Inquiry into Shapes- Concept Based Experiences

My first tryout after a session with Rachel French.

I tried with shapes in my 3-year-olds class.

The engagement. It was very simple, bringing in big posters with the 3 basic 2D shapes, circle, square and triangle. The children were excited as I called one by one all the new friends.

Focus. We used Is/Is Not as a way to form concepts sorting different cut cards into categories. We generalized using factual examples as evidence.

Investigate. We transferred knowledge sending children to bring in more real objects from the classroom, assessing where to place them in our categorization on the mat. We also talked about the definition of each shape and introduced harder examples like triangles that were not equilaterals.

Organize. We organized our learning by avoiding brain load by scaffolding the activities over several days and repeating activities. Also, we completed sentences about each shape together. ie. saying the sides in a square are all_____ (the same). A triangle has___ sides. The circle goes ____ (around and around and around).

Generalize. We went on a shape hunt around the classroom finding new 3D objects. We did Stress testing- prove it! Asking children to justify their thinking