Shape Counters

Triangles, circles, and polygons, oh my! This fun shape counters digital manipulative is perfect for students in grades K through five for practicing a range of math skills.

To use the interactive shape counters tool, simply click and drag the shape of your choice onto the grid. Then release them and they’ll snap into place. Arrange as many shapes as you’d like onto the grid. To remove shapes, click and drag them off the grid. They’ll simply disappear.

Wondering how you might use the shape counters manipulative? Count, organize, and create patterns using the colorful shapes to make learning fun! Here are some activities to try:

Counting and Subitizing: Add shapes to the grid for counting or subitizing. Add one shape at a time as the class counts. Or, add a bunch of shapes before projecting the image. Then, ask students to quickly say how many shapes are on the board. You can even arrange the shapes similarly to dot arrangements on dice to help with subitizing.

Operations: Have students model addition, subtraction, division, and multiplication problems using the shapes. For example, use triangles to represent one addend and octagons to represent the other addend.

Graphing: Students can create bar graphs using the shapes and the grid as a guide. Each of the shapes can represent one of the variables.

Or, simply let students explore using the shapes. They can create patterns, and pictures, and even explore concepts such as perimeter.