Boots and shoes make an ideal focus for young children. Putting on, fastening and tidying away their own footwear are important steps in young children's learning to be independent and taking care of themselves, while boots and shoes make ideal play props, that enable children to explore a wide variety of experiences and roles.
ADULT-LED ACTIVITY
- Identity parade
- Set up an activity that will encourage the children to look closely at their own shoes.
KEY LEARNING INTENTIONS
- To be confident to try new activities, initiate ideas and speak in front of a group
- To look closely at similarities, differences, patterns and change
- To move with control and co-ordination
Adult:child ratio 1:8
RESOURCES
- A large sheet or blanket
PREPARATION
Hang the sheet about 30cm from the floor and between two screens (leaving plenty of room so that adults and children can walk behind it).
ACTIVITY CONTENT
- With the children, sit on the floor to form a circle with your feet touching in the centre. Encourage the children to observe and talk about their footwear. Ask questions about the kinds of footwear, their purpose, how they protect our feet and keep them warm, their colours, shapes, sizes and fastenings.
- Ask everyone to remove a shoe and look inside. Talk about any markings such as logos, numbers or letters and examine the patterns on the sole. Do any of the shoes have novelty features, such as lights, jewels or special laces?
- Draw the children's attention to the size of the shoes. Find out who has the smallest and who has the largest pair, and work out the average.
- Ask the children to pass their shoe to the person sitting next to them and conduct a similar examination. Encourage the children to comment on similarities, differences and patterns. Continue to pass the shoes around the circle while the children remain motivated.
- Ask everyone to put their shoes back on and play a guessing game. Get one of the children to run behind the sheet while two children in the front guess who it was. Continue until all the children have taken part in guessing and being identified.
EXTENDING LEARNING
Key vocabulary
Shoe, sandal, boot, slipper, heel, sole, tongue, lace, buckle, Velcro, strap, size, left, right, stamp, same, different, leather, rubber, canvas, plastic, logo, letters, numbers, label, comfortable, loose, tight
QUESTIONS TO ASK
- Do both of your shoes look the same? Do you know which is the left and which is the right?
- Is your shoe all the same colour, or can you see different colours?
- Can you describe the markings on your shoe and the pattern underneath?
- Did you enjoy the guessing game? Whose shoes were easiest to guess? Why was that?
EXTENSION IDEAS
- Invite someone who works with shoes, such as a shop assistant, factory worker or shoe repairer, to come and talk to the children.
- Visit a shoe repairer's or shoe shop.
ADULT-LED ACTIVITY
What can you do?
Expand the project by exploring boots and shoes that have a specific function.
KEY LEARNING INTENTIONS
- To extend their vocabulary, exploring the meanings and sounds of new words
- To use developing mathematical ideas and methods to solve practical problems
- To express and communicate their ideas, thoughts and feelings by using a widening range of materials, role play and movement
Adult-child ratio 1:6
RESOURCES
- A wide selection of footwear for a specific purpose, such as ballet shoes, tap shoes, clogs, hiking boots, safety shoes, running shoes, Wellingtons, flip-flops 3photographs of people wearing some of special footwear such as mountain climbers, dancers and farmers 3large hoop
PREPARATION
Display a notice to parents outlining the activity and requesting interesting boots and shoes on loan. Set up an investigation table where the children can explore them before the adult-led interaction.
ACTIVITY CONTENT
- Ask the children to recall the previous activity when they explored their shoes and played a guessing game. Explain that some boots and shoes have a special job to do.
- Invite a child to choose one boot or shoe from the investigation table and pass it around for the children to make comments about. Ask questions about who might wear it and why.
- After listening to the children's responses, extend their knowledge and vocabulary by describing a photograph of someone wearing a similar boot or shoe.
- Put the boot or shoe into a hoop on the floor and have someone choose a different one. Continue until all of the footwear has been explored and is in the hoop.
- Explain that you need to put the boots and shoes back into pairs to return them to their owners. Invite them to take turns to take an example from the hoop and find the matching one on the table. Stand the pairs in a row on the floor.
- Ask questions relating to this row of pairs to check mathematical understanding.
EXTENDING LEARNING
Key vocabulary
Boot, shoe; words associated with the types of footwear represented, such as ballet, tap, hiking, sport, safety; words associated with those who wear them, such as climber, hiker, dancer, runner, builder
QUESTIONS TO ASK
- Which shoe would you most like to wear? Can you tell us why?
- Which boot do you like best? Who would wear a boot like this? Do you know why?
- Look along the row. Has every shoe and boot got a matching partner? How many pairs are there? Are there more pairs of shoes or pairs of boots?
EXTENSION IDEAS
- Ask parents and staff to loan examples of boots and shoes from different countries or look for websites displaying images of footwear (www.virtualmuseum.ca) from around the world, such as snowshoes.
- When the children have removed one example of each pair of shoes from the investigation table, hide the remaining examples around the room for them to find.
CHILD-INITIATED LEARNING
Creative area
Additional resources and adult support
- Provide a collection of donated old shoes; shoe catalogues; laces; hole punches; samples of shoe making materials such as leather, canvas and fabric; range of attractive collage materials; beads; boxes; shoe boxes.
- Explain to the children you have put some new objects into the area so that they can explore lots of things about shoes.
- Leave them to discover the resources freely and decide upon their own direction of play.
- Visit regularly to comment on action and provide additional resources as requested.
PLAY POSSIBILITIES
- Decorating old shoes with collage materials
- Punching holes into card and threading laces; threading beads to laces
- Making shoes from material scraps or cut-down boxes
- Finding pictures of shoes and using them in collage and montage work
POSSIBLE LEARNING OUTCOMES
- Has a strong exploratory impulse
- Uses talk to connect ideas, explain what is happening and anticipate what might happen next
- Constructs with a purpose in mind, using a variety of resources
- Works creatively on a large or small scale
OUTDOORS
Additional resources and adult support
- Mark a route of shoeprint tracks around the tarmac for the children to follow and provide a missing 'treasure' at the end of the trail.
- Provide a range of donated old shoes and boots along with water, shallow troughs, trays with sponge in the bottom, thick paint, chalks, decorator's brushes, rolls of old wallpaper and large pieces of paper.
- Make clear to the children that the paint should only be used on the paper.
PLAY POSSIBILITIES
- Trying on large footwear and following existing markings
- Dipping boots into water and stamping around to create footprints
- Dipping boots or shoes into paint and making prints on the paper
- Unrolling wallpaper to make long lines of prints
- Applying chalk to the bottom of boots and shoes to make chalk prints on paper
- Sorting and matching footwear
- Setting up a role-play shoe shop
- Using the boots and shoes to develop their role play and create their own stories
POSSIBLE LEARNING OUTCOMES
Persists for extended periods of time at an activity of their choosing
Talks activities through, reflecting on and modifying what they are doing
Talks about, recognises and recreates simple patterns
Moves freely with pleasure and confidence
Use their bodies to explore texture and space
ROLE PLAY
Additional resources and adult support
- After examining the children's footwear, provide resources for role play so that children can create a shop selling or repairing shoes. Invite them to help you decide upon resources, but include most of the following: a variety of pairs of shoes, pictures or posters about shoes (obtainable from a shoe shop); shoe boxes; till; money; purses; labels or card to make them; pens; bags; tabards; foot measures or rulers; floor standing safety mirrors.
- Leave the children to play freely in the area, visiting 'in role' to buy shoes or have a pair repaired.
- As play develops, provide additional resources requested by the children so that they can put their ideas into practice.
PLAY POSSIBILITIES
- Working together in their shoe shop, re-enacting previous experiences and making up imaginary scenarios
- Following the process of making a purchase or requesting a repair
- Measuring feet and comparing shoe sizes
- Exploring the resources available and using them to develop imaginary ideas of their own.
POSSIBLE LEARNING OUTCOMES
- Shows increasing independence in selecting and carrying out activities
- Begins to use talk to pretend imaginary situations
- Uses mathematical language in play
- Shows an interest in the world in which they live
BOOKS, STORIES, RHYMES TO SUPPORT THE THEME
Traditional tales
- The Elves and The Shoemaker
- Puss in Boots
STORYBOOKS
New Shoes, Red Shoes by Susan Rolling (Orchard Books)
One Shoe, Two Shoes by Jeanne Willis (Andersen Press)
I Want My New Shoes (Little Princess) by Tony Ross (Andersen Press)
Two Shoes, New Shoes (Nursery Collection) by Shirley Hughes (Walker Books)
Centipede's 100 Shoes by Tony Ross (Andersen Press)
Baby's New Shoes by Dashka Slater (Bloomsbury)
Non-fiction titles
Shoes and Boots (Fashion Through the Ages) by Fiona Macdonald (Ticktock Media)
Whose Shoes Are These?: A Look at Workers' Footwear - Slippers, Sneakers, and Boots (Whose Is It?) written by Laura Purdie Salas and illustrated by Amy Bailey Muehlenhardt (Picture Window Books)
RHYMES
Cobbler, cobbler, mend my shoe
Cobbler, cobbler, mend my shoe,
(Pretend to hammer nails in a shoe)
Get it done by half-past two.
(Point to your watch or a clock)
Do it neat, and do it strong
(Mime stitching)
And I will pay you when it's done.
(Pretend to count out some pennies)
I can tie my shoe lace
I can tie my shoe lace
I can comb my hair
I can wash my hands and face
And dry myself with care.
'There was an old woman who lived in a shoe'; 'One, two, buckle my shoe'
AREAS OF LEARNING
Personal, social and emotional development
Communication, language and literacy
Mathematical development
Knowledge & understanding of the world
Physical development
Creative development.