Familiar shapes catch our eye, hold our attention and can even inspire an emotional response. In fact, researchers have discovered that people all over the world experience feelings of joy when looking at and interacting with round shapes, like spirals, ovals and circles. Shapes are also sprinkled throughout the natural world, and when you spot the triangles that form in an ice puddle or the hexagons of a bee hive, something fires in your brain, and you’re hooked.
One fun way to keep kids always ready to make shapes is to keep an eye out for shapes in nature. In this activity, kids embark on a nature shape-hunt and then use the shapes from nature to create shapes that spark joy and love in others.
This activity is featured in our February Activity Calendar. Need your free copy? Visit tinkergarten.com/calendar today!
The Guide
Step 1: Hunt for shapes.
Head outside with your child and keep an eye out for shapes in nature. Point out some shapes that you see and invite your child to find their own, too. Collect some of the nature items as you hunt and invite kids to lay them out on the ground to marvel at all of the different shapes you found. Kids can even sort them into piles based on shape, color or other characteristics, too.
Step 2: Model and invite play.
Slowly start to form a shape without saying a word. Notice how curious your child becomes when you are so very focused. Engage your child if they want to talk or just keep making. Once they are interested and your shape is taking form, hand them an object to add and enjoy making the rest of the shape and other shapes together.
Step 3: Outline your shapes.
Lay down a piece of string or use sidewalk chalk to form the outline of a shape. Or, just draw a line in the dirt or sand with a stick or your finger. Circles or ovals are the easiest shapes for kids to make, but we also love to introduce kids to spirals, especially around the winter and summer Solstice. Spirals are beautiful shapes that fascinate and remind us of the cycles and rhythms of the natural world. Or, make an outline of a heart for Valentine's Day! Then, kids can follow your outline as they place objects.
Step 4: Share your shapes!
Take a photo of your shapes and send them to people you love to spark joy. Share photos of your shapes in our OutdoorsAll4 FB community using @tinkergarten to inspire other families to make joyful shapes of their own!
Extend Play:
Make giant shapes of all sizes: If you have sidewalk chalk or rope, make giant shapes that kids can not only build with objects but can interact with, move in and out of or use to spark pretend play.
Make shapes indoors: If you aren’t able to be outdoors for a bit, gather up nature treasures and bring the shape-making indoors. Just interacting with natural objects helps kids stay connected to nature, even when the play has to move inside.
Why is this activity great for kids?
Recognizing and naming shapes is super helpful for kids’ future learning, not only about geometry or design but about how we use symbols to read, write and communicate. And, shapes are a tool for helping kids learn to direct and hold their focus. We can think about focus as the ability to direct and shift our attention—a skill kids need to take in and process information, collaborate, reflect, evaluate and act on their goals. Arranging objects into lines and shapes is also a special type of brain-boosting behavior that young kids all over the world engage in when they play. Engaging with familiar shapes can also spark the kind of joy that helps kids thrive. Every time kids experience joy, the pathways in their brains that are dedicated to feeling this positive emotion grow stronger.
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By creativity, we mean the ability to both imagine original ideas or solutions to problems and actually do what needs to be done to make them happen. So, to help kids develop creativity, we parents need to nurture kids' imaginations and give them lots of chances to design, test, redesign and implement their ideas.
"Creativity is as important now in education as literacy, and we should treat it with the same status.”
Why, you ask? For one, it is through being creative that a person is able to get senses, sensibility and spirit working together. Simply put, without creativity, we don't think our kids will live a full life.
On a more practical level, it's also the means by which humans of all ages make an impact on the world and other people around them. A lot of heavy stuff is going to go down in our kids' lifetime, and their generation will need to imagine and implement solutions to big and very complicated problems. Although our kids are still far from public office or the boardroom, today's political and business leaders worldwide are already pointing to creativity as the most important leadership quality for the future.
Although years from the art studio or design lab, little kids can learn to think and act creatively if you give them time and the right practice.
Behavioral Schema
Category:
Body Skills
What are schema and why should you care?
There are patterns of repeatable behavior known as "schema" that you can notice in your child's play during early childhood (~18months-age 5 or 6). No matter where you are in the world, these same schema are exhibited by kids. Experts believe that when kids repeat these patterns in different situations, kids develop physically and cognitively. In turn, they are better able to understand, navigate and interact with their worlds, resulting in transformative learning. Kids naturally become absorbed in repeating these patterns, and practice with schema is highly engaging for them.
“Children’s schemas can be viewed as part of their motivation for learning, their insatiable drive to move, represent, discuss, question and find out.”—Professor Cathy Nutbrown, UK
How are schema useful to parents and teachers?
First, it just feels great to better understand your little ones. Once you notice these patterns, your child's seemingly random and (occasionally frustratingly) repetitive actions suddenly appear elegant and purposeful. Best of all, once you realize that they are really exploring a certain schema or two, you can pick activities for them that give them the opportunity to practice them, increasing their engagement and extending their learning.
Does every kid get absorbed in schema?
These are universal patterns, but different kids will engage in schema in different ways. For example, some kids dabble in schema, engaging in several at any given time. Others move from one schema to another over time. Others still stay working on a single schema for years.
How should you support your child as they exhibit schema?
Exploration with various schema is built into Tinkergarten activities. It's also interesting to notice how some of the best kids' toys enable children to practice with schema.
To get started, check out the most common schema and see if you recognize these patterns in your child's behavior. If you do, check out our activities that help to extend his or her learning by supporting that schema. For fun, mention these to your friends as you watch their children at play. They'll be in awe of your observation skills, any maybe even refer to you as the toddler-whisperer?!
The scoop on common schema:
Transporting
You may have noticed that your child seems to spend lots of time picking up objects, putting them into a container, perhaps only to transfer them to another container or dump out the container and start again. Your child may also simply love to haul around hefty things (e.g. logs, books, blocks). Kids may also love to fill up wagons, carts, strollers, etc. so they can "transport" objects or people around.
Rotation/Circulation
So many children become engrossed in spinning around and around to the point of dizziness…who hasn’t?! Kids who are focused on rotation/circulation spin themselves or become fixated on watching things that rotate, like a wheel, or the clothes dryer. That is the magic behind rolling down a hill.
Trajectory
Many kids go through a phase or just always seem to like moving in straight lines. They probably like to walk along the cracks in the sidewalk, balance on the curb, walk along a log, climb up and down ladders or whiz down slides. Some can't get enough of those swings. They also love to throw, drop, roll and toss all kinds of things.
Positioning
Kids like to order, arrange and position objects or themselves. They may arrange blocks, cars, rocks or other objects in lines, rows, piles or patterns. Drawing, painting and sculpture work likely includes lines and patterns as well. Lining up may be a favorite activity, and where friends and family stand, sit or walk may be of particular interest.
Enveloping/Enclosing
Kids like to cover, wrap or enclose things and themselves. For example, your child may hide themselves under the bed covers, love to wrap up in a towel after the bath, or use a single crayon to cover a whole piece of paper during art time. You may also notice a time when your kids continue to find places to tuck objects or themselves out of sight (aggrrr, not the keys again!). They may love to sit in tunnels, climb into empty boxes, hide up in trees, build forts, or squirrel away in a little area under the stairs. Or, they may love to tuck treasures away into boxes, bags, pockets or hidden nooks around the yard.
Connecting
A child might spend a great deal of time connecting things to one another. You may notice that they love to join the train tracks together, link LEGOs in long chains, build “fences” out of blocks, each block touching its neighbor. They also love to use tape, glue, string, and other things that connect objects.
Transforming
Kids like to transform the shape, feel and look of things and themselves. You'll notice this when they are dressing up in costumes or putting on make up. These are your potion-makers and demolition crew, who may add milk to their mashed potatoes, make potions in the backyard, knock down buildings and towers, and mix all of the play-doh colors together...in short, they can be a big sister’s nightmare!
Age: 0 to 8+
Time: 1 hour+
Materials: string or sidewalk chalk, objects from nature
