Using your alphabet rug for classroom activities ensures that you’re making the most out of it. A rug that is multi-functional and well-used is always a bonus to teachers and school administrators alike, so identifying activities appropriate to the age-range and skills of your students. Educational rugs and activities that help children with phonics are an excellent pairing. Throw in a little physical exercise for good measure and you’ll have a happy class at the end of the day.
For this activity, you’ll need 3 beanbags and enough space beyond the rug for a child to have a good attempt at a throw. You’ll also need to make sure that the children have already been taught the basics so that the game acts more as a refresher than a new learning experience. This will help the confidence of the children involved, ensuring that they feel able to participate without feeling as though they’ll get the game wrong. This will also help create a positive environment for learning that will help them develop as a class as well as individuals.
Get the children involved in their learning with this activity:
- Assign an order to the children. This could be the roll call order or something more random. The first child to go will have the beanbags.
- As the group leader, call out a letter. The child has to first say a word that starts with the letter then they have to throw the bean bag and hit the relevant letter. Each time they miss, they get to take say the work again, take a step closer, and try again until they hit the letter.
- Everyone claps
- After the first child has finished, then call out the letter for the next child.
- The game can go on for one round or more depending on time constraints.
This activity is not only good for the child’s mind, it also improves their motor skills as they aim the beanbag at the right spot. To make it as fun a game as possible, why not ask the children what they’d like to include? As the year goes on, expand their vocabulary and use words from new spelling lists. This is an activity that can continually evolve and become personalized to your classroom style.
Check out our full ABC Literacy Rug collection!