In this activity, children will work with positional words, reinforcing their understanding of the terms left, right, before, after, between, first, and last.
WHAT YOU NEED
WHAT TO DO
- Have children color the animals and people on the Beginning and End pages. As they are coloring help them assemble the two pages into "parade" formation by matching the star halves and gluing or taping the pages together.
- Use two-sided counters (or any place holder) to model the activity that the children will soon be asked to complete. Begin by asking how they can tell where the parade begins (there is a flag at the front of line). Tell children to put a white counter in the space at the front of the parade. Put a red counter in the space that shows the end of the parade (or last in line). Put a white counter between the bear and the monkey, a red counter to the left/right of the bear, and so on. Encourage discussion of more than one way to describe a location/position.
- Now have children cut out the pictures at the bottom of each sheet..
- Children then glue the pictures according to your instructions. Use any positional words you choose. A sample follows:
- Glue the elephant so that it is first in the parade.
- Glue the juggler between the monkey and the lion.
- Glue the dog so that it is last in the parade.
- Glue the horse to the right of the bear.
- Glue the zebra so that it is after the lion in the parade.
- Glue the acrobat so that he is before the monkey in the parade.
TEACHING OPTIONS
Have the children draw their own animal parade. Have them team up with a partner to talk about their parades using positional words.