Coding Shapes Worksheet for Preschoolers: Cut and Paste Patterns

How to use this worksheet

Have your child cut out each shape piece along the dotted lines, sorting them into a small pile as they go. Look at the pattern shown in each box on the worksheet together and describe the order aloud, like 'circle, square, circle, square.' Let your child select the matching shapes and arrange them in that same order inside the empty box before gluing anything down. Once the arrangement matches the example, glue each shape into place and move on to the next pattern box.

Materials needed

• Scissors
• Glue Stick
• Pencil

Extension activities

• •Build a longer shape pattern using blocks or shape tiles and challenge your child to continue it.
• •Create a new pattern using only two shape types and ask a sibling or friend to copy it.
• •Sort the leftover shape cutouts by type — circles, squares, triangles — into separate piles.
• •Use the finished patterns to build a simple picture, like a house made from squares and triangles.

Tips for parents and teachers

Encourage your child to lay the shapes out in order before gluing, since planning ahead of a permanent step builds patience and reduces frustration from mistakes. If the pattern sequence is confusing, point to each shape in the example one at a time and have your child repeat it aloud before placing its match. This early exposure to repeating, ordered sequences is genuinely foundational for later computational thinking, even though it looks like simple crafting.