No Worksheet Wednesday

I know this post is a tad bit late as it should have been posted on Wednesday. But life had planned to keep me preoccupied with certain other things which couldn't have been avoided. Well now that i am done with the roller coaster ride( that too an unpleasant one !), i am back on the blogging scene, to share a wonderful math activity for No Worksheet Wednesdays.

I have been fortunate to learn interesting ways to teach mathematics to young ones from an organisation called Jodo Gyan  who work across different schools in India to introduce innovative methods to teach maths and science.

The activity below will help in teaching kindergarten children about sequencing numbers and will also help them to recognize numbers up to 10.

Start the activity by narrating the story about a little frog.

Write numbers from 1-10 on a chart or on the floor. Do make a river before number 1. Add flies on the 10th number. Use a die from 0-5 and choose one child to become the frog. Another child can pretend to be one of the school children who would roll the die for the frog.

If a child gets 5 on the die, then he/she would go and stand on 5 and jump till 10 saying the numbers, "6,7,8,9,10".

If you are drawing the stones on the floor, draw them at an appropriate distance from each other so that children enjoy jumping from one stone to another.

This game can also be extended to teach children the concept of counting on. If a child gets 2 on the die she/he jumps saying, "1,2". Roll the die again and if the child gets 3, then he/she jumps forward saying, "3,4,5". In this manner the child jumps till number 10 is reached. If you are doing this version of the game make sure you use the die with numbers up to 3, until children are comfortable with the concept of one more, two more and three more.

My kids love playing this game without realizing that they are learning. Do try with your students and let me know how it worked in your class.

No Worksheet Wednesdays

 I am linking up with The Primary Chalkboard for No Worksheet Wednesdays. I have tremendous respect for teachers who make an initiative to go beyond the mundane worksheets and make learning exciting for their students. 

Doing hands on activities with the kids not only excites the children but makes the whole planning and execution part interesting for the teachers too.

Today i will share a few hands on activities that i do with my kids when we read CVC words. The school year has ended in India and our next session will start only in April so i will share activities that i have done in the past with my kids.

We first read words as a whole group on our word slide.

Then we bring in a little movement and read words by jumping on the letters and blending at the end.

Children then work in small groups to make and record CVC words using various manipulatives.

Old glue stick bottle caps with different letters imprinted on it.

 Letter tiles

 Foam Letter Tiles

Magnetic Letters

These activities make the emergent readers excited about their learning and they feel confident when they are in charge. They have freedom to create any word with the manipulatives and they learn reading without any pressure. I will definitely be back next Wednesday to share more hands on activities. 

Books that promote rhyming

This post is the last in the rhyming series. You can read the other two posts
Why is rhyming important ? and Fun Rhyming Activities by clicking on the links.

 As an educator i feel that books add a lot of value to any lesson that one teaches. So after you have finished singing rhyming songs, doing fun activities, its time to get out those books and just have fun reading them aloud to your kids.

There are numerous books on rhyming but i am only going to list my 5 favorite.

     

 

This book is a must have for any educator.Your class library will be incomplete without this fantastic book. I use this book at the beginning of the year to recap letter sounds with my kinder kids but my kids love the book so much that it keeps coming out through the year.

Who doesn't love Eric Carle? And any animal book has to be a hit amongst kids. A very simple read , children will enjoy retelling the story using puppets.

I don't have to say anything about this book. All Dr Seuss books are known for their rhyming text. Though a word of caution, this book can be a little long if you have a restless bunch!

This book has great illustrations and will definitely bring a lot of laughter in your classroom. Your young readers are going to have fun reading about the adventure of the Moose on the loose.

This silly story about a woman who loves to wash everything will elicit giggles from your young ones. It is a colorful book with lots of rhyming which you would love to read again and again.

Hope you find the list useful!