Pre-school Topics, Block 7, Week 61: Our brain can figure out which items are similar in shape

      Comments Off on Pre-school Topics, Block 7, Week 61: Our brain can figure out which items are similar in shape

Cognition

Week 61
Our brain can figure out which items are similar in shape

Cognitive skills, or cognitive abilities, are the ways that your brain remembers, reasons, holds attention, solves problems, thinks, reads, and learns. Logic and reasoning skills help you solve problems and generate ideas. This cognitive ability is part of the preciousness of our humanity. God has endowed us with the ability to think logically well beyond any animal. There is a huge gulf between our cognition and that of animals. Animals mostly live by instinct and inborn behaviors.

Point to emphasize
We easily understand shapes and can match them.

Sample content and conversation with children

  • We have been discovering how God made us so differently than the animals. Now we will discover that God made us with a marvelous brain that is so far above any animal’s brain.
  • Today we will discover that God made us with a marvelous brain that is so far above any animal’s brain.
  • [Show picture #1.] What animal is this and what is it doing? [Let the children discuss what the squirrel is doing with the acorns or nuts.] What does the squirrel do with the extra nuts or acorns it finds? [Let the children talk about this.] That’s right, they store them. How do they know where to store them? Does another squirrel teach them where to hide extra nuts? [Let the children consider this together.] They are not taught by their parents, they are just born knowing how to do it. Squirrels just do it on their own without ever being taught.
  • [Show picture #2.] What is happening in this picture? [Let the children discuss how a dog is taught to sit on command.] Some animals can learn simple things.  A dog can learn to sit or roll over and to do other tricks.
  • [Show picture #3 or show a real stacking toy.] What do we do with this toy? [Let the children explain or have a child demonstrate.] We all can easily place the green square block (in picture) into the square hole and the blue star block into the star-shaped hole.  Almost none of the animals can do this! They are not able to figure out that the square block can’t fit into the round hole. Animals don’t have the kind of brains we do. They can’t figure out such a simple thing. A squirrel or a dog could never do what you all just did! A squirrel might try to put the nuts inside a shape sorter but they wouldn’t know to match the shapes. God created us so that we can think about the shapes and we can match them!
  • Many animals are smart and good at what they do BUT our brains were created so we can think, reason, etc. far more than any animal. At your age, you are already smarter than all the animals! God made us in a way that we can learn so many things now and continue to learn harder things as we grow up. Also, we can remember what we read or learn, and we get excited when we learn something new.
  • [Show picture #4.] What might these children grow up to be? [Let them discuss different occupations.] What might you want to be when you grow up? [Let the children respond.] Could a dog grow up to be a fireman? No! Animals could never become nurses or teachers because God did not make them with a brain like ours. God made our brains in the BEST way because we were created to learn and think the way we do. Let’s thank God together for the way He created us! Thank You, God!

Songs
Who made the world so big and round
God made me

Suggested activity
Have children find something in their house or in the room that has the same shape as the different shaped holes. (ROUND-clock, orange, cup, ball; SQUARE- pillow on couch, rug on floor, book, table, a picture frame.)

Pictures
#1: Squirrel collecting nuts
#2: Training a dog
#3: Shape sorter
#4: Different occupations

Week 61Week 62Week 63Week 64Week 65Week 66Week 67Week 68Week 69Week 70