Early learning goal
Children should talk about and recognise simple mathematical patterns and use the correct language to describe shape.
Christmas celebrations create an overwhelming visual experience for children. Christmas displays are visible in shops long before schools and nurseries choose to introduce the event in their classrooms. Consequently, many early years practitioners feel that Christmas has become far too commercialised, yet for most children and their parents it remains a key festival to celebrate.
The story of Christ's birth can be easily understood by all children because it embraces characters and objects that they have previously encountered in literature: babies, shepherds, sheep, kings and presents.
Christmas need not mean that children's learning is interrupted. Purposeful seasonal activities can be carefully planned in all areas of the Foundation Stage curriculum. In particular, you can develop exciting mathematical experiences that reinforce children's knowledge and understanding of shape and pattern using traditional Christmas images.
Thorough knowledge of children's abilities and stages of development as suggested by the 'stepping stones' will help you meet the individual learning needs of children in your care.
1. In pairs
Pairs is one of the first card games that children learn to play. It teaches them to focus on pictures, to look for similarities and differences, and to match identical symbols. The game also enables children to learn vital social skills, such as working in a small group, sharing a common aim and taking turns to achieve it.
Resources
Create a set of cards large enough for children to handle. You will need to create two identical images for each pair of cards.
Draw and cut out Christmas images that you can glue to the cards before laminating them. For example, a pair could be two Christmas trees, candles, stars, holly leaves, presents or baby Jesus in his crib.
Good practice
* Introduce the game in a simple way.
* Lay all the cards face up on the table and ask each child in turn to match a pair of cards.
* Encourage children to talk about the cards as they identify the images and put them into pairs.
* Suggest that they remind one another of whose turn it is.
* As children become more proficient at this version of the game, extend the challenge by playing the game with the cards face down on the table.
With this version they will need to use memory skills as well as visual recognition.
* Each player takes a turn to pick two cards at a time to look for a matching pair. If the cards do not make a pair, they should be replaced face down again. If they do make a pair, the child takes the pair and has another go.
* Children quickly recall where specific cards lie face down and they use this knowledge to try to find more pairs.
2. Dazzling wall hangings
Fabric wall and ceiling hangings create a warm and festive atmosphere during the darker days of winter. Decorate them with printed shiny shapes of your own design to reflect the light and move in the currents of air.
Resources
* Buy lengths of cheap polyester lining from a fabric shop or market.
* Prepare ready mixed paints and stir in food colouring, PVA glue and glitter.
* Provide a separate tray for each paint colour and a selection of pre-cut geometric foam sponges.
* Lay the fabric on a flat surface.
Good practice
* Invite the children to dip the sponges in the paint and print straight on to the fabric.
* Encourage them to create patterns as they print or to use their own ideas to decorate the material.
* Support children to recognise and name the different shapes and to talk about the different patterns they have created.
* Allow children as much time as they require, and make the activity accessible all day.
* If possible, hang each length of printed fabric outdoors to dry and replace each piece with fresh lengths of cloth.
* Also replenish the paint as required.
* Display the finished work as attractively as possible. It may look good draped across a backdrop behind a Christmas tree, along the back of the book corner or pinned in swathes to the ceiling.
* However it is used, it will add colour and style to create an oriental and festive atmosphere.
3. Christmas triangles
A number of traditional Christmas images can be created from basic geometric shapes. For example, fir trees and stars can be represented in their simplest form by triangular shapes combined in a particular way.
Invite children to investigate the nature of triangles as they use these shapes to produce symbolic images.
Resources
* Provide small pieces of card on which to present the work.
* Prepare a large selection of different sized triangles cut from shiny and coloured card.
* Provide glue and glue sticks.
Good practice
* Stimulate children's interest in the task by encouraging them to play around with the different-sized triangles before they use the glue to stick them to the card.
* Suggest they create new shapes as they lay the triangles on top of each other, or in sequence from largest to smallest or smallest to largest.
* Emphasise the comparison of size and shape and the language to describe it.
* Show children the effect of moving triangles around or on top of each other to create stars.
* Then invite them to create their own designs for their pictures.
* Allow them to mix and match the shiny and coloured card.
* Leave work to dry and display effectively against a red, purple or golden backing paper.
* Alternatively, back the creations individually to create Christmas cards for children's families.
4. Christmas scenes
By this stage, children should show more patience and have the ability to build on a body of work over time, so they will enjoy creating a winter country scene using their own representations of familiar images, such as chalets, firs, small shops and local transport. All should be constructed using simple geometric shapes.
Resources
* Provide a set of geometric plastic shapes in various sizes; sugar paper in a variety of colours; scissors, pens and pencils, paints, glue and cotton wool.
* Prepare lengths of thick backing paper in different colours on which the scene can be glued.
Good practice
* Encourage children to use the geometric shapes as templates. They will need to create their own shapes for the pictures they have designed.
* For example, a log cabin or a chalet can be created from rectangular shapes with a triangle for the roof.
* Emphasise to children that they can also use other methods to create the pictures. For instance, they may want to draw round their own hands and cut these shapes out to create the form of fir tree foliage.
* As the individual parts of the picture are completed, children should paint them and then glue them to the backing paper.
* Suggest that they place scrunched-up tissue behind the cabins and houses to create a three-dimensional appearance and use sections of cardboard roll behind the tree trunks to give them solidity.
* Create the effect of snow with white paint and cotton wool or fine white netting.
* Leave to dry.
* As children become more involved in creating the scene, they should use their own initiative more and more.
* Be sure to give the children the freedom, time and resources to support these efforts.
* Extend the activity by stimulating children to invent stories and simple poems to accompany the picture. These stories may be inspired by the characters they have included in the artwork or by the Christmas winter stories they have been read in class or at home.
* The children should enjoy the chance to be creative and experimental.
They should be encouraged to solve mathematical problems as they create the picture, calculating how their shapes will fit together in the required area.
The more children handle shapes, the more familiar they will become with the shapes' geometrical properties. These early mathematical skills prepare young children well for future geometry lessons.
Placing learning about shape and form in the context of Christmas celebrations will ensure that there is a purpose to the work and a worthwhile outcome for children.