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5 results for "floor puzzles/"
Beanbag Blend Game
Kindergarten - 2nd Grade
This activity is appropriate for: kindergarten - 2nd grade / 5 - 7 years Reinforce beginning sound blends and digraphs with a fun-to-play reading activity! Use a marker to label the outside of six large plastic cups with a different blend or digraph (e.g., bl–, cl–, pr–, sh–, cr–, tw–, or any other combination you would like your students to practice). Then tape the cups securely to the floor or onto the surface of a table. Next, divide the class into two teams. One player at a time, the teams take turns tossing a beanbag into the cups. When the beanbag lands in a cup, the player supplies a word with the same beginning blend or digraph. For example, if the beanbag lands in the “cl” cup, he might supply the word “clock” or “clip.” His team then has one minute to continue to come up with as many words as they can think of that begin with this blend. As they call out words, write them on chart paper or on the blackboard. Continue playing until each team has a chance to supply words for three blends. At the end of the game, have students read each word as you point to it on the chart or board. For additional practice, mix it up by writing these variations on the cups: Ending blends or digraphs (e.g., –ck, –lt, –ch, and so on) Word families (e.g., –ow, –ate, –ug, and so on) Vowel sounds (e.g., “short a,” “long o,” “short e,” “long u,” and so on)
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Fun with Bubbles
Preschool - 1st Grade
This activity is appropriate for: preschool - 1st grade / 3 - 6 years Use bubbles to explore shapes, counting and colors! Below are some activities you can do with store-bought bubbles or a homemade solution made from dishwashing soap and water. (If you do these activities indoors, be sure to lay down newspapers or towels to prevent a slippery floor.) Encourage scientific observation skills! As children blow bubbles, ask: “What happens if you blow hard? If you blow softly? If you touch a bubble? How long do bubbles last? What color are bubbles? Are all bubbles the same shape? The same size?” Record children’s observations on chart paper labeled “Observations About Bubbles.” Add some liquid tempera to the bubble mixture, and hang poster paper on an easel. Have children blow bubbles onto the paper and see what designs form when they pop. Encourage active play! Go outside. Choose three children to be the bubble blowers. Set a time limit and have them blow as many bubbles as they can while the other kids race to pop the bubbles. Build counting skills with bubbles! Encourage the children to blow a set of bubbles that you specify. (For example, if you say “three,” children would try to blow three bubbles.)
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Teamwork Web
Preschool - 2nd Grade
This activity is appropriate for: preschool - 2nd grade / 3 - 7 years This activity gives students a great visual representation of teamwork. Begin by gathering your class around you in a circle on the floor. Hold a ball of string or yarn. Tell students something about yourself. When you’re done, grab onto the end of the string or yarn and roll the ball to another student. This student will then tell the group something about himself before he rolls the ball to another student. The cycle continues with each student holding onto part of the string or yarn until everyone has spoken. Ask everyone to carefully stand up without letting go. Look at the web you have created! This is a great time to talk about what teamwork means because everyone is working together to keep the web from falling apart. To illustrate this point, ask one student to let go—students will see how the web weakens when they stop working together.
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Turkey Memory Match-Ups
Preschool - 1st Grade
This activity is appropriate for: preschool - 1st grade / 3 - 6 years Use this easy-to-make card game to improve your students’ memory skills. You will need 12 index cards and two identical sets of Thanksgiving-themed stickers (e.g., pictures of turkeys, pumpkins, cornucopias, pilgrim hats, etc.). Thanksgiving-themed stickers can be purchased from a local store or card shop around Thanksgiving time. Place one sticker on each of six index cards. Then make an additional set of sticker cards identical to the first six so that each card has a match. To play the game, players place all 12 cards, sticker side down, on the floor or surface of a table. One at a time, players choose a card, and then try to find its match by flipping over another card. If the two cards show pictures of identical stickers, the player keeps the match. If not, he returns both cards face down. Players take turns playing until all matches are found. The player with the most matches wins! (For younger students, you may want to begin with only three or four pairs of cards. Then as memory skills improve, add additional sets for a more challenging game.)
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Valentine Learning Centers
Kindergarten - 2nd Grade
This activity is appropriate for: kindergarten - 2nd grade / 5 - 7 years Make Valentine’s Day extra special with these fun and easy-to-use learning center ideas! Read Your Heart Out Reading Center Fill your classroom library with a dozen or so age-appropriate Valentine-themed books. Invite students to choose a story and curl up on some floor pillows for reading time! Some suggestions include: The Day It Rained Hearts by Felicia Bond Happy Valentine’s Day, Little Critter! by Mercer Mayer Nate the Great and the Mushy Valentine by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat Amelia Bedelia’s First Valentine by Herman Parish Arthur’s Great Big Valentine by Lillian Hoban The Biggest Valentine Ever by Steven Kroll The Night Before Valentine’s Day by Natasha Wing How Many Hearts? Math Center Students will love solving simple addition problems with this hands-on Valentine math center! To prepare the center, you will need a die, a few small heart-shaped stampers and a red ink pad, as well as several copies of the How Many Hearts? downloadable page. Cut the copies in half along the dotted line. Have each student take a How Many Hearts? sheet and roll the die. Encourage them to write down the number of dots shown and stamp the corresponding number of hearts above the number in the space provided. Repeat the process for the second number in the addition problem. Then, have students count the total number of stamps to find the correct answer. Variation: Instead of stamps, you can use colorful heart stickers! Can You Hear Your Heartbeat? Science Center This easy-to-create science center will introduce young children to the basic concept of scientific observation! Simply provide a stethoscope at the table for students to use. One at a time, have students use the stethoscope to listen to their heartbeats. Then, have them stand up and do ten jumping jacks and listen to their heartbeats again. Ask them what happened! (Note: You may want to have a parent or other adult volunteer stationed at this center to facilitate questions and clean the stethoscope earpieces with alcohol swabs or disinfecting pads between uses.) Valentine Verses Writing Center Set up a center with heart-themed writing paper and fun Valentine pens or pencils. Invite students to write a poem about people or things in their lives that they love. You may want to help them get started by displaying this poem on posterboard in your learning center. Prompt students to copy the lines of the poem and fill in the blanks with thoughts of their own! Roses are red, Violets are blue, I love my _______________ And ________________, too! Or, have students make up their own verses and write them on the downloadable heart-shaped writing template. After the poem is written, mount it onto red or pink construction paper. Display the poems on a bulletin board in your classroom for Valentine’s Day! Valentine Words Language Center Write the word “VALENTINE” in capital letters across a sentence strip and place it in a center. Provide students with paper and pencils and challenge them to make a list of as many words as they can spell using only the letters in that word! For variation, try the same activity with other Valentine’s Day words, such as sweetheart, candy, cupid, flowers, chocolate and so on.
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