Literacy and Math Activities (Story Stretchers)
These are activities that you can use during PACT time. They also enhance the learning in children and parents. These activities also provide parents with activities they can use at home to reinforce learning concepts. You will notice that we have more activities than listed in section E “Lesson Plans.” You can choose different activities other than the ones we chose. It will depend on the families who comprise your GSL groups.
Activities – (Animals Kit) |
Knowledge, Skills, Attitudes (KSA) |
|---|---|
| Bear Bounce. Spread a blanket on the floor with a teddy in the middle. Children grab around the edges of the blanket and develop a rhythm to toss and catch the bear. The blanket could be used later for a teddy bear’s picnic. Use this as a counting activity. How many times does teddy bounce? | K – number sense and numeration |
| Obedience school. Children pretend to be dogs. Call out a few commands and they have to act them out., similar to “Simon Says.” | S – gross motor skills |
| Animal movement. Children get to act out whatever pet they want to be. Extension – for older groups, ask other children to guess what animal each child has chosen. | S – gross motor skills |
| Graphing activity. Graph the question “What is your favourite pet?” Use the words “more, less, the same.” | K- data management |
| Gummi Bear sorting. Have children divide their paper plates into 6 sections. Have them sort their Gummi Bears according to colour. |
K – colour recognition K - matching K – data management |
| Find the animal. Use animals of all kinds flash cards and ask children to identify the animal. | S – fine motor skill
development S – memory skills |
| Measurement activity. Get children to measure themselves and other objects in the room using a teddy bear or other stuffed animal as their measure. Use math words such as “taller, shorter, bigger, smaller, more than, less than, same as.” | K – measurement S – fine and ross motor coordination S – vocabulary expansion |
| Sorting Activity. Use plastic farm/zoo/pet animals. Ask children to sort them according to where the animals live. Extension – for older children, have the names of the place that they belong (i.e. farm, house, zoo, wild) written on a piece of paper and have the children sort into piles. | K – general animal knowledge (where they live) S – vocabulary expansion |
| Lets Make Sounds. Use plastic animals to talk about language and the kinds of sounds that each animal makes. | K – animal sounds S – memory skills S – vocabulary expansion |