Learning Games Archives - Page 7 of 21

Number Games Based on Little Blue Truck Books

October 10, 2016 By Deirdre

This week the Virtual Book Club is sharing the book Little Blue Truck. During the week I will be sharing a number recognition game, a STEM activity and a reading game all based on the Little Blue Truck books

Little Blue Truck Game Supplies

Today will be looking at the number recognition game. The game is played on a Little Blue Truck Math Workmat I created. Your children will have fun selecting a number and then counting out objects that represent that number.

Your children can use any of the following to select a number:

Dice
Number Cards
Foam Number in Bag

Then they can use any of the following to represent the selected number:

Pom Poms
Safari Ltd Farm TOOB
Brown Buttons That Look Like Mud Puddles

How to Use the Little Blue Truck Math Mat

Your children will first select the number they will be exploring. They can select a number card or foam representation. They might even roll a die.
Then they will put that number in the window on the left-hand side of the truck.
Next, they will count out manipulatives that match that number.
Finally, they will place them in the window on the right-hand side of the truck.
You can have them repeat this process as many times as you like.

MORE ACTIVITIES BASED ON THE LITTLE BLUE TRUCK BOOKS

All of these posts will go live on October 10, 2016.

Alphabet Activities
Farm Animal Beginning Sounds and Bingo Game – Rainy Day Mum
Little Blue Truck ABC Animal Pick Up-Growing Book by Book
Farm Alphabet Scavenger Hunt – Sunny Day Family

Number Activities

Play & Count Farm Animals – My Storytime Corner
Farm Animal I SPY & Graph Printable – School Time Snippets
Number Games Based on Little Blue Truck Books

Sensory Activities

Little Blue Truck Sensory Bin – Adventures of Adam

Cooking Activities

Haystacks Snack for Kids – Views From a Step Stool
Mud Pit Chip Dip – Preschool Powol Packets

Science Activities

Little Blue Truck Magnetic Farm Activity
Farm Animal Races – Inspiration Laboratories

Color Activities

Colour Sorting with Farm Animals – Clare’s Little Tots

Pre-Writing Activities

Decorate a Farm Animal – Mama Smiles
Little Blue Truck Farm Animal Story Retelling – Powerful Mothering

Movement Activities

Hide & Match Farm Animal Puzzle Game- Toddler Approved

Social Skills Activities with Five Little Pumpkins

October 7, 2016 By Deirdre

The Virtual Book Club is exploring the book Five Little Pumpkins this week. A few years ago I made a pumpkin-themed emotion game for a large learning kit company. (I talk more about it in It’s Pumpkin Time post.) I thought you might like some new social skills activities based on The Five Little Pumpkins. I think you will love them.

Social Skills Activities

Supplies for the Activities

- Social Skills Activities with Five Little Pumpkins
- Popsicle sticks
- Black Paper

Each of the social skills activities shared below will give your children a chance to build on their understanding of feelings. They will match feelings to facial expressions. Then they will talk about what causes each of the feelings to happen. Finally, they will act out each of the feelings. This will allow them to express their emotional and social skills through actions.

Activity One

Read the Five Little Pumpkins Feelings Rhyme. Then you can have your children match each pumpkin face to the emotion they match.

Activity Two

Have your children read the rhyme. Then have them each share what they think made each pumpkin feel the way it does.

Five Little Pumpkin Feelings Rhyme

Five little pumpkins sat on a gate.

They don’t all look happy! Let’s investigate!

The first one had a face with a grin. It was very hard for it to hold its joy in.

The second one felt really bad that is why its face looked very, very sad.

The third one was filled with surprise. It didn’t recognize its friend in disguise.

The fourth one has a face with a frown. It is angry and feels down.

The fifth one is all confused about Halloween night. Halloween makes them happy while it fills others with fright.

Activity Three

Your children can select one of the pumpkin face puppets to demonstrate one of the feelings. Next, they can move the puppet to act out the emotion. Then they could hold the puppet while they “pretend” to display the emotion the puppet features.

The link below is an affiliate link.

Your children might enjoy reading my son’s favorite version of Five Little Pumpkins.

Here are some more Five Little Pumpkins Activities:

Five Little LEGO Pumpkins

Do Pumpkins Float? STEM Activity

Five Little Pumpkins Threading Activity

Five Little Pumpkins STEM Fence Building Activity

Fingerpainting Craft -Five Little Pumpkins

STEM Challenge- Five Little Pumpkins with Challenge Document

Should I Share My Ice Cream Oral Sensory Activities

September 23, 2016 By Deirdre

The fanning the flames and snowstorm sensory activities have always be favorite activities. I recently put together another oral sensory activities I thought you might like.These sensory activities has an ice cream theme just like the ice cream scoop catapult and simple division activities did. They were all created to go along with the book Should I Share My Ice Cream?

Sensory Activities – Ice Cream Maze

You might think the trickiest part of this activity would be trying to get the pom-pom around the maze. The trickiest part at my house was trying to find the green blocks in our LEGO bin that would match the color of Elephant’s ice cream.

Putting Together the Maze

We use the following blocks to create our maze:

Brown Bricks

2×2 (12)

4X2(1)

1×2(4)

1×1 (1)

Green Bricks*

4×2(4)

2×2(10)

3×2(2)

1×1 Slanted Bricks

*We used a few different bricks. Ideally the bricks listed above should be used. We just didn’t have them at our house.

Other Sensory Motor Supplies

Straw
Pom-Poms

The Goal of the Sensory Activities

The goal of the activity is to get the pom-pom from the top of the ice cream to the bottom of the cone. You have to blow hard enough to get the pom-pom to move forward and soft enough to keep in the the maze.

You may want your children to warm up by blowing the pom-pom from one end of the maze to the other with out barriers. You could also have them trying blowing the pom-pom across a table first if you like. That would give them a chance to practice soft and hard blowing.

Hint: You can make the maze harder or easier by adding more brick inside the cone and ice cream areas.

More Early Learning Activities to Come

This is part of an early learning activities series inspired by I Can Teach My Child called Toddler Time. Although my son is no longer a toddler, I will be joining I Can Teach My Child to share activities you can do with your young children this month. I will include ways to using activities with older children in most of my posts.

Previously I shared a learning colors muffin tin activity and printable. Watch next week for another sensory activity and a number activity for young children.

Simple Division Math Activity for Preschoolers

September 21, 2016 By Deirdre

$Simple Division Math Activity for Early Learners$

Earlier this week I shared a science activity based on the book Should I Share My Ice Cream? It was part of a weekly series I am doing with the Virtual Book Club. It can be used with young children and children my son’s age. I thought you might like to see another activity based on the book. This simple division math activity based on sharing. You can use it with children of various ages too.

Division Math Activity

Supplies

Some links below are affiliate links.

Roll, Count, Share Sheet
Ten Sided Die
Red Pom-Poms

$Simple Division Math Activity with an Ice Theme- It could be done after reading Should I Share My Ice Cream?$

Directions for Playing This Division Activity

After reading the book Should I Share My Ice Cream?, you will explain to your children that they will roll the die. Then they will gather up the number of pom-poms that match that number. Next, they will to decide if they could share the same number of pom-poms with each ice cream cone. If they can, they will place each half in an ice cream section. If they can’t, they will roll again.

The goal of this activity is to work on dividing by two. It also looks at even and odd numbers. You don’t have to tell your young children that they are dividing. You can tell them that they are looking to share numbers. I would use the words dividing, even and odd with older children.

MORE FRIENDSHIP THEMED ACTIVITIES

Here are some more fun friendship-themed activities from my fellow Virtual Book Club for Kids co-hosts. Click on the links below to explore all of the sharing and friendship activities.

Name Activities

Simple Friendship Concentration Game for Preschoolers- Toddler-Approved
Spelling Names Ice Cream Center – Still Playing School

Number Activities

Learning about our friends – graphing activity for preschoolers– Rainy Day Mum

Sensory Activities

Kind Words Sensory Lesson – Preschool Powol Packets

Listening Games with Elephant and Piggie – Inspiration Laboratories

Cooking Activities

Cupcake Cones – Kori at Home
Making Pumpkin Ice Cream with Friends – The Educators’ Spin On It

Science Activities

Ice Cream Catapult– JDaniel 4’s Mom

Friendship Ice Cream Is a Fun Way to Practice Sharing – Mama Smiles

Color Activities

Paper Tube Friendship Bracelets – Clare’s Little Tots
How to Make a Colour Mixing Ice Cream – Peakle Pie

Pre-Writing Activities
Preschool Pencil Control-CraftCreateCalm
How to Make Happy Faces in a Sand Tray – Big Owl Little Owl Witty Hoots
Share the Ice Cream Fine Motor Game- Views From a Step Stool

Movement Activities
Pass the Ice Cream Sharing Activity for Preschoolers – Sunny Day Family
Gross Motor Core Strengthening Friendship Activity for a Group
Friendship Ice Cream Throw – Adventures of Adam Shape Activities

Build 2D and 3D ice cream cones with friends – Kara Carrero
Piggie and Elephant Shapes Sharing Activity – Mosswood Connections

$Simple Division Activity for Early Learners based on Should I Share My Ice Cream?$

Ten Apples Up on Top Counting Skills Activities Printable

September 16, 2016 By Deirdre

This is the last in a series of fall themed muffin tin activities. Once you have tried out each of these ten apples up on top math games, I hope your children explore the apple basket and leaf skip counting games. All three math games are a lot of fun.

Today’s ten apples up on top game will have your children working on number recognition and counting on or adding. Below I will share with your ways to use this game with preschool children and children in elementary school.

Ten Apples Up on Top Game Materials

Ten Apples Up on Top Counting Skills Activity
Muffin Tin
Dice
Plastic Counters

Games to Play Using Ten Apples Up on Top Printable

Preschool Game

First you will let your children practice rolling the dice. They will need to get a feel for shaking it and rolling it on the table. Once they have had some rolling time, you will want to talk about how the dots on a die. You will want to help your children count the number of dots on the top of the die.

Then you will have them move onto finding the number in a muffin cup that matches the number they rolled on the die. (The printable only has the numbers 1-10. If you want to work up to the number 12, there are two blank apples in the set. You can place the numbers 11 and 12 on them.)

Next they will place that number of counters in that muffin cup. Your children will continue rolling numbers and placing the counters into the muffin cups until each of the apple numbers has counters stacked on it.

Addition Game for Kids Starting School

Once your children have a sense of number, they can start to count on or add numbers. You will want to have your children use dice with dots on them for this game.

Your children will start by rolling the dice. They will then make a pile of counters in front of each die that matches the number it displays. Then they will place the counters into the muffin cup that equals the sum of the two numbers.

The game will continue until each muffin cup number has counters on it. If your children roll a number that already has counters in it they can roll again.

You will find more math activities on my Early Learning Math board on Pinterest.

Apple Tree Letter Matching Game

September 15, 2016 By Deirdre

The Virtual Book Club is featuring the book Ten Apple Up on Top this week. I am thrilled to be taking part in the club this fall. I want to share with you two learning activities based on the book. Today I am sharing with you a letter matching game with an apple tree theme. Tomorrow I will be sharing with you an apple themed muffin tin math activity. (If you liked the apple basket muffin tin printable I shared last week. You will love the new one I am sharing tomorrow.

Getting the Letter Matching Game Ready

Before you have your children play the each letter matching games I created, you will need to prepare the supplies. The first thing you will need to do is cut out a brown trunks out of construction paper. Then you will need to cut out three leafy green canopies.

Once you have the tree sections cut out, you will need to decide if you want to display the letters on red round stickers or red construction paper circles. Both materials will work.

Then you will need to write the uppercase letters on the tree canopies and the lowercase letters on the stickers or paper circles. I thought having twenty six letters on one tree might be overwhelming for your children. Dividing the letters up and placing only a few letters on each tree canopy seemed to make more sense.

Finally if you decide to marking the letter game, you will need to get a red Bingo marker.

Letter Matching Game One

The first version of the game focuses on matching lowercase letters up to uppercase letters. You may have seen versions of this letter matching game that ask children to place one type of letter over the other. That is not a bad letter matching game, but it does keep kids from seeing both kinds of letters when the game is done. Our version of the game asks children to place uppercase and lowercase letters beside each other.

Letter Matching Game Two

This game goes end up with the letters being covered up. Your children will need to be told a letter. Then they will dab that letter with a Bingo marker. The goal of this game is to take what they have heard, seek it out, and show that they have found it. Since you are calling out the letter, you will be able to see if they have found the right letter as they get ready to mark it.

If you like these activities, you will find more early learning activities on my Early Learning Board on Pinterest.

Learning Colors Activities and Printable

September 12, 2016 By Deirdre

I had so much fun creating muffin math activities! I thought you might like a set of activities that focuses on skills for younger learners too. Today I have a color word learning activity for you that uses muffin cups. You could place them in an actual muffin tin if you like.

Learning Colors Activities Supplies

Some links below are affiliate links.

Color Word Printable for Muffin Tins for Kids
Muffin Cupcake Liner Baking Cup
Mega Blocks

Learning Colors Activities

The goal of each of these activities is to help children recognize colors and match them. The manipulative I chose is one that would be easy for young children to pick up. If you want to do the activities with older children, you might chose smaller objects like LEGO, pom-poms or buttons.

Finding the Color

The first activity you will want your children to do is finding blocks that match each color. You can point to each colors circle in the flower cup one at a time. Then have your child or children see if they can point or pick up that colored block.

Tip: If you are just starting to explore colors, you may just want to have out one color cup out at a time. Your children can then sort through the blocks to find that one color.

Building Color Towers

Once your children have grasp of each of the colors, you can have them dig through a pile of blocks to find a particular color. When they have found all the blocks of a particular color, you can have them stack the blocks together to make a tower.

Building Flower Stems

Instead of building towers that could topple over, you could have your children build flower stems. They can create a column of colored blocks under each of the flower cups. If you have enough blocks, you could have your children at leaves to each of the stems.
As I mentioned earlier, you don’t have to use Mega Bloks. You can have your children build towers or stems with LEGO, buttons or pom-poms. The pom-poms can’t be stacked, but the other objects can.

More Early Learning Activities to Come

They are activities I did with JDaniel that I never shared with you. Some will be new activities I wish we had done. I hope you will love them and want to try them out with your kids.

Here are the muffin tin math activities I shared last week:

Skip Counting Oak Leaf Numbers

Apple Basket Muffin Tin Numbers and Activities

Muffin Tin Skip Counting Sheets with a Leaf Theme

September 9, 2016 By Deirdre

Earlier this week I shared with you Apple Basket Muffin Tin Numbers. That printable set was designed to focus on one to one correspondence and number recognition. Today’s skip counting sheets build on those concepts and introduce two more basic math concepts. Skipping counting and patterns in my mind are two skills that walk hand in hand. Kids have to figure out just how many numbers they will count by looking for the patterns.

Skip Counting Sheets Visual Clues

I designed these skip counting sheets to give children a number of visual clues. You can choose to share the clues with your children or have them discover them by themselves.

What are the visual clues?

The odd numbers all have the numbers on the left side of the leaf.

Yes, that means your children can find the even numbers on the left.

Your children will notice that the odd numbers have orange leaves.

They will also notice that the even numbers have yellow leaves.

Your children will see that every other column is made of the same type of leaf.

Finally, they will see that every other number in a row is the same.

Skip Counting Sheets and Supplies

Some of the links below are affiliate links.

You will need to download a copy of the Muffin Tin Skip Counting Sheets with a Leaf Theme for Kids . They were designed to fit into a muffin tin, but you can use them on a flat surface if you like. I liked the idea of keeping the counting objects contained.

You may be asking yourself why after drawing oak leaves I didn’t use acorns in this counting activity. While I have done acorn math activities in the past, I decided to avoid the whole are acorns safe discussion this time. If you want to use acorns with these skip counting sheets, please use them. There are a number of counting objects you can use for this activity. I went with small pom-poms.

We used homemade pinching chopsticks for the apple basket counting activity. You could use them for this activity or have your children make pincers with their thumbs and pointer finger.

Below you will find a list of other number and skip counting sheets and their themes.

Apple Muffin Tin Counting Numbers

Apple Basket Counting Numbers

Pumpkin Muffin Tin Counting Numbers

Free Counting Worksheets – Apple Basket Muffin Tin Numbers

September 7, 2016 By Deirdre

Fall makes me think of apples. My family has gone to a local orchard to gather apples almost every fall. When I sat down to create some fall themed math activities. I knew one or two of them was going to have to have an apple theme. The apple basket themed numbers found on these free counting worksheets will be fun to explore. Each numbered circle tucks into a section of a muffin tin.

Free Counting Worksheets Activity

Some of the links below are affiliate links.

Supplies

Free Counting Worksheets – Apple Basket Muffin Tin Numbers for Kids
Muffin Pan
Red Pom-Poms
Chopsticks
Rubber Band

Putting the Activity Together

You will start by cutting out the number circles. I tried to cut out perfect circles. If you look carefully, you may see some little specks of white. The circles were designed to fit in the muffin cups. If you get close to cutting out perfect circles, your circles should fit in the cups too.

Next you will need to put together your pom-pom moving tool. You will place a pom-pom between the two chopsticks. Then you will wrap a rubberband around that end of the chopsticks. The pom-pom will make opening and closing the chopsticks a little easier for kids. The rubber band will keep the two chopsticks together.

We used pom-poms as our counting items. I thought it would be easy to move with the chopsticks. If you have apple Erasers or red buttons, you could use them instead.

Counting Activities

These free counting worksheets can be used in a center, a small group, or one on one. Your children can start by moving the correct number of pom-poms into each muffin cup. They might find it tricky at first, but I don’t think it will take it long to figure it out.

When they have filled each of the muffin cups, you can have them move them out of the cups one number at a time. You can select the numbers one by one for your children or they can do select the numbers themselves. This activity will allow them continuing to work on one to one correspondence. They will just be doing it in reverse.

I would have your children the say the number they are working on out loud. It will help them store the counting information in their visual and auditory memory.

More Free Counting Worksheets

In the next few days, I will be putting up three more sets of free counting worksheets. Below you will find a list of the worksheets and their themes.

Apple Muffin Tin Counting Numbers

Patterned Oak Leaf Muffin Tin Counting Numbers

Pumpkin Muffin Tin Counting Numbers

Awesome Memory Games and Activities for Kids

August 25, 2016 By Deirdre

This is a sponsored post with affiliate links.

My son’s favorite games have always focused on using his mind to remember visual or auditory information. I think that is why he loves the card game Spot-It Party Game and the verbal game 20 Questions. Recently we had the opportunity to try out two board games from Blue and Orange that focus on memory. He loved both of them of much I decided to search for more memory games.

Before I share with you some homemade memory games and activities, let me tell you about the board games. Your children will find that one focuses more on strategy and the other has more action.

Store-Bought Memory Games

Gigamons

We have only played the most basic version of this game. Your children may want to start with this level of play. We tried to gather three matching cards from 3×3 cards on the table. When we had three cards with the same creature, we claimed a cardboard Gigamon.

Now that we have done that we need to try the full game. Your children will want to do it too. When you match two Elemon cards, you can do special things. Each of the Gigamons has a special opportunity. Your children might get to block someone from turning over a tile. They might get to trade one of your cards for another player’s cards. They might get to peek at four cards on the table. This is a memory and strategy game that will keep everyone thinking