Colour as a cognitive medium for teaching geometric shapes in the lower primary

Throughout the annals of man colour has been the principal predominant factor in the perception of objects, races, animals, forests, minerals, work of art mid all other things around man. With the layman the aesthetic qualities of things are evaluated in terms of colour. Colour renders so many uses to man. Apart from perception colour can be used for attraction, signals, information and above all, it brings messages of beauty. Perhape, the moat recent use of colour in modern times is its use as a tool f teaching children. Children love bright, conspicuous and beautiful colours, consequently the writer believes strongly that, colour can be used effectively to teach certain geometric shapes the lower primary School child should be conversant with before entering the upper primary. It is a fact that the use of colouras an aid in teaching children is not necessarily a new concept, though, however, the choice of this topic has raised many an eye-brow of some colleagues and lectures. Amid interesting and constructive criticism and meaningful suggestions the writer has been able to produce this week. Chapter one (which is the introduction) involves an outline of the essay which include, the purpose, the scope and limitation, the relevance of the essay, the rationale for choosing the topic and the justification of the concept chosen. In chapter two an endeavour has made to review what other writers have written about colour and shapes and their relationship with this essay. It also includes a diagram of shape of what some children have drawn. Chapter three is on colour. In this chapter are narrated elementary views of colour, description of a simple experiment on the visible rays of the spectrum, the function of colour, the Ghanaian notions of colour, the child’s concept of colour, the sis-colour. Chapter four deals with colour and shapes that should be introduced to the primary class one child. In this chapter the method of recognizing and identifying the introduced colours and shapes has been outline. There is also a model lesson notes clearly outlined for teaching colour and geometric shapes in primary class one which may be adopted by any teacher who wishes to do so. In chapter five are introduced new geometric shapes; and these shapes should be taught with the same colour used for teaching geometric shapes introduced in class one. In chapter six two new colour are introduced to complete the six-colour wheel. The geometric shapes introduced are three-dimensional and involve a practical activity which both the teacher and the children should carry out. The geometric shapes to be taught in this essay have been chosen to co-incide with those outlined in the Ghana mathematics Series, Primary Class One to Three. This has deliberately been done because the exercises on the geometric shapes in the Ghana Mathematics Series will serve as revisionary ones as most of them are practical in nature. Some of the shapes to be taught in class two also have been deterred to class three, by which time the children will have matured. The assay is concluded with the benefits that may be derived by both the teacher and his children when the concept outlined in this essay is adopted.

Source: KNUST