Did you see our new rhyming text, finger play - A Kind Bee?
In it bee flies to the left and right.
Today I thought I would share with you a few ideas for teaching positional language so you can extend upon the rhyme into your math lessons.
Ideas for Left & Right
- Left and right days - have a special day where students wear something on their left or right wrist (ribbon, tie, bracelet etc) - perhaps red for right and yellow (lemon) for left
- Tapping Sticks - if you use tapping sticks in your percussion or music activities, paint a red strip around some and yellow around the others - encourage your students to hold the red in their right hand and yellow in their left. Here they'll be integrating movement, sound, beat and a math concept to build powerful memories of left and right!
- Passing Game - play a passing game with a ball and students can only pass with their left hand or foot
- Do the Hokey Pokey - need I say more? It's always a favorite!
- Picture Talks - use a clear picture or photo to encourage a math talk. Encourage students to describe the picture in terms of where the objects are positioned. Perhaps you may like to scribe their sentences and display them with the picture.
- Make a classroom visual by tracing your hands
Kind Bee Picture Talk
Use the picture from our finger play printable for a math talk.- seat students in front of you
- tell them that you would like them to describe the picture
- ask them to look carefully at the picture and name the things they see - e.g. Here is a bee, a cloud, a flower, a hive and clouds.
- review some positional language if needed - e.g. above, across, behind, below, forward, further, close, center, down, in, in front of, inside, left, low, middle, near, next to, on, onto, top, under, underneath
- model your expectation for them by saying a few - e.g. There is a hive near the flowers
- ask for students to share some observations, scaffolding some support where necessary
- record some of your students sentences on strips of paper to display with the picture
