masking tape Archives - JDaniel4s Mom

Let’s Create a Graph on the Floor and Gather Data

July 25, 2015 By Deirdre

How to Create a Graph with Tape- A printable spinner,LEGO and tape graph are a great way to explore collecting data and displaying it.

A roll of masking tape can become a pretend ladder to climb, a maze to explore or a graph to display data on when it is simply rolled out onto the floor. Recently we created a graph on the floor in our main hallway. The graph would display the number of times each color on a spinner would be selected.

It was really easy to create a graph. First a simple rectangular box was created with tape. Then columns were created in the box by placing three long stripes of tape inside the box. We tried to make each of the columns equal in width. (I think it is okay that they are not just perfect.) At the base of each column in the graph a color word was placed. I wrote each color word in that color with a marker. We would be working with red, blue, green, and yellow so those were the words that were written in the column.

Let's Create a Graph on the Floor and Gather Data- A printable spinner,LEGO and tape graph are a great way to explore collecting data and displaying it.

Prior to making the graph I created a spinner displaying the four colors in Paint along with a black spinner. Both the spinner and the arrow were printed out on card stock. After cutting out the arrow, a hole was created using a hole punch in the area represented by a white circle on the arrow. Then the arrow was taped to paperclip. (The paperclip would help it spin more easily.)

I then gathered the remaining activities supplies. We needed the following:

red, green, blue, and yellow LEGO bricks
narrow paintbrush to hold the spinner in place
a large plastic lid to hold all the activity supplies

Let's Create a Graph on the Floor and Gather Data- A printable spinner,LEGO and tape graph are a great way to explore collecting data and displaying it.

How to Gather Data to Graph

We decided to see what color we would spin the most during ten spins. Each child took turns spinning the spinner. The spinner was spun by holding a paintbrush in the hole in the arrow with one hand and spinning the spinner with the other. After that they selected a brick that was that color and placed it in the color column that was designated for that color. After ten spins it looked like the color red was spun the most.

JDaniel and his friend decided to spin the spinner ten more times to see if red would remain the most spun color. Before they start the second set of spin, we rotate the spinner so the red area was on the other side of the spinner. Guess what? We didn’t have red as the winner this time. Blue gained the most spins.

We decided that the slant of the lid we were spinning on might have effected the spins. I guess we should have really placed the spinner on the floor. I was trying to keep all the activity materials all together by placing them on the lid.

This is part math series hosted by Peakle Pie. Please take a moment to check out the math activities shared on her Cool Maths for Cool Kids page.

Cool Maths for Cool Kids

Let me know how this activity works out for your children. I would love to know if red or blue gets the most spins at your house. Let me know by leaving a comment below.

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Fire Ladder Learning Activities

October 6, 2013 By Deirdre

Today begins Fire Safety Week! To celebrate Fire Safety Week along with Fire Prevention Month I placed a fire truck ladder made of tape down a hall on the first floor of the house. When my husband asked what we were going to do with the ladder, I told him that JDaniel and I would brainstorm ways to use it.I hadn’t really thought about how we would use it initially. It was just time to take up the hallway numbers that had been going down the hallway for a couple of months. It did know that between JDaniel and I we would come up with a wide range of ideas.

Pretend Play

The first idea we came up with was to pretend to climb up the ladder. It looks easier than it is. You have to get down on all fours. Then you reach for the next rung and climb and reach and climb. Young knees may not feel the challenge of moving along a wood floor. Old mom knees felt the challenge!It was fun to pretend to be a fireman climbing the ladder. Climbing horizontally instead of vertically was new and unique.

Number Recognition

Calling out the numbers on a flashcards one at a time in order to move up a rung of the ladder was a simple way to review numbers. Early learners may want to work on the numbers 0-20. Older learners might want to work on larger two or maybe even three digit numbers. We worked on a variety of numbers.

Counting On

Agreeing on a number you want to start counting with on the bottom rung and then counting on until you reach the top of ladder is a second way we worked on number recognition.Some children like to start counting by counting from 1 on up to the number they need to start with. This is one of those learning activities that can help them wrap their brains around starting at the agreed number and going on. It helped us build a foundation for counting on.

Math Facts

Reviewing addition facts by starting on the bottom rung with first addend and then stepping up one rung at a time while adding the second addend is a lot of fun.Hint: You may find that you need to make more rungs or a longer ladder if you are working beyond early addition facts. We had fun adding movement to simple addition facts.

If you want to work on subtraction facts, you could move down the ladder instead of up or by taking steps backwards.

Sight Words

Just as you moved forward a rung by recognizing numbers, you could move up the ladder one rung at a time as you read sight words. Reviewing sight words is not always exciting. Putting on a fire hat and firemen’s raincoat and climbing rungs of a tape ladder can make reviewing them more fun.

Conclusion

The idea of doing fire ladder learning activities is to get children moving while learning. Some children enjoy getting up out of their seats to learn often. Others may be able to sit for longer periods of time, but need some variety of leaning activities offered to them. Either way fire ladder learning activities are fun and allow children to learn in a new way.

Learning Activities – 19 Ways To Use A Zigzag Learning Maze

May 15, 2013 By Deirdre

Learning Activities - 19 Ways to Use a Zigzag Learning Maze

Sometimes you sit down and plan an activity you will be doing with your children. You brainstorm what you will do during the activity along with alternative ways you can use it. There are other times you just grab a roll of tape and see what you can make with it. That is just what happened with this zigzag learning maze. When I sat on the floor with roll of tape I had no idea what the maze would look like and no idea of how we would use it.

Boy, have we found wonderful ways to use this zigzag learning maze! Actually we found 19 ways to use this zigzag learning maze.

Here are some learning activities we have used the walkway we created:

Movement Activities

We started by simply walking up and down the center of the pathway by placing one foot in front of the other. JDaniel doesn’t usually walk this so it took at little practice.

Walking the pathway backwards was even more of a challenge. When you are looking, back your feet can sometimes step off the path without meaning too.

Trying to walk on the tape down one side of the pathway and back on the other side took a little bit of concentration.

Jumping from one side of the path to the other was easy in areas where the pathway was narrow, but was harder in the wide areas.

Challenging a partner to move down the path in a certain way was a lot of fun. Skipping, hopping, galloping, sliding, and tiptoeing down the path were each offered up as challenges.

Timing which of us could move down the path the fastest and the slowest was also fun. Walking in slow motion inspires one to move the rest of your body in slow motion too. That can bring on a lot of giggles and stifled laughs.

Throwing a beanbag into a particular corner selected by an opponent can be quite challenging.

Learning Activities - 19 Ways to Use a Zigzag Learning Maze

Pretend Play

The edge of the pathway can be lined with block shaped buildings or cardboard boxes from the recycling bin.

Toy cars can race through the maze pushed from behind by people ready to get the checkered flag.

Balls can be rolled through the pathway like pinballs zinging and pinging through a maze.

The pathway can become a waterway for bathtub boats. The corners and dead ends can be inlets off a mighty river.

Learning Activities

Numbers can put in the corners by a child in ascending order.

Once number cards have been put in place, a child could walk to each number and clap that number of times.

Sight words can be placed along the path. In order to pick up the card the word on the card would need to be read.

Colored pom poms could be spread along the path to be picked up with chopsticks. Before the pom pom was picked up, the child would have to tell you the color of the pom pom or the answer to a learning question.

Two players could take turns rolling a die to see how many steps they could take down the path.

Books could be used to fill up all the space on the pathway and they would then be counted.

The pathway could be the home to a giant concentration game. The cards could be spread out along the path. Children could walk up and down the path looking for matches.

Washcloths could be used to fill in the path. They could then be counted to find the area of the path.

What are some other ways we could learning using the zigzag pathway?

This post is linked to Mrs. Matlock’s blog.