Orientation

Children building their orientation schema are interested in how objects look from different angles and perspectives. These are the children you notice hanging upside down in the playground or bending over to see things through their legs, they are developing their orientation schema. Sometimes you might even notice them turning objects over to look at them from a new angle.

These children enjoy experimenting with magnifying glasses, mirrors, and reflections and can even show an interest in balancing objects or exploring height and weight. These children are in their element when we provide them with every opportunity to view the world and their materials from every angle and perspective possible.

Transporting

Do you ever notice how children love to carry objects from one place to another or move them around the classroom? No doubt they are building their transporting schema.

These children are learning about where things belong. They are often building concepts of distance and mapping out their environment too. We aim to provide these little learners with containers – buckets, baskets, bowls, bags, and lots of loose parts like blocks, counters, stones, and even water.

Always keeping their materials on the same shelf, gives the children the ability to move things wherever they like, while also setting a boundary about where they belong when they are done moving their materials around the classroom.

Trajectory

Children building the trajectory schema will love experimenting with direction, force and motion, and cause and effect. Our students who are always throwing objects and watching them as they land, are certainly developing their trajectory schema.

Exploring movement and Science units on How Things Move will always grab the attention of children developing their trajectory schema. This schema is all about movement.

Developmentally, this schema is supposed to be one of the earliest schemas that young children explore but in our experience, many children are still developing this schema in preschool and kindergarten. These children benefit from activities involving toy cars, paper planes, spinning objects, marble runs, and anything to do with balls.

Positioning

Children building their positioning schema are often lining objects up or placing them in some type of careful alignment. The positioning of objects will involve stacking and won’t always be about aligning objects alongside each other either.

These children are learning all about classification, order, sequences, shape, symmetry, and creating patterns. Repeating patterns are of great interest to children developing this schema too. So many math concepts rely on a student’s understanding of the positioning schema.

Enveloping

An enveloping schema is an interest in wrapping up objects or themselves. As children explore the enveloping schema we notice them completely wrapping up objects or covering whole pieces of paper in one colour. This is also when children like to create cubbies or “hidey holes” to hide in too.

When children are developing the enveloping schema, they are building measurement concepts around shape, space, and volume. Box construction and makerspaces are popular investigation areas for children exploring this schema.

Rotation

Related to the trajectory schema is the rotation schema. This schema is all about objects that turn, spin, or rotate. Primarily this schema involves a child’s own bodies, balance, and coordination.

In early education, you will always notice children exploring anything that rotates – including their own bodies as well as objects. That child turning the taps on and off? …Yes!! They are exploring the rotation schema.

By using salad spinners, wheels, hoops, water wheels, windmills and even winding wool around objects for engaging activities we aim to help these children to build their rotation schemas.

Transforming

Children working within the transformation schema are interested in change. They will be keen to explore any objects changing in appearance or substance. Sometimes these children might be interested in lifecycles and how living things transform or change into something new.

Children building their transformation schema are building an understanding of cause and effect. Sensory play, play dough, and mixing paint or mud kitchen ingredients are highly engaging activities for these students. Most of the science experiments we do, especially in Chemistry, are perfect for children developing the transformation schema.

Enclosing

This schema is often observed in block play and in dramatic play. Children building their enclosure schema are always creating boundaries and borders to contain objects or themselves.

These are the children we notice building enclosures like fences and walls with the blocks and other small world play objects. They love to wrap up dolls and toys in the dramatic play space. Sometimes you might even notice them enclosing their own bodies by wrapping themselves up in fabrics or hiding in small spaces.

Connecting

Children building their connection schema are learning how things connect and separate. They would be exploring concepts of size and shape and the forces of pushing and pulling too. You will notice these children are fascinated with construction sets like Lego®. They will enjoy joining things together, tying things up, and dismantling objects as well.

These children will be drawn to tinkering, they are also interested in the arts and collage space where they can glue and stick things together. Children developing their connecting schema will work for extended periods of time connecting and disconnecting objects or joining and separating things.