Why mazes help
A maze asks a child to plan ahead, look before they move and keep a pencil inside a path. That is the same eye and hand control they need for writing letters between the lines, which is why mazes sit so well next to tracing practice in preschool and Grade R.
Four levels
- Easy. Wide paths and few turns, for children just holding a pencil.
- Medium. More choices and a few dead ends.
- Hard. Long paths that wind across the page.
- Expert. Narrow paths and many dead ends, for older children who like a challenge.
Mazes for every season
Pick Halloween, winter, spring or another season and the pictures and page border change to match. Each PDF can hold up to 20 mazes, so one download covers a week of early finishers.
CAPS links
- Grade RDevelops eye-hand coordination, fine motor control and directionality (left to right, top to bottom) through play and drawing.
- Grade 1Follows a pre-writing programme for visual discrimination, fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination before formal handwriting.
CAPS does not mention mazes, but it does ask for a pre-writing programme at the start of Grade 1, before formal handwriting begins. A maze fits there, next to tracing patterns and colouring. It also suits the independent activities CAPS lists for the maths period, such as puzzles and games.
As children finish, ask them to describe their route with position words such as left, right, up and down, which CAPS teaches in Space and Shape. Remember the seasons here are the southern ones: winter falls in the middle of the school year.
Summarised in our own words from the DBE’s CAPS for English Home Language and for Mathematics, Foundation Phase (2011).
