You will need: Eyes to see what is all around you

You can:

• Look for colours, patterns and shapes all around you

Point these out to your child and encourage your child to do this with you

• Find colours, patterns and shapes

• Around the home: plates, tea towels, mats, furniture, handles, pegs, cushions, pictures, clocks

• Outside: trees, leaves, flowers, cars, paving, clouds, sky colour, traffic signs

• On clothing: lava lava, piu piu, dresses, shirts, socks

• On buildings: windows, doors, block walls, brick work, house colours, signs

• In the supermarket: boxes, trolleys, bottles, packaging

You can also:

• Talk about what is the same and what is different

• Make a collage with cut out shapes and patterned fabric

• Draw shapes and patterns

• Hide some small objects in a bag and ask your child to put their hand in the bag and guess the object by feeling its size and shape

• Paint with colours

• Make a tapa cloth

• Do some weaving

Did you know:

• Your child is using critical thinking skills to identify colours, patterns and shapes

• Your child’s knowledge of shapes and colours helps them develop foundational mathematical concepts

What your child is learning:

• The names of colours, patterns and shapes

• Shapes have properties (what they are made of) e.g. a triangle has 3 sides

• That colours, patterns and shapes have special functions, e.g. traffic lights, zebra crossings, wheels

• That colours, patterns and shapes are important in design and construction