My Obstacle Course Station Ideas

Autumn Themed “Make This Number”

I first did a post sharing this activity in September (Apple Themed Make This Number) and wanted to share how easy it is to updateÂ this station activity simply by using some colored index cards and thematic or seasonal stickers.

For the autumn-themed number cards, I decided to use colors that represent autumn for me – red, orange and yellow (you could use any cards or colors that you’d like), and I used some apple, pumpkin and leaf stickers. If this is too busy for you or your child, you could use just one color of index card or one kind of sticker for a set of cards (ex. a set of apple number cards, a set of pumpkin number cards and/or a set of leaf number cards).

Here is the set of cards I made:

P1040996 — Autumn-themed number cards 1-10

All you need to do for this activity is decide the total that you’d like your child to make, get pairs of cards that make that number, mix them up and set them out. (For a more detailed description of this station activity, check out my original post Apple Themed Make This Number.)

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Put two cards together to make 9

P1000115 — Andrew counting the stickers on two cards to see if they equal 9.

P1000120 — Andrew putting the final two cards together to get 9.

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Put two cards together to make 10

Alternative Activity Idea:

These cards could be put together in pairs to build concepts like “more” and “less” through questions like, “Which has more, apples or pumpkins?” Throw in a “greater than” or “less than” sign and you can build yet another skill! See how something so basic as colored index cards and seasonal stickers can really help to build math skills in a fun, kid-appealing way? Love it!

Engage, Encourage and Empower!

Autumn Themed Vocabulary and Picture Matching

When I begin working on putting together a My Obstacle Course, I choose my theme and then as part of my preparation, I usually head to Enchanted Learning to see if they have anything I can use to build literacy or math skills. This is an example of how I used one of their thematic vocabulary sheets, altered the look of it a bit and created an engaging station activity to build vocabulary!

I began by printing off the sheet which is meant to be a “draw a line from picture to word” activity. While I love the pictures and the concept, as I mentioned above, I wanted something a bit more fun and interactive.

P1040986 — Autumn matching sheet (vocabulary and pictures) from EnchantedLearning.com.

I got out a leaf-shaped pad of note paper that I had gotten at Teacher Heaven…

P1040988 — A pad of autumn-themed note paper.

Cut out the pictures and glued them onto the sheets of notepaper. I chose to write out the words instead of cutting and gluing the ones from the original sheet but you could do that if you’d like. I laminated these with clear contact paper so they would be more sturdy and last longer, but you could also use index cards instead.

P1040990 — Close up of what a matching pair looks like.

When I set up the station activity for our Obstacle Course, I set out the pictures and put the words in a pile below (shown below). I did it this way because I wanted him to see the word, hear the word and be able to place the word on the picture. If you have a child who is already reading or is ready to build word reading skills, you could do it the opposite way and see if they can locate the word based on beginning sound or knowledge of how the word is spelled.

P1040991 — My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Match the word with the picture.

P1040992 — The word "pumpkin" matched with the picture of a pumpkin.

This could also be used as a Crawl and Match activity (as we did in the station shown below).

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Crawl and Match the words with the pictures.

It might just be me, but doesn’t this version look a bit more kid-friendly and fun than just sitting down with a sheet of paper? Still building same skills (minus the “drawing the line” skill) but much more engaging.

Engage, Encourage and Empower!

Autumn Manipulatives

You have heard me mention the word “manipulatives” many times and in case you don’t know what they are, they are basically items that children can manipulate while working math problems.

Here are some manipulatives that are perfect for an autumn themed My Obstacle Course:

Seasonal items from Michael's Craft store — Some colorful, plastic pieces from Michael's in the shapes of acorns and leaves.

These are great to pair with math equations to help the child have a good understanding of what the exactly they are doing – what the numbers represent and what it looks like. I think this is so important in building a strong math foundation.

Example: 4+2= ? Have your child get 4 things and then 2 more before counting them altogether.

Really simple but so often neglected as people try to get children ahead by starting them on flash cards and working to know the facts by memory before there is a good understanding. This becomes quite apparent when the child cannot explain what it is they are doing or how they came up with their answer.

Uses:

one to one correspondence
addition
subtraction
multiplication
division
patterning (if you have items that would work as patterns)

These are just some fun, seasonal items to use as manipulatives and I encourage you to be on the lookout for other items that can be used. I’ve got a bunch that I will share soon that are great for a Halloween themed My Obstacle Course – stay tuned!!

Engage, Encourage and Empower!

Farm Themed Memory Match

This is a really easy way to create a thematic memory match game using stickers and index cards (or cutouts). Here is a link to an earlier memory match post I wrote. I like including this game because it helps to build concentration, encourages basic game skills like turn taking and provides a good opportunity to make connections and build vocabulary based on the stickers.

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Thematic Memory Match

This station activity takes me only about 5 minutes to prepare and has been a favorite of Andrew’s for a while now.

Step 1: Get stickers. Some stickers come with a matching pair on one sheet (like this one) and other packs do not. For the packs that don’t have matchers on one sheet, I just use two sticker sheets and get the matching sticker that way.

Step 2: Get something sturdy to place the stickers on. I like to use index cards and found these small, blank, colored cards at my teacher store. I choose one color to use per memory match game and try to choose a color that goes with the theme or season we are in. For this one, I chose to use the red ones.

P1040974 — Small, colored index cards (2x3) are perfect for this activity.

P1040976 — I've also used 4x6 index cards and cut them in half with my paper cutter.

Step 3: Place matching stickers on two separate cards to make a matching pair.

Continue until you have made all of the matching pairs that you can.

Step 4: Mix them up or shuffle them. Set them out in rows and it is ready!

P1040981 — Memory match game set up and ready to play.

We take turns turning over cards to try to find matches and continue until all matches have been found.

When I began doing this with Andrew, we only did three pairs at a time and the cards were face up so I could show him what we were looking for – “Can you find the card that looks the same?” We did it like this until he understood that we were matching and then began turning them over. Remember to think about the skills your child is ready for and modify the activity so they can build those skills without immediately getting overwhelmed by rules and details they are not ready for. That way, it will be more beneficial and fun for both of you!!

Engage, Encourage and Empower!

Calendar Number Sequencing

Calendar numbers make it super easy to build math skills such as number sequencing. I like to use calendar numbers because they are thematic according to the month or season, which makes building vocabulary relevant to the month we are in easier to weave into conversation as we are working with the numbers.Â Because the numbers in the calendar number set go up to 31, you have a good range of numbers to work with in a variety of easy to assemble station activities.

Using an index card, cutout, post-it note or even a piece of scrap paper to write some basic directions helps tremendously with a sequencing activity.

Basic Directions:

What comes next?
What comes before?
What number is missing?
Put these numbers in order from least to greatest.
Fill in the missing numbers.

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Fill in the missing numbers

P1040945 — My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Fill in the missing numbers.

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: What comes next?

P1040948 — My Obstacle Course Station Activity: What comes next?

For this activity, I begin the sequence of numbers and mix up the number choices above. This could be made more advanced by using a number pattern, such as 1, 3, 5, and have the child figure out what comes next – 7, 9, 11.

P1040949 — 4 comes after 3. What comes next?

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Putting numbers in order from 1-10.

P1040953 — My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Put these numbers in order from 1-10.

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Fill in the missing numbers.

P1040956 — My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Fill in the missing numbers.

P1040960 — Numbers filled in to have numbers in order from 15-20.

Ordering and sequencing numbers skills are important for building a strong math foundation. Using something colorful that children can manipulate with almost no preparation time on your part helps make it a great station activity that children are more likely to engage in.

Engage, Encourage and Empower!

Apple Themed Tally Mark Crawl and Match

I created this Crawl and Match activity because I wanted Andrew to begin understanding what tally marks were, how they were written and how to count them. The Crawl and Match concept can be used to reinforce a wide variety of skills and concepts, this is just one example of how I did it to build a specific math concept.

Other Concept Examples To Use With Crawl and Match:

letter matching (uppercase and lowercase)
word and picture matching (this would even be a cute way to match up classmates pictures and names)
color and color word or item matching
shape and shape word or item matching
beginning sound matching
ending sound matching
rhyming word matching
opposite word matching
number and number word matching
coins and their value matching
math fact and sum/difference/product/quotient matching
state and capital matching

I could go on and on with examples but wanted to give you some other ideas 🙂 .

My Obstacle Course Station Activity: Tally Mark Crawl and Match

I used a package of apple-shaped calendar cutouts and wrote the regular numbers on half of the cutouts and wrote the corresponding tally marks on the other half.Â I explained to him that each tally mark represented “1” and every fifth mark went diagonally across the other 4.

What this station looked like at our house.

He would choose an apple with tally marks on it…

and crawl down to match them with the apple that had the correct number.Â Crawling requires cross patterning of the body (moving one side along with the other – like using right arm and left leg and then left arm and right leg to crawl forward) which activates both sides of the brain during this learning process – pretty cool, huh! 🙂

Apple cutouts with numbers on them at the other end of Crawl and Match.

I really like reinforcing concepts like this because it is physical work for him while building an academic skill. The distance between the items to match gives him time to process the information on his way down to make his choice.

Engage, Encourage and Empower!

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