“The Blue Circle Collage”

 

On the first day of school in the Threes class, the children make a project involving painting and gluing on a circle of construction paper. This letter was sent to the parents to give them an idea of all the skills involved in this deceptively simple project.

 

When you view your child’s blue circle, keep in mind all of the following skills activated in this “simple” but complex activity of thinking:

 

1. Your child was seated in the sand, paint, and water table room at a table in a group setting, surrounded by everything he or she loves (many distractions, requiring much concentration on the project at hand!).
2. Each child shared a glue container and a pallet of collage materials to choose from to place on his or her blue circle.
3. We experimented with the “inner control of gluing”: One dab holds down one object from the collage selections. This is a mathematical concept: one-to-one correspondence. All of math is based upon giving one object one number when we count.
4. The immediate urge of a young child is to scoop up as many of the collage pieces as he can, put a dab of glue on their circle, and think that they will all stick. When he picks up the circle, the pieces fall off! This is very age-appropriate.
5. When children count objects there is skip counting. A child’s brain has not fully developed the use of 1-to-1 correspondence. During this year, this concept will begin to develop and mature. Remember, just counting aloud without touching and moving an object will not encourage learning of this mathematical concept.
6. Counting involves touch, sight, hearing, language skills, and an individual developmental timetable that needs time for the child to play and manipulate objects in his or her world. Counting can also involve the sense of taste and smell in a deeper or more abstract form of process learning (we will be doing this later on).
7. Be patient and respect brain research and the individual development of the brain. When the child’s brain is ready, you will know!
8. The “Blue Circle Collage” involved one dab of glue per collage piece. Your child selected color, texture, and shapes. He or she listened to directions, made choices, shared, and completed a task. That is a lot of learning!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Created by Presbyterian Nursery School. Use with permission.