Learning about Shapes

Assalm alykom:

You probably think that I am going to tell you some pointers about teaching shapes to young children. Well, actually this was a lesson for my fourth grade daughter and me. In the Oak Meadow cirriculum, the science starts out with alot of observing. I was skeptical about it at first. I was thinking what is the point to all this. They provide these small jewelers loupes for looking at things close up. They have the student go and look at things in nature to look for shapes. Look at the wing of a dragon fly, the bark on a tree, flowers, or leaves. From these observations, they want you to look for shapes. Look for obvious shapes such as circles and squares. Also, they should look for shapes that are not defined. After all these observations, they are to go and look at early primitive tools and artifacts. They want the student to look for the shapes that these early people carved or painted on these artifacts. Then, the point is that these early people did not know shapes. They were not taught these shapes in school like us. They have never seen these shapes. These early people learned shapes through looking and observing Allah's creations. Therefore, if the student also observes Allah's creations closely, he or she will inevitably learn something. I am 39 years old, and this was something I learned that was new about shapes!