Puzzles aid early childhood development in numerous ways. They have a direct influence on your child’s ability to learn to read, write and do mathematics, among other things. They are one of the best kinds of educational toys out there and should be done regularly. So how exactly does building puzzles help a child’s development?
Teacher Jan in helping a toddler place shape blocks into a puzzle. She looks up periodically to scan the remainder of the room , make eyedontact, and smile at other children who are playing. She is likely doing which of the following?
When working to complete a puzzle, children have to rely heavily on their ability to remember which shapes work together to complete the picture. If a piece doesn’t fit, the child will set it aside, but will still need to remember its shape and color in relation to the rest of the puzzle.
Anne Schiller: The most important thing a teacher can do to facilitate block play is to have great interest and reverence in blocks. It can't just be that you're leaving the blocks passively on the shelves hoping that [the children] will discover them.
To answer these questions, Community Playthings interviewed educators from a variety of programs with a strong block building component. Some of their answers are below. For more, watch our staff training video, Foundations of Learning: The Role of the Teacher.
Jane Clarke: I think the arrangement of the block area in any teacher’s classroom is crucial to the experience the children will have. The larger the space the children [are] given to interact with blocks open-endedly, the richer the experience will be. Also, more children will be able to be involved and interact together. The amount of time that children are given is also crucial. Classroom schedules can often be very rushed, but the longer we give the children to truly focus and engage with materials, the deeper their experience will be.
Unit Blocks should be a valued part of every early childhood classroom, fostering independence, cognitive development, and cooperative play. However, the mere presence of a block area is not enough to get the full potential out of such learning tools. Many factors influence children’s experience with blocks, but possibly the most important component is the interest and support of the teacher.
Anne Schiller: The most important thing a teacher can do to facilitate block play is to have great interest and reverence in blocks. It can't just be that you're leaving the blocks passively on the shelves hoping that [the children] will discover them. With blocks, it isn't like water or sand.
Anna Patterson: To encourage block play, it's important for the teacher to be present, and to support the children's thinking and ideas when they're block building.
Bob Boyman: When there’s a conflict in the block area, one of the things we do is we take a step back for a few moments and try to let [the children] problem-solve themselves because that’s a very important skill. Since block play is such a social activity there are a lot of times that happens.
One of the most important things that a teacher can do to support block play is to really trust in the learning experiences that are offered by blocks. Once a teacher offers the time, the space, and the guidance, the learning can really happen. And then a teacher needs to be fully engaged and fully present to observe what’s happening.
Puzzles are a popular and challenging activity for young children and adults alike. At any age, puzzles offer the chance to work toward a goal and, literally, piece together a story or narrative.
Playing with puzzles requires children to grasp pieces of all shapes and sizes and manipulate them to fit exactly into a cutout shape or slot .
While developing fine motor skills, playing with puzzles requires children to learn to make their eyes and hands work together to find the right piece . When using the process of “guess and check” to find the piece that fits, a child’s eyes, brain and hands are working to identify the piece, grasp it, work with it to make it fit ...
If a piece doesn’t fit, the child will set it aside, but will still need to remember its shape and color in relation to the rest of the puzzle. Puzzles are a fun and educational way to challenge children to think strategically while learning life skills.
Cognitive Development. Cognitive learning is characterized by comprehension, organizing ideas and applying knowledge through choice and evaluation. When children play with puzzles, they learn the power of choice and strategy as they begin to recognize and thoughtfully understand how pieces fit together to complete a larger picture.
Teacher Olga learns that the parent of a three-year old child in her class leaves the child home sleeping at night while the parent studies at the library . The mother has told Olga that it is common in her country to leave children in this way.
Young children are capable of learning healthful behaviors and being participants in promoting their own wellness.
If a child receives a bite from another child, the teacher should use a sterile gauze and apply direct pressure to stop the bleeding, and then wash the area with soap and water for up to five minutes before applying a clean bandage. This is important because.
Approach safety the same as for infants. Teacher Zay has been asked by Alan, Oscar's dad, to record observations of Alan's ex-wife when she drops Oscar off at preschool. Zay has developed a good relationship with Alan, and does all of the following except.
Which of the following is NOT true about health evaluations. Teachers do not necessarily make accommodations based on child's health status.
Shape puzzles are also three-dimensional shape sorters but the shapes are flatter and they fit into their matching shapes in the board.
All puzzles are basically problems needing to be solved. Each one poses a challenge and requires strategic thought to be completed.
Wooden peg puzzles are wooden puzzles with a knob/peg attached to each piece which helps toddlers to handle them with their little fingers. The pieces are flatter (closer to two-dimensional) and the shape of the wooden piece is the outline of the picture.
In general, 2-year-olds often start playing with simple peg puzzles, shape sorters, shape puzzles and basic 2 to 4 piece-puzzles.
Many people offer them as a way to keep children busy and entertained without fully realizing the importance of puzzles for toddlers development. In fact, the simplest play activities for kids are usually the most educational.
Puzzles are a great way to experience success since a completed puzzle is a very clear symbol of achievement. It is also a challenging activity so children learn how it feels to put in a lot of effort to achieve that success.
This is a regular jigsaw puzzle that relies on much more advanced visual skills to build. A jigsaw puzzle can have anywhere between 2 and a few thousand pieces (to keep adults entertained!) Here are some 9-piece and 12-piece puzzles that are great for toddlers.
After finding them in the classroom or outdoors, children can outline the triangles with colored tape. For example, they might make right triangles red and scalene triangles blue. Introduce math words.
Encourage preschoolers to slide, flip, or turn shapes to promote problem solving and an understanding of transformations. These transformations are crucial to developing spatial visualization abilities and understanding geometry, which involves matching shapes through visualization.
Create and take apart shapes 1 Make a shape. Offer toothpicks, pipe cleaners, straws, or craft sticks as materials children can use to make into shapes. Discuss the shapes they make. That’s a triangle. How could you turn it into a square? 2 Create new shapes. Children can glue together two or more shapes cut from paper onto a blank piece of paper to form other shapes. You glued two triangles together to form a rectangle. 3 Create solid shapes. Children can roll, pinch, and manipulate playdough or clay to make two or more shapes. Then they can combine their creations to make new shapes. 4 Deconstruct shapes. Children can explore how to form three-dimensional shapes. For example, let children watch as you cut rectangular containers such as cereal boxes. How many rectangles are there in the box? Then ask children to figure out how to put them back together. 5 Play with tangrams. Have several sets of tangrams and pattern cards on hand. Children can start by laying tans on each pattern. They can progress to re-creating the pattern on another surface and making up their own patterns. 6 Build a hexagon puzzle. Cut one hexagon into trapezoids and triangles. Invite children to use those pieces to fill in another hexagon of the same size.
Once preschoolers can correctly identify flat (square, circle, triangle, rectangle, hexagon) and solid or three-dimensional shapes (cube, cone, cylinder, sphere), they are ready to create and then take apart shapes using materials provided by their teacher.
Compare shapes. Ask children to identify different sizes of the same shape. For example, in the classroom they could search for rectangles, such as windows, doors, books, shelves, cabinets, computer screens, tabletops, and cubbies. Next, help children think as they compare the sizes of rectangles. The door is bigger than the cubbies. The cubbies are bigger than the book, but they are all rectangles. Encourage children to do the same with triangles, circles, and other shapes.
In preschool, children can learn to identify and name circles, triangles, squares, rectangles, and ovals. By using materials such as posters, blocks, books, and games, teachers expose children to various shapes and help them analyze two- and three-dimensional shapes in various sizes and orientations.
Children can use cylinders (paper towel rolls) as tree trunks, spheres (balls) as treetops, and rectangles (cereal boxes) as buildings. Teachers and children can work together to label the shape-scape, count the number of shapes used, and plan additions to the structure.
When a toddler tries to insert a square block in to a round hole and sees that it isn’t working, he may brainstorm how to get the block to go through, and try a different slot until he finds the one that works. He used problem-solving to figure out his dilemma, and witnessed the cause-and-effect when attempting to pass a block through an incorrect space vs. through a correct space.
Many varieties exist. Some are flat, others are cubes or shaped as objects such as a tool box. The object is for a child to fit the correct pieces into their matching slot on the container.
Don't want to buy yet another toy, but still want your child to acquire the same benefits he could get from playing with a shape sorting toy? Here are several ideas to try to make your own “shape sorters” at home: 1 Set up a round container and a square container, and provide circle-shaped cereal (such as Cheerios) and square-shaped cereal (such as Quaker Toasted Oatmeal squares). Have your child sort the circle pieces of cereal in to the round container, and the square pieces in to the square container. 2 Cut out a variety of shapes from a piece of cardboard or foam core. Measure and cut out corresponding shapes out of card stock. Mount the cardboard or foam core on top of a clear plastic container. Have your child insert the card-stock shapes into the correct slots.
Just be careful with the sharper edges and wooden pieces, which can potentially be dangerous if a baby decides to chew on them or throw them.
General benefits by age group associated with playing with shape sorting toys, along with playing suggestions. Age. Suggestions for Play. Skills Acquired. 6 months-15 months. Child may dump pieces out, play with them separately, and possibly attempt to fit them in slots. Tactile and motor skills, hand-eye coordination.
Child may dump pieces out, play with them separately, and possibly attempt to fit them in slots
When playing with shape sorting toys, or with any toys containing smaller parts, take extra care that any shapes or pieces are not a choking hazard to your child. Check the packaging on the toy to see what age group it is targeted too, and to see if there are any such warnings. Also, be careful not to create a tripping hazard for you or your child when dumping out the pieces.