My Interactive Toolbox for Kids that Need to Move

Posted by Debra | 0 comments

I have three boys. ALL of them need to move. So, for as long as I’ve been teaching I’ve had to continually come up with creative manipulatives, games that get them moving and something-other-than-a-workpage techniques to help them practice academic skills.

I recently pulled out a bag full of well-used homemade interactive teaching tools. I accumulated these ideas from all across the homeschooling world so I don’t know where they all originated from anymore. However, I thought I’d share some of them with you.

For Spelling Practice: The Room Scramble

This is a great way to practice unscrambling spelling words that are 12 letters or less. If you have longer words, you’ll simply need to draw more picture cards in Step #1. It works for children of all ages who like a little scavenger hunt.

1. Choose just one room in your house. On 12 blank index cards, draw 12 pictures of locations/items in that room where two index cards can easily be hidden together (under a trash can, in a basket, under a couch’s cushions, between the books on a shelf, etc). Take one more blank index card and draw a smiley face (or anything you like) with the words “The End” on it.

2. Take several other blank index cards and clearly write one letter on each card until you’ve used the entire alphabet. You may want to make extras of the b,c,d,e,f, etc. in case you are practicing words that use repeating letters. You may also choose to cut your cards into thirds or fourths to make smaller letter cards and save on supplies.

3. Choose a word you want your child to practice and pull out those letters from your letter card stack. Mix them up and hold onto these.

4. Choose one picture location card to begin with and set that aside. This is the only thing you’ll give to your child to begin their hunt when you’re ready.

5. Go to the location you drew on the first card that you have set aside. At that location you will hide a letter card and another picture location card.

6. Move to THAT location next (the one you just hid) and hide another letter card and the next picture card.

7. Keep doing this until you’ve used all the letters in the word. When you’ve hidden the last letter put your “End” card with it instead of another picture location card. This is how the child knows they have collected all the letters and they can begin to unscramble them.

8. Call your child back into the room and hand them that first picture location card that you set aside. They can then move from location to location collecting their letters. Once they find the “End” card they can bring all the letters to the table and unscramble them. If they are familiar with the spelling words for the week, this should be fairly simple and tons of fun.

9. Store all of your cards together so you can do this activity every week or as often as you like.

For Sentence Structure Practice: Card Connections

This helps young children practice the basic parts of a sentence: subject, predicate and complement.

1. Compose 10 complete sentences that use all three parts of a sentence listed above. (examples: The igloo / is made / of ice. OR Grandpa / plays / the guitar.)

2. Choose three colors of index cards. You’ll need 10 of each upon which to write out your parts of the sentence. You can cut your cards smaller to save on supplies. For instance: Subjects can be written on yellow cards, predicates on green cards and complements on blue cards. (example: “The igloo” and “Grandpa” would be written on yellow cards, “is made” and “plays” would be written on green cards, and “of ice” and “guitar” would be written on blue cards).

3. Mix them up and let the child put the all the sentences in the order that makes the most sense. You may need to help them read the cards. Make adjustments to the placement of the parts of the sentences as you go to get the best fit. However, it is funny when they determine that the correct sentence is “Grandpa is made of ice.”

For Matching Any Two Facts: Hop To It

This is a very kinesthetic way to review short facts, practice homonyms, states and capitals, foreign words and their meanings, or anything at all.

1. Cut out about 20 large symmetrical shapes, such as a heart or a diamond, from sturdy paper. Adhere a strip of clear packing tape across the front of the shape and then cut the shape down it’s line of symmetry so you have a mirror image that is easy for the child to visually connect back together.

2. Use a wipe off marker to write your matching facts on each set of shapes. If you’re practicing homonyms for instance, on the left side of the heart you’ll write “aunt” and on the right you’ll write “ant.” Continue until you’ve used all the facts you want to review.

3. Place all the left hand sides of the shape into an envelope and all the right hand sides of the shape into a different envelope.

4. When the child is ready, take one envelope’s contents and spread it across the floor so each piece can be easily seen.

5. Retrieve your other envelope, pull out the papers a piece at a time and read it to the child. They are to hop on its complementary piece on the floor and hand it to you to see if it’s a match.

6. Alternative Play. For an older child you can spread out all the shapes together and just let the child match them on their own.

7. Erase the words on each shape and use them again and again for anything you need to review.

For Categorizing (and Graphing): Feed the Seals (originated from Carol Barnier).

You can find the details of how to make ordinary envelopes turn into “seals” in the book, How to Get Your Child off the Refrigerator and on to Learning by Carol Barnier. You can also simplify the process and simply use envelopes and index cards. We have used this activity over and over for all kinds of activities: Rhyming words, syllable practice, true and false facts, etc.

1. Create your “seals” out of #10 office envelopes. Label them with a post it note or use a dry erase marker on a strip of packing tape. The point is to be able to reuse them again and again. Create your “fish” out of index cards cut in half or thirds if necessary. The index cards (fish) are simply placed (fed) into the envelope (seal) that is most appropriate.

2. For rhyming practice: If you have three seals label them with words like “far” “cap” and “drag”. Create your fish index cards by writing several more words that rhyme with the words you wrote on your seals. Mix them up. Have the child feed the rhyming words into the seal’s mouth.

3. For syllable practice: If you have three seals label them with the numbers 1, 2 and 3. Create your fish index cards by writing words with one, two or three syllables on them. Mix them up. Have the child feed the words into the correct seal’s mouth.

4. For true and false practice: If you have two seals label one “true” and one “false.” Create your fish index cards by writing true or false facts covering any area of study. Mix them up. Have the child feed the correct facts into the seals’ mouths.

5. Graphing Extension. You’ll need a sheet of graph paper and two or three colored markers. Once the child is done feeding all the fish to the seals, take the next step and have them create a bar graph depicting how many fish were in each seal’s mouth. Check their work and compare the amounts.

6. Imagine the possibilities!

Enjoy moving and learning with your children. A little bit of prep, using reusable materials, will give you plenty of wiggly learning options for years to come.

Debra Anderson has been married to her true companion for 15 years and has three sons under age 10. Debra’s passions are education, art, her husband, church ministry and missional living — not in that order. She has served as her co-op’s coordinator in Portland, Oregon and is a new resident of the Denver metro area. Debra has her seminary Masters degree in Christian Education and has always home educated their boys — even on the hard days. She maintains a blog at Emergent Homeschool.