Sultan Qaboos University

College of Education

Early Childhood department

Assignment (3):

Sharing of an Exemplary Learning Task

Submitted by: Thuraya Al-khalili.

ID: 83842

Submitted to: Dr. Flick Douglas.

Course: ECED4080 “Creating Materials for Use by Young Children – Winter 2011”

Submission date: Sunday, 11 03 20

Learning Task:

Shapes feely bag.

Description:

Only through their sense of touch, children will be searching for a certain shape (circle, square, rectangle, etc) which the teacher asks them to find from the opaque feely bag. They will insert one hand inside the feely bag and try to identify a particular shape using their prior knowledge about the features of each one.

Adding and removing shapes from the feely bag depends on each child’s level. Start with 4 shapes or less, and add some according to the child’s progress.

Age group:

4 to 6 years

Subject area:

Mathematics.

Subject Standards:

Geometrics.

Subject Topic:

Shapes.

Background Information:

Children who can identify shapes have built skills essential for reading, writing and math. Knowing the different shapes helps them recognize numbers and letters as well as other signs and symbols. Distinguishing among shapes enhances their play, too,

improving their ability to build with blocks and complete puzzles.

Children are often confused between the different shapes (circle, square, rectangle, etc). Using their sense of touch to discover each shape, they recognize the differences between them, and identify the main features of each shape ex; the triangle has 3 sides only, while the square has 4 sides. This activity helps children to seek knowledge in a fun way.

Student Learning Outcomes:

Geometrics: Differentiates between various shapes.

Prerequisite Concepts, Concepts, Skills, & Values:

Understands the idea of the activity; uses only his hand to identify the shape without looking at the shapes.

Recognizes some shapes visually.

Has experience in comparing between objects.

Learning Theory & Instructional Strategies:

The activity is based upon a cognitive approach where children make links with different experiences (seeing, listening, and touching).

Children are curious learners; they are in a stage where they discover the world. This activity responds to children’s way of learning through

hiding the 2d shape they are looking for.

This activity encourages children to seek knowledge, search, and learn independently.

The activity prepares children for reading and writing.

Student Characteristics Accommodated:

This activity meets different developmental stages; through adding and removing shapes from the feely bag this activity is easily adapted to the child developmental level.

Introduction of the Learning Task:

Show the child the location of the activity in the shelf.

Tell the child the name of the activity.

Walking with the child, ask him\her to bring the activity to a table.

Open the feely bag for the child, and ask him\her to remove the content of it.

Tell the child that the feely bag obviously contains different shapes.

Ask the child to name some shapes.

As a start put 4 or less shapes inside the feely bag.

Explain for the child that this activity is based on the sense of touch only

“we do not look inside the bag; we only put our hands to find a shape”.

Because children learn through modeling, pretend that you are the child, and act like you are looking for a certain shape. Remember to describe the shape verbally while touching the shape ex, this shape is similar to the coin shape! So, it is a circle!

Tell the child to find you a certain shape to check if the child understood the idea of the activity. This way you are stating from the basic way “checking for receptive understanding”

Show the child how to tidy-up the activity.

Checklist of Tray Items:

Tray.

Box

A feely bag that contains the shapes.

Simplification Activities:

Focus only in 2 or 3 shapes (circle, square, and triangle).

Extension Activities:

Ask the child to match between the

shapes and their written names.

Enrichment Activities:

Create a feely bag that contains a 3d shapes (cube, cylinder, cone, etc).

Assessment Techniques:

Informal assessment:

Observe the child during the outdoor, playing time, and snack time.

Formal assessment:

The child identifies the shapes receptively “gives the teacher a circle, when she asks for a circle”.

The child identifies the shapes expressively “says this is a square”.

Evaluation Rubric:

1. Does not distinguish between shapes.

2. Recognizes, and names 5 shapes.

3. Recognizes, and names 10 shapes.

4. Matches the shapes with their name cards.

Vocabulary:

Circle, square, triangle, rectangle, diamond, heart, hexagon, oval, pentagon, star.

References:

The idea of using the “Feely bag” is from:

Barnes, B. (2007). Teaching art to young children 4-9(2nd.ed). New York, NY: Rutledge Flamer.

Comments Hits, & Suggestions:

Make sure to remove any sharp edges in the shapes.

Use the same color for all the shapes in order to help the child focus on one difference only to compare between the shapes “number of sides” rather than the color of the shape.

Enlarge the font of the shapes cards names.

Key Words:

Feely bag, inside, outside, same, different, sides.

Materials needed:

Opaque feely bag.

Cork.

A paper that contains the different shapes.

Written names of the shapes (English and Arabic).

A small tray.

A small box.

Scissors.

A cutter.

Procedure:

1. Cut the shapes.

2. Draw the shapes in the backside of the cork.

3. Cut the shapes using a cutter.

4. Keep the cork shapes inside the feely bag.

5. Laminate the names of the shapes and cut them into small cards.

6. Keep the laminated cards inside a small box to keep it safe.

7. Keep the feely bag and the box in a small tray.