Grade R Christmas Fun

The girls explored the different maths skills of symmetry, spatial relationships, problem solving and measurement whilst building a “forest” of Christmas trees. They loved exploring the concept of symmetry by completing a Christmas tree so that the one side of the tree was the same as the other side. There was paper everywhere as the girls had fun creating another colourful Christmas tree by measuring and tearing the paper to make the shape of a triangle, starting at the base, and going smaller to the top. A wonderful method of strengthening fine motor muscles as well as measuring in an informal way. After learning all about the fir trees which represent the season of celebrating Jesus, the girls played with concrete tangram pieces to create the last of their Christmas trees to add to the fir tree forest. They then carefully cut out the 7 tangram pieces and planned, created, and decorated their very own tree, to remind us of God’s love for us. Tangrams, like Lego, are wonderful for teaching children about spatial relationships as well becoming problem solvers, confident in their critical thinking skills.