A Child's Everyday Learning Spot

Encouraging the parent-child bond while physically apart :)

Developing spatial skills through imagination and color.

Educational Product

Resource File: Food Floor Mat (BACK TO BACK: Food Alphabet & Shapes)

(FRONT)

Subject Matter: Language Arts

Concepts:

• There are different types of food.
• Food and their names from A-Z.
• There are three food groups that help me GO, GROW, and GLOW.

Skills:

• Identifying objects (food)
• Stating the names of food
• Matching sounds to letters
• Choosing between different kinds of food
• Comparing sounds, consonants, and vowels
• Categorizing food according to the three food groups (go, grow, and glow)
• Distinguishing sounds, vowels, and consonants
• Following directions, instructions, and illustrations
• Cheering for each other
• Laughing together
• Comprehending and following instructions
• Pronouncing consonants and vowels
• Making decisions
• Being a good sport
• Matching colors
• Grouping similar colors

Procedure:

1. Introducing: Have the class name food from A-Z as you write them on the board. Only move on to the next letter when they have named the food you’re looking for (the one on the floor mat)— and you can prompt them. Tell the children they’re going to play a game. Ask them if they have played boardgames, and ask them about the things they used for boardgames. Excite them by telling them that we didn’t need game pieces for this board game, as we were going to represent ourselves. Tell them that we will all start at A, and our task is to chose between food. We should choose the food starting with the letter we are stepping on in order to continue with the game. Depending on our choice, an arrow will lead us to the next letter or a game over sign.
2. Implementing: Have the children line up. Allow a gap of at least three (3) letters between children. Facilitate and name the choices for a child if they do not understand the pictures/drawings or they are confused with the sounds of the letters and names of food.
3. Processing: Ask the children about the new types of food they learned about. Have them share their feelings and new learning to the whole class.

(BACK)

Subject Matter: Mathematics

Concepts:

• There are different types of shapes
• Shapes with sides/edges are called polygons
• Polygons may have the same name but not look exactly alike
• The number of sides/edges in a shape determines the polygon type

Skills:

• Identifying shapes and polygons
• Distinguishing shapes and polygons
• Counting edges, sides, and/or segments
• Matching shapes and polygons to the appropriate names
• Comparing shapes and polygons
• Grouping similar colors
• Comparing colors
• Matching colors
• Following directions, instructions, and illustrations
• Helping each other
• Sharing ideas and thoughts
• Working together
• Laughing together

Procedure:

1. Introducing: Introduce the different polygons to the children through a chart or drawings on the board.
2. Implementing: Let a child start at the Triangle nameplate. Allow him to decide which shape between the two choices is a triangle. Maintain a three step gap between children. Allow the child to count the sides before choosing a shape to step on. Assist when child encounters difficulty.
3. Processing: Allow the children to share about the new shapes and polygons they learned about. Have them share their feelings and realizations to the class. 

Variations:

• “Twister” according to GO, GROW, and GLOW foods. (They are color coordinated according to those three (3) food groups.)
• Game like “Hopscotch”. Throw a small item and hop from one space to the next to retrieve it. The farther the item, the more points one gets.
• Memory Game: What food/color/shapes did you see? List them down.
• Sleeping/ picnic mat
• Contest on who can count the number of stars, circles, rectangles, or any particular shape first.
• The children can create their own drawings for food to stick on top of the corresponding food drawings, making their class’s “Personal Alphabet Food Mat”.

Activity for Preschool to School Age Children

Subject Matter Area: Math

Concept/s:

1. Turtles are living things.
2. Turtles are animals.
3. Turtles need food to grow.

Skills:

Primary:

• Turning 2 Dimensional to a 3 Dimensional object
• Constructing own stuffed toy
• Describing and explaining how it became plump and bigger
• Counting fish
• Matching the number of fish to the numerical symbol
• Identifying numbers
• Estimating the number of fish that can be placed inside
• Designing the stuffed animal as to not make the fish sponges come out
• Proving the theory of toy expansion
• Comparing and contrasting fish and turtles

Secondary:

• Questioning events and materials
• Designing the exterior of turtle
• Creating new turtle friends
• Naming the turtle (Giving importance to objects)
• Predicting the outcome

Other skills:

• Understanding spatial concepts
• Tying ribbons
• Pasting
• Cutting

Materials Needed: Felt sewed and shaped into turtles, glue, tape, felt numbers, sponge cut into little fish, beads, bows, yarn, buttons, decorations

Procedure:

1. Introducing: Ask the children what do turtles eat? Invite them to “feed” their own very turtles.
2. Implementing: Ask the children what will happen if our felt turtles “eat” sponge fish. Show them how to insert the fish. Ask them to count the number of fish their turtles can eat and match a felt number to the amount of fish in their personal turtles. They are now invited to design the exterior of their turtles with ribbons, beads, buttons, yarn, and other decorations.
3. Evaluation: Encourage the children to do a little show and tell of their personal turtles. They may introduce their turtles to the class, telling them their turtle’s names and how many fish it ate. Compare the various turtles and the number of fish they ate. Ask about the difference in size.

Variations:

• Allow them to make a story with these turtle puppets
• Perform the poem “Five Little Turtles” modifying it to bigger numbers, and have them act it with their turtles.
• Have numbers on the turtles and invite the children to “feed” the said amount of fish to each turtle. If they want to feed their turtle more or less, they are welcome to play with the number (adding pluses or minuses) creating a mathematical equation and practicing their counting, adding, and subtracting.