Halloween Trail Game

I just wanted to share one more game that is on our math shelf this month.   This is the first trail game we've had out in the classroom.  While it's a very simple game, it requires a much higher level of complexity than our grid games such as the apple game. 

To play, each child selects a game pawn and places it on the START circle.  They take turns rolling the die (I made this using a foam cube and drawing dots with a Sharpie.  It only has 1, 2, & 3 dots, each draw on two faces of the die.) and moving their pawn that many places.  This is difficult for some because they tend to say "one" before they move, move too many places or skip several places.  Even though we modeled playing this at circle time, I have tried to station an adult next to the children when they play for the first time so they can be supported as they learn how to move their marker. 

A special element of "fun" that I added is that when they land on a ghost sticker, they get to take a ghost eraser from the little tub and keep it until the end of the game.  Of course this has resulted in children trying to "cheat" to land on the ghost, but it's still a fun element of surprise and keeps the game going.    The "winner" is the one who lands on FINISH first on an exact roll of the die.

Pumpkin Graphing Game

This little game has been a HUGE hit in the classroom lately.  I found the printables for this game at 1+1+1=1.   They were part of a pumpkin printables pack which has lots of great materials.  I believe the original idea for this material was to print off the graphing sheet and have the child roll the die and graph each roll using a crayon or marker.  I decided to laminate a copy of the page and make it into a game for two children to play.

To introduce this game to the children, Mrs. DeNier and I modeled playing an entire game at circle time.  We took turns rolling the die, looking at the picture on top, finding the picture on the bottom of the graph, and placing a bat eraser in the correct box on the grid.  We continued until one of the pictures "won" or got 5 bats.  It was amazing how enthralled the littles were as we played this game.  They could not WAIT to see which picture made it to the top first! 

They have had great fun playing this game many, many times.  It has been interesting to see which children easily grasp the idea of graphing, knowing exactly where to place the eraser each time, and which children need more support to understand this concept.  There are so many spatial concepts and numeracy skills at play in mastering this very simple game.

Halloween Math Game

The littles have been having fun playing a little Halloween math game I created.  It is just like our apple game, but with jack-o-lantern and candy corn stickers and erasers.  The addition of two types of stickers and erasers adds another level of complexity to this simple game as they have to count AND match.

To play, two children each get a gameboard.  They take turns rolling the die.  They choose the correct amount of erasers to match the number they rolled and then place these on the gameboard.  The player who covers all their stickers first is the winner.  This is an excellent way for them to practice turn-taking, one-to-one correspondence, and counting skills.

Jack-o-Lantern Cutting Practice

I found some great pumpkin printables at 1+1+1=1.  I put out some jack-o-lantern cutting practice pages on the art shelf.  The littles have enjoyed cutting out their jack-o-lantern "puzzle" on the gray line and gluing it back together on a piece of construction paper.  This is great scissors practice and also gives them a lot of practice using their school tools such as a glue stick.

Pumpkin Patch Art Project

I came up with this project to allow my littles to work on their scissors skills.  That is something that many of them need to work on.  They are more motivated to do this when there is a project involved.  So, I cut strips of green construction paper and had them snip into one long side to make grass.  Next, they used corks dipped into orange paint to make their pumpkins.  We let these dry overnight.  The next day, they used paintbrushes and green paint to add vines and stems to their pumpkins.  I was thrilled that so many of them wanted to try this project.  It's fun to see the individual variations of a "canned" art project.  So many skills can be incorporated into art!  I love it!!  Enjoy our gallery of pumpkin patches.

Leaf Stringing

Today's post is about a simple little fine motor activity that I put together for the littles to go with our tree unit.  I have used this activity previously (a different one, but similar) in my Montessori classroom several years ago.

To make this activity, you will need a package of silk leaves (these can be found almost anywhere this time of year, even the dollar store), a ribbon with buttons attached to each end, and a container for storing the materials.  I found an adorable felt bucket with felt leaves on it at the Target Dollar Spot.

Sewing a button on each end of the ribbon prevents the leaves from slipping off and also helps provide something more sturdy to poke the ribbon through.  You will need to cut a small slit into each leaf.  The second photo shows this.

To do this activity, the littles simply string all the leaves on the ribbon.  It is a great activity for using their fine motor skills such as pincer grasp and working with both hands together.