Classes & Workshops

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The Child Care Directory is Canada’s most comprehensive source for child care information across Canada.  As part of our dedication to bring parents and care centers together, we post informative information on a regular basis.   As former Childcare Directors, we are pleased to share our experience and tips with providers and parents alike. 

Children in the Classroom: How shapes and patterns can be incorporated into the nursery and preschool curriculum to help children learn

Using Shapes

• Hunt for shapes throughout the room. Keep a list and/or have the children colour a picture of what they find
• Pass around a shape and have children look at it and feel it with eyes open and closed
• Have children hunt for shapes in a magazine and paste them on a page
• Trace shapes, and then color them in
• Have children make pictures out of basic shapes – i.e. make a house using squares, rectangles and triangles
• Have ten cut outs of all different shapes and envelopes with that shape in them, kids place shapes into their corresponding envelopes
• Select several sheets of paper and draw one large shape (can also use numerals). Set out 20 inch long shoelaces or string. Invite the children to create the shapes or numerals by placing the laces on top of the shape or numeral on the construction paper sheets.
• Use pieces of masking tape to make large outlines on the floor of a circle, square, triangle, etc. Let the children take turns walking, crawling or hopping around the edges of the shapes. Or ask the child to first identify the shape before walking around it.
• Place one of each shape on a magnetic board or flannel board. Have the children look through a basket of shapes and place a shape next to its corresponding match

Using Patterns:

• Look for patterns on leaves
• Working with simple patterns in their bead and block construction
• Building patterns with two colors of Unifix cubes or pattern blocks
• Constructing a pattern with two colors of napkins at snack time
• Clapping the rhythms of their name
• Coloring every second or fifth or tenth day on a calendar of days in school
• Exploring patterns in wallpaper, floor tiles, back packs
• Create patterns using sponge printing, collage materials, geometric shapes or wrapping or wall paper