Free Printable Shape Overlay Worksheets: Level 4 (Medium-Hard)

Aims of this activity

Putting several shapes together in the mind and picturing the result (shape synthesis)
Picking out each shape among overlapping lines (figure-ground)
Telling apart look-alike shapes, such as a hexagon and an octagon or patterns with a different number of dots (visual discrimination)
Judging whether a tilted picture is the same by how the shapes face each other (form constancy and mental rotation)

Your child stacks all the shapes (parts) in the box on top of each other at the center and circles the picture they make.Your child looks for each part in the pictures and chooses the one where every part is there.In each wrong choice, just one part has been swapped for a look-alike shape.The pictures all look equally neat, so your child has to check the parts one by one.At higher levels there are more parts.From Level 3 some choices differ only in how the parts face each other, and at Levels 4 and 5 the pictures are tilted.The activity aims to build the ability to see how shapes fit together.

Tips

Point to the parts in the box one at a time and check whether each one is in a picture. Circle the picture that has every part.
A picture that matches when the whole picture is turned counts as the same. A tilted picture is correct if it matches when turned.

For what to say, choosing a level and what to do if it is too hard, see Overlapping Shapes: a guide for grown-ups.

Choosing a level

Start with a level that seems a little easy. Level 1 has two parts and the wrong pictures use different shapes, which helps your child get used to the activity.

↓

Checked the parts one by one and chose on their own

Go up one level.
After circling, have your child say which part is different in each wrong picture.

Guesses or stops quickly

Go down one level.
Point to each part and check the pictures together: "Is this shape here?"
Have your child put a small × on pictures they have ruled out.

Overlapping Shapes free printable worksheet, Level 3 (Medium) — From Level 4 the pictures are tilted. Your child needs to turn the parts in their mind to compare them.

Overlapping Shapes free printable worksheet, Level 4 (Medium-Hard) — From Level 4 the pictures are tilted. Your child needs to turn the parts in their mind to compare them.

Things you can say

Before startingIf we stack all these shapes, which picture do we get?Point to the parts in the box together, one at a time, before starting.
When unsureWhich picture has this shape?Before saying whether it is right, let your child look for each part in the pictures.
After choosingWhat was different in the other pictures?Naming the difference shows that every part was checked.
CheckingAll the shapes are there!On the answer page, check together that every part is in the circled picture.