The second part of a project on shape can focus on activities that can be developed from a carefully chosen set of stories, songs and rhymes. The books and rhymes that have been selected support the emphasis on three-dimensional shape introduced in the first part and will build successfully on the children's prior understandings and experiences.
Developing maths through stories
Stories are an essential part of human experience and an invaluable tool for making sense of the world. Stories provide a readily available shared context for learning that is accessible to all children through both words and pictures.
Characters in stories use maths for authentic purposes and to fulfil various needs, including solving problems. This offers an excellent role model for children, who need to see maths as an important part of their everyday lives, not something that is separate from it.
Although the adults within the setting might initiate using the books recommended here, no doubt there will be also numerous opportunities for children to explore avenues of investigation of their own.
Adult-led activities
Songs and poems
Build up a repertoire of shape songs and poems.
Key learning intentions
Listen with enjoyment and respond to rhymes and poems
Use language such as 'greater', 'smaller', 'heavier' or 'lighter' to compare quantities
Use language such as 'circle' or 'bigger' to describe the shape and size of solids and flat shapes
Good practice
Building up a repertoire of songs and poems about shape means that practitoners can support the children by:
* inviting them to repeat certain concepts and vocabulary that may be more accessible in a song or rhyme than elsewhere
* promoting the notion of mathematical learning as an enjoyable, social activity rather than a dull, sedentary one
* giving the children time to use the poems and songs, once they have learned them, in their play, perhaps inventing their own versions and additional verses
* Add some related props, such as some solid shapes, to provide for the children a focal point that will help them develop new mathematical understandings through play.
Resources
Three particularly useful collections of poetry for use with a project on shape are:
The Box Room by Sophie Hannah (Orchard Books, 4.99)
One in a Million: A Book of Poems Where Maths Becomes Fun by Moira Andrew (Puffin Books; now out of print but used copies can be bought on Amazon)
Tom Thumb's Musical Maths by Helen Macgregor (A&C Black; again out of print but some copies can still be bought on Amazon)
Activity content
* The Box Room would be an excellent stimulus for all kinds of playful activities. It broadens the definition of 'a box' to include suitcases, houses and homes, as well as offering poetry about boxes as diverse as tissue boxes and paint boxes. Round boxes and triangle boxes also get a mention.
* Choose some poems to introduce to the children, and read and reread them frequently, encouraging the children to join in. Identify those that they enjoy the most and learn easily. Type them up and print them off on card (printing multiple copies would be very useful for working with small groups). Ask the children to illustrate the poetry cards and then laminate them.
* You can now incorporate the poetry into a wide range of areas in the setting. The poem 'New Strange Land' would be excellent used in conjunction with small-world play, for example, while 'Paint Box' could be displayed in the creative area.
* Selecting one or two poems that you particularly enjoy and bringing them to life with props to use in small groups would undoubtedly help support the definition of mathematical thinking and help the children explore a variety of novel concepts. 'Tiny Box' would be excellent for this, as would 'The Round Box'.
* Seven songs in Tom Thumb's Musical Maths relate to shape and offer opportunities to develop children's vocabulary in an entertaining and child-friendly way. The tunes are those of well-known songs, such as 'Frere Jacques' and 'The Hokey Cokey', so adults can sing along easily with the children.
* The song 'Which Shapes?' invites children to discover shapes in their classroom, then includes the finder's name in the words of the song. Once the children know the song well and feel confident to spot shapes, take photographs of both shapes and children as you sing. Print off the photographs, add song lyrics, and you will have your own personalised book about shape.
* If you change the words of the first line of the song to 'Which of these shapes are found outside our classroom?', you can repeat the process in the outdoor area.
* The clever use of words by the poets in One in a Million is intriguing and it should engage children's interest in shape. Reading the poems aloud and talking about them would be a sufficiently valuable experience, but you might want to link them with other activities. 'I'd like to squeeze' could be used in conjunction with Playdough or other malleable materials. 'The Sunflower', while needing little explanation of its content, invokes a sense of awe and wonder in a flower that is often used to great effect in the early years and it would instigate many mathematical investigations.
I spy Explore shapes in works of art.
Key learning intentions
Talk about, recognise and recreate simple patterns Use language such as 'circle' or 'bigger' to describe the shape and size of solids and flat shapes
Use everyday words to describe position
Use talk to clarify ideas, thinking, feelings and events
Respond in a variety of ways to what they see, hear think and feel
Resources
* An overhead projector * Screen or some large sheets of white paper (attached to the wall) * I Spy: Shapes in Art by Lucy Micklethwait (editor), (Collins, 6.99)
Activity content
* Share the book I Spy: Shapes in Art with the children. You may wish to do this in a large group first, and then have repeated readings with smaller groups, so that children can get a good look at the pictures, which would provide a starting point for many discussions.
* If possible, buy multiple copies of this book, as it is one which many children would enjoy sharing with friends. Consider choosing one or two images to put on an overhead transparency, so that it can be enlarged and shared. This gives the children an opportunity to examine the chosen painting with great care, and to feel as if they almost inhabit the work of art.
* Gather together a variety of translucent shapes (it is easy to make your own from coloured cellophane or tissue paper). Add a selection of opaque shapes such as buttons and counters. Let the children experiment with placing the shapes on the overhead transparency and projecting the image on to the large sheets of paper on the wall.
* Supply mathematical vocabulary where you think it is appropriate, but avoid dominating the children's experiments. The key role of an adult in an activity such as this is affirmation of the children's efforts, by offering encouragement for further experimentation. Discussing the choices of shapes that the children make and inviting them to extend and develop the patterns that they made is more likely to aid their learning than questions such as 'What shape is this?'
* Look for the variety of ways in which children use the shapes, and listen to their conversations. If you encourage them to work in pairs, then you increase the level of difficulty of the task and encourage collaborative talk.
On the wall
Experiment with three-dimensional shapes to create a variety of walls and boundaries.
Key learning intentions
Use language such as 'greater', 'smaller', 'heavier' or 'lighter' to compare quantities
Talk about, recognise and recreate simple patterns
Use language such as 'circle' or 'bigger' to describe the shape and size of solids and flat shapes
Use everyday words to describe position
Use developing mathematical ideas and methods to solve practical problems
Enjoy listening to and using the language of story and readily turn to it in their play and their learning
Resources
* What is a Wall, After All? by Judy Allen and Alan Baron (Walker Books, Pounds 4.99) * A variety of construction equipment * Teifoc (small, realistic clay bricks that come with their own mortar) would be ideal for this activity * variety of papers * chubby wax crayons * small-world figures * small ladders * piece of hardboard or other smooth level surface on which children can build
Activity content
* Share the book with the children. Be prepared to spend some time looking closely at the pictures and reading the speech bubbles, which the children are sure to enjoy.
* Talk about all the different kinds of walls that the children are familiar with. In small groups, go for a walk in the grounds of the setting to identify the different patterns that can be identified in the walls.
What shapes can the children see?
* Show the children how to take rubbings of the patterns. Encourage them to help each other, so that one holds the paper while another takes a rubbing.
(The activity will work best if the children use the side of the crayons for rubbing.) * Collect a variety of patterns and discuss them once back indoors. Make a display of the children's rubbings, preferably near the construction area.
* Suggest that the children make a wall of their own. Can they discover how to join the bricks most effectively? What happens if the bricks are merely placed on top of the other? Why do the children think that bricks are the shape they are?
* If using Teifoc, let the children experiment with the bricks first, before showing them how to mix the mortar.
* Add some small-world figures or animals, so that the children can devise their own purposes for building a wall.
* Also consider adding some ladders (the sort sold in pet shops for budgies are ideal), so that their characters can climb over the wall. What might they see on the other side?
* As a building challenge with a difference, offer the children some sugar cubes. Can they build an igloo?
* Show the children how to fashion a brick shape from Playdough. What kinds of constructions can they make with the Playdough bricks?
* Photograph some of the children's efforts, put the pictures in a photo album and keep it in the construction area as inspiration for future architects.
Resources
* A variety of attractive boxes to use with the poems in The Box Room by Sophie Hannah (Mindstretchers, 4.70 to 7.64, www.mindstretchers.co.uk)
* A variety of postcards and posters with a shape theme, including The Snail from I Spy Shapes in Art (www.tate.org.uk)
* Wooden shapes, handy for use with the OHP or to put in a feely bag (Mindstretchers, 8.22)
* Teifoc building bricks (Mindstretchers, starting set 15.28) Books
* 50 Exciting Ideas for Developing Maths Through Stories (Lawrence Educational, 11, tel: 0121 3443004, www.educationalpublications.com)
* Let's Build - 50 Exciting Ideas for Construction Play (Lawrence Educational, 11).
* Shapes, Shapes, Shapes by Tana Hoban (William Morrow, out of print but can be ordered online on Amazon)
* Shape by Robert Crowther (Walker Books, 9.99)
* The Shape Game by Anthony Browne (Doubleday, 10.99)
* Changes, Changes by Pat Hutchins (Atheneum Books for Young Readers, out of print but can be ordered on Amazon)
* A Triangle for Adaora by Ifeoma Onyefulu (Frances Lincoln, 5.99)
* Harry and the Dinosaurs Have a Very Busy Day by Ian Whybrow (Puffin Books, 4.99)
* I Spy: Shapes In Art by Lucy Micklethwait (editor), (Collins, Pounds 6.99)
* Bear in a Square by Stella Blackstone (Barefoot Books, 4.99)
* What is a Wall, After All? by Judy Allen and Alan Baron (Walker Books, Pounds 4.99)