You know who they are, those kinesthetic learners, those children who just cannot stay still. I have two of them. So, how can we as parents and/or teachers use their need for movement to our advantage? By finding ways to let them move while they learn. While I haven’t figured that out completely, (I still require my seven year old to sit for some things—how can you teach penmanship if he’s moving?), I do have a great tool at my disposal—hopscotch! My four year old loves it, so why not use it? Here are some ways I have used hopscotch and ways I could use hopscotch when she gets older to teach some basic math concepts.

·         Go higher than ten;

·         Count backwards, first from five, then ten, then twenty;

·         Start with a number other than one and have your child count on from there;

·         Use only even or odd numbers. After your child has mastered even/odd this way, use both and have him/her jump only on one or the other;

·         Use Roman numerals (thanks to my seven year old for this one);

·         Use only the 2s, 3s, 5s, etc. for skip counting. After mastery, use all numbers and have your child jump only on the ones you designate;

·         Play Dice Hopscotch. This idea was from an episode of Curious George on PBS. To play, draw a traditional board. Make the numbers as high as you want. Make three large foam dice. Two of the dice will have the traditional dots on them (or numbers, if you wish). The third will have the words “forward” and “backward” on each side (three of each). Players take turns rolling the dice. They add or count the number on the number dice and then hop that number of squares forward or backward (the third die). They keep track as in traditional hopscotch, with a counter of some type. The first to complete the course wins;

·         Use only the number families you are working on (just the 10s, 20s, 30s, or whatever);

·         Give the child a math problem (addition, subtraction, or multiplication). Have him or her jump on the answer or jump to the answer;

·         Call out the numbers out of sequence. Can your child identify them anyway? Or, if you are working on one-to-one correlation, hold up a large die or a card with a set number of objects and have him/her jump on the correct number;

·         Draw shapes other than circle, square, rectangle, and triangle. The shapes you choose will depend on the age of the child and the shapes that you want to teach. I’ve used all that I can reasonably draw, including rhombus and parallelogram. For preschool you would probably want to add oval, heart, diamond, and star (my daughter’s current favorite). Later add trapezoid (found in some first grade curricula), pentagon, hexagon, octagon, crescent, and half circle;

·         Work on patterns. Call out a pattern, such as triangle, square, triangle. Have your child complete the pattern. This idea could also work for number sequences/patterns;

·         Work on place value. Call out a number or hold up a card for a number that is at least two digits. Have your child jump on the number in the place you designate. For example, the number is 345. Have her jump on the number that is in the hundreds place.

Brainstorm your own ideas to use hopscotch for math and get your kinesthetic learners involved.

 

 

 

 

 

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