long strip to make a pattern: circle, triangle, circle, triangle. Children who finish early trace the largest outline on colored paper. For more ideas on talking about shape properties, the NRICH site has activities for young learners.
Single shape pages
If you only need one outline, the heart template, star template and circle template open with that shape and the Large size already chosen. You can change them to any other choice here as well.