Learning Games are fun to make and fun to play. Here are some idea-starters for designing and making games. Young children love to sort and match things. You can use these games to match numbers, letters, shapes, and any other concepts you want to teach.
GO-TOGETHERS
ICE CREAM CONES: Make the first game featuring ice cream scoops and cones. They are very easy to make. You will need six triangles cut from brown paper to represent the cones. Use circles to make the scoops and cut them from colored paper in luscious ice cream and sherbet colors. On each cone put a numeral. On each scoop put dots. This can be a learning experience as the children watch you make the game. "I made a number three on this cone. Help me count how many dots to put on the ice cream. 1 - 2 - 3."
For very young children, use peel & stick seals and let them match the pictures. Build vocabulary as you talk about and name the pictures. Bring in Bible Concepts. "Who made flowers? God did!"
To play the game, spread the parts out on a flat surface right side up. The goal is to put them together. Help with reading the numerals and counting, as needed.
BE CREATIVE IN MATCHING PAIRS: Other good go-togethers could include clowns and hats, roofs and houses, flowers and stems, and trees and trunks. In other words, use anything which can be cut into two pieces. In this way you can fit the game to your child’s interests and capture imagination. These are easy to draw, if you make them from circles, squares, and triangles. Trace lids, saucers, rulers, etc. to get the basic shapes. You don’t have to be a great artist to please your child. He or she loves you, no matter what.
PLATE-SORTING
MAKE THE GAME: Paste or draw sets of pictures onto paper plates. On the first plate put one picture, for instance, a cat. On the second plate put two cats. On a third plate put three cats, and so on until you have plates up to five cats.
Make a second set of five plates. This time use pictures of balls. On a third set of plates put flowers. Other sets may use pictures of rockets, cars, food, or any thing else your children like. As you and the children make these plates together, you will have lots of opportunity for counting.
MATCHING SETS: Spread the plates out on a flat surface. Find all the plates which have just one thing. Stack them together. Next, find all the plates with two things. Continue until all are sorted.
FLYING SAUCERS: Take the plates out into the play yard. Sail them through the air as if they were "flying saucers" (or frisbees). Then the children run about the yard picking them up. When all have been found, stack them up. Ones together, twos together, and so on.
ONE-TO-ONE COUNTING: As you are counting to match the plates, you will notice that as some children point to each picture they will count too fast. Others will count too slow. To help encourage one-to-one counting, have the child put a finger on each pictured object and give a little push. Children learn through all their senses and this will add the sense of touch to the learning process.
Always be ready to help as needed. Let the children do the parts they know and you do the parts they don’t know. Together you will get it done and they will learn by watching and listening to you.
© 2005 by Jodi VanBibber, SUNNY HOLLOW PRESS