Fabric shapes and patterns 2

Required materials

• fabrics (such as tapa cloth) that have designs featuring regular geometric shapes such as square, triangle, oblong (long rectangle), diamond (rhombus), hexagon (it has 6 sides), circle, and oval (a symmetrical oval is called an ellipse)

• paper
• coloured pencils or crayons
• a ruler, compass and protractor
• card, scissors, glue (optional)

See Materials that come with this resource to download:

• Fabric shapes and patterns 2 activity (.pdf)

What to do

Make available the ruler, compass, and protractor.

Invite your child to make a card or bookmark for a special person or occasion. Have your child suggest an appropriate length and width for this in centimetres.

Have your child choose from the fabrics and explain their choice and what they like about it. If you know about the (cultural) story of the fabric and its pattern, discuss this together.

Have your child identify and describe particular features of the design.

With reference to the ruler, compass, and protractor, have them tell you how the features of the design were made. (e.g., “A square with sides of 10 cm was divided into quarters by making a straight line from 2 corners to their opposite corner, creating 4 right-angled triangles around a point in the centre”).

Suggest they replicate the design on the card. Emphasise measuring with precision.  Alternatively, they may prefer to create and colour a design of their own based on the fabric they have chosen.

What to expect your child to do

• Know the correct shape names and their identifying features.
• Know how to use a ruler with precision.
• Have a developing knowledge of how to measure angles with a protractor and how to draw arcs with a compass.

He kupu Māori

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