Essential resources: diagrams, connection – Follow a thread
In the last of this series on diagrams, Nicole Weinstein looks at resources for the connection diagram
When children have a repeated interest in connecting pieces of train track together, assembling cardboard boxes, or gluing tape to paper, chances are they are exploring the connection diagram.
Children with this pattern are also likely to knock over their constructs or disassemble their carefully threaded pasta tube necklaces in an effort to explore disconnection.
Lynnette Brock, Director of SchemaPlay, says, “Observing children’s schemas, rather than just viewing resources as an interest, can help early childhood educators effectively ‘seed’ resources tailored to a child’s exploratory interests. .
“By asking questions like, ‘What are they discovering through their operations and actions? Could it be that two things can connect? Or has it developed further and the child is studying length, height, or that two or three objects can create one, such as two triangles forming a rhombus?” we can provide or “sow ‘the right resources to foster a child’s interest in the diagram.’
SEEDING THE ENVIRONMENT
To help children explore the connection pattern, early childhood educators can “seed” the environment in the following ways:
- Babies might enjoy playing with Velcro toys; wooden stackers; stackable cups; blocks; wooden pestles; or pots with lids.
- Toddlers often demonstrate more sophisticated investigations in their play: how to make different sounds or create different shapes with blocks or train tracks. They can explore height with Duplo and Lego blocks, or play with tessellation shapes to create patterns or new shape formations by bringing two shapes together (first fractions).
- Preschoolers can have the fine motor skills to string beads onto a shoelace to create a necklace or explore length and pattern; create a range of 3D constructions and shapes with connecting straws, or build a tower with blocks that can be used to measure their height.
IN PRACTICE
St Peter and Emmaus, Wanslea Early Learning and Development (WELD) in Western Australia recently used the local recycling center to provide materials for children who are ‘connectors’.
Kylie Ridder, Head of Education at WELD and Lecturer at Murdoch University, who attended a Pattern Games Trainers Workshop, says, “Matthew, aged two and a half, is particularly drawn to this program. When presented with an array of loose parts, he immediately begins assembling plastic and cardboard tubes, taking them apart, and using egg cartons and lids to create constructions.
She adds, “Matthew’s key person, Fernanda Santiago, watches from the periphery and adds looser pieces to extend the piece. When she adds small cardboard tubes, Matthew leaves what he is doing and connects the tubes to his fingers, and experiments as they now become an extension of his fingers. Later, he removes them and connects them to other loose parts in various ways. It seems to be exploring how to extend the length of objects.
Children with a connection pattern use it not only in their games, but also when building relationships with people and their environment.
Kylie says: “When Matthew walks into the room, he is usually connected to his mother: by her hand or by touching her body. As he enters the room, he connects with an educator until he feels ready to explore the environment. He likes to be connected to materials and he often carries an object in his hand while playing.
Matthew is now exploring ‘rotation’ and ‘enclosure’ patterns, but his connection pattern is still strong and remains the anchor of these operations and explorations.
Lynnette says, “Children need opportunities to combine their projects; to see how they fit and don’t fit in a range of contexts, thus developing skills for applying the curriculum. This supports problem solving, inquiry and develops complex operations through child-directed play, such as measuring, counting, adding and writing. Diagrams are the foundation of all learning.
EXPLORE MAGNETS
Three-year-old Dan from Ryders Hayes Primary School in Walsall is fascinated by magnets. This led to adult-guided activity around objects that might be attracted to the magnet. While testing a wooden car, Dan announced, “Car like my dad’s.” It does not stick to the magnet. It’s not magnetic. But there are things going on. The wheels go on…but sometimes the car breaks…because the wheels come off.
Dan’s key person, early childhood teacher Jennifer Adams, replied: ‘Yes, Dan, cars have wheels and sometimes they have to be removed. I have a history book that talks about wheels that fit on a car.
After reading Phillis Root’s book Rattletrap Car, they explained how the family’s car fell apart and how the wheels and parts of the car all connect to work. The next day, his key person “seeded” a wooden car in a garage, with one of the wheels missing.
Dan was immediately motivated to carefully find the axle, add the wheel and connect it to the car. His key person enabled meaningful problem-solving activity, supporting an opportunity for Dan to take ownership of his success. He also began to explore inertia and force by testing the car, pushing it harder and harder, then driving down a ramp.
Lynnette says: “The combination of Dan’s operational schematic, the connection, and his figurative schematic knowledge of cars – how they look and do – provided a wonderful opportunity to foster engagement in a story. Patterns and patterns in the script are meaningful to him and can also support his stories; small world game; Roleplay; and engagement in new problem-solving skills.
She adds, “Children’s explorations of schemas are often creative, mathematical and scientific.
RESOURCES TO SUPPORT THE CONNECTION
Construction:
- TTS’s Magnetic Wooden Building Blocks, £84.99, have been designed for those under three; and his Constructa Den, £179.99, can be put together to build all sorts of hiding places.
- Alice Sharp’s Eco Build a World, £149.99, available from TTS, can be used as a simple construction set or for complex creations.
- Early Excellence is selling two complete sets – the BRIO Builder Resource Set, £185, and the Building and Constructing Complete Collection Ages 3-7, £985. It also stocks the flexible tubing and connector set, £115, and a hose and elbow set, £69.95.
- Cosy’s Imagineering Blocks, £1,139, can be stacked, interlocked and lined up to create all kinds of structures. Use them outdoors with the Class H Crates Pack, £260, or the Wooden Chutes and Stands, £84.99, both from Cosy. For indoors, try Cozy’s Natural Build ‘a’ planks, £345, or its DIY blocks, £39.99.
Threading and pegboard activities:
- Try TTS’ wooden threading trees, £59.99, or its giant rainbow peg board, £15.99. For team collaboration, put together the parts of TTS’s Team Walker, £70.95, or try its metal threading set, £54.95.
- Yellow Door’s Threading Pebbles, £20, are a top seller. And Cozy’s Slip-on Numbers and Letters, £31.99, are ideal for counting by ones and twos and seeing number patterns.
- Maths Boats and People, £49.99, are great little figures that can be inserted into boats or wooden houses to create small-world scenes.
MORE INFORMATION
SchemaPlay has launched a Curriculum Wheel to support educators’ pedagogical knowledge and curriculum observation and to identify those exciting abilities and discoveries that can be extended to support the joy of learning. For more information on SchemaPlay training, email: [email protected] or visit www.schemaplay.com
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