Make it
Have students take turns jumping on different shapes on the mat while other students make the chosen shape with either their bodies or popsicle sticks.
Right Angles
Manipulative Needed: Book Have students observe and point out which quadrilaterals have right angles. Use a book corner to see if they are correct. Discuss that the shapes with four right angles are called rectangles and that a square is a rectangle with equal length sides.
Similarities
Have students observe all of the different shapes on the mat. Ask what they have in common. Explain that closed polygons with four sides are all called quadrilaterals.
Shaping Up
Manipulative Needed: Popsicle Sticks Have students use popsicle sticks to add other shapes to the ones on the mat to make new shapes and images. E.g. A student might add a triangle to the top of the square to make a house.
Race to the Finish
Two students line up at “I”. The first student rolls a 12-sided die and takes that number of steps. The student does something with the word he/she lands on: e.g., says it 3x while clapping or spells it while jumping once for each letter. The second student takes a turn in like manner. Continue until […]
Race to the Start
Same as “Race to the Finish” but starting at “Find” and traveling to the top of the mat. Additional variation: Students may walk backward instead of Forward.
The Tens Have It
Write +10, -10, +20, and -20 on index cards. Toss a bean bag towards the center of the mat. Have a student travel to it and then clap 3x while saying the word. Pull one of the cards and tell the student to advance or retreat from that point by that many steps, moving horizontally […]
The Dice Have It
This is a variation on “The Tens Have It.” Distribute word cards to a few students and ask them to identify and then jump to their words. Ask another student to roll a die while a different student calls “plus” or “minus” (or rolls a +/- die.) The students advance toward the bottom of the […]
“Skip Counting” by 2’s and 5’s
Have students on the left side of the mat. Tell the student by row 1 that he/she will be stepping on each word in the row, saying either “one” or “two” all the way across. Direct the student as follows: “Step on the first word and say ‘one.’ Step on the second word and say […]
“Skip Counting” by 3’s and 4’s
This is a progression of “Skip Counting” by 2’s and 5’s because the rows of 10 are not multiples of either 3 or 4. You need to explain to the students that there will be leftover numbers at the end that they can’t use.
