While sports are not a big thing with Andrew, I know that for a lot of children if they could play sports all day they would. For those of you with children like this, it may seem like more of a challenge to find ways to motivate them to build academic skills however there are many ways to incorporate sports and this week I will focus on some station activities that I would use for a sports themed My Obstacle Course.
Sports Themed Pattern Cards
Soccer Balls
Pattern cards such as these can be used for (but are certainly not limited to):
- patterning
- sequencing
- color identification
- how many of specific colors and how many in all (ex. placing out a certain number of balls, asking questions like, “How many red soccer balls?” “How many green soccer balls?” “How many soccer balls in all?”
- can be combined with a clothesline and clothespins to build fine motor skills
- can be combined with a crawl and sort type activity requiring the child to crawl down to put the cards into a pattern or place the card that comes next.
“What Comes Next?” is a station activity to work on patterning skills. This can be as basic or complex as your child is ready for.
“Make the Same” is a station activity that I use to build sequencing/ordering skills and language such as first, second, third, last.
Variety Sports Pack (football, basketball, volleyball, baseball and tennis)
These are just some examples of how easy it can be to incorporate something that may be more visually appealing to a sports loving child while also building math skills.
Engage, Encourage and Empower!