Supporting schemas through meaningful and engaging experiences helps nurture children’s natural learning processes. The following article provides activity ideas for incorporating schema-focused activities into the learning environment.
Children exploring this schema enjoy activities involving motion or straight paths.
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Experiences:
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Setting up marble runs or ramps for cars.
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Providing paintbrushes for sweeping lines or patterns on large sheets of paper.
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Organizing outdoor games involving throwing or rolling balls.
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2. Rotation Schema
For children fascinated by circular movements, these activities encourage learning:
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Experiences:
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Playing with spinning tops, pinwheels, or hoops.
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Using turntables or circular stamps during craft time.
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Engaging in dance activities that involve spinning movements.
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3. Enclosure/Enveloping Schema
Children displaying this schema enjoy covering or enclosing objects.
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Experiences:
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Building forts or enclosures with blankets and cushions.
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Wrapping toys in fabric or paper.
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Filling shoeboxes or containers and stacking them to create "walls."
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4. Transporting Schema
This schema involves moving objects from one place to another.
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Experiences:
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Providing child-sized wheelbarrows or baskets for carrying toys.
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Setting up treasure hunts where children collect items and transport them to a “home base.”
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Using sand buckets and shovels to move sand, water, or small toys.
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5. Connection Schema
Children exploring connections enjoy joining or linking objects.
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Experiences:
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Building with LEGO or magnetic tiles.
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Encouraging threading with beads or string.
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Providing toy train sets with tracks to assemble and connect.
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6. Positioning Schema
This schema involves arranging objects in specific positions or patterns.
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Experiences:
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Using sorting trays and small objects to arrange by size, shape, or color.
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Exploring puzzles or mosaics.
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Encouraging stacking activities like creating block towers.
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7. Transformation Schema
Children exploring transformations are drawn to observing changes in objects or substances.
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Experiences:
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Conducting simple science experiments like mixing colors or watching ice melt.
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Encouraging sensory play with water, sand, or slime.
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Exploring cooking activities where ingredients transform, such as making dough or smoothies.
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8. Orientation Schema
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Definition: Involves exploring different perspectives or angles.
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Activities:
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Provide mirrors for children to explore reflections and view objects from various angles.
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Encourage “upside-down” play, like looking at the world through their legs or lying on the ground to observe the ceiling.
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Use ramps or inclines to see how objects move at different angles.
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9. Containment Schema
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Definition: Focuses on placing objects inside other objects or creating boundaries.
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Activities:
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Set up stacking and nesting toys.
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Encourage filling and emptying activities using boxes or jars with lids.
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Provide cardboard boxes for children to climb in, decorate, or turn into play spaces.
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10. Transformation Schema
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Definition: Explores cause and effect or changes in materials.
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Activities:
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Engage children in sensory play with clay, playdough, or slime.
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Conduct simple science experiments, like mixing baking soda and vinegar to observe reactions.
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Explore cooking activities where ingredients change, such as making pancakes or smoothies.
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11. Cause-and-Effect Play
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Support any schema by introducing activities where children can observe the results of their actions:
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Use pop-up toys or toys with levers and buttons.
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Provide instruments like drums or xylophones to explore sound production.
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Encourage water play with pouring tools to see how water moves and flows.
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12. Outdoor Explorations
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Integrate schemas into outdoor activities, such as:
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Collecting leaves or rocks to transport or arrange (transporting or positioning schemas).
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Observing spinning objects like pinwheels or throwing Frisbees (rotation schema).
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Building stick enclosures or forts (enclosure schema).
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13. Group Projects
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Foster collaboration while supporting schemas:
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Create a large mosaic (positioning schema) as a group.
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Build a cardboard city with roads and enclosures (trajectory, enclosure, and positioning schemas).
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Conduct a "sensory potion-making" project where children mix materials (transformation schema).
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Further Reading
A Guide To Schemas
Incorporating Theorists Into Early Childhood Documentation
Child Initiated Learning
Pedagogical Approaches In Early Childhood
EYLF Practices And Strategies To Implement Them