Posts Tagged ‘kinesthetic learner’
Math manipulatives – a houseful of ideas
Homeschooling can get costly when you are buying all the books and materials needed for the lessons. But when it comes to math manipulatives, all you have to do is look around your house!
Manipulatives are defined as “any of various objects designed to be moved or arranged by hand as a means of developing motor skills or understanding abstractions, especially in mathematics.” Using manipulatives in math can help explain tough concepts. Also, manipulatives are a great teaching tool to use for kinesthetic (hands-on) learners. Geometry manipulatives are easy to find around the house, just look for specific shapes – tin can (cylinder), sugar cube, book (rectangle) and the like. Counting manipulatives are also easy to find as you can use anything that you have a bunch of – marshmallows, paperclips, toilet rolls and more. Sorting and graphing manipulatives can be anything that differs in colour or shape – different coloured paper clips, beads or buttons or even cereal.
Before you spend the money on fancy math manipulatives, look around the house and see what there is you can use for free!
Children who can’t sit still for long periods of time won’t learn any better if they are made to. The advantage of homeschooling is to be able to teach to the child in the best way possible. For an active child this may mean a creative lesson plan.
School is more than books and worksheets so if you have a student who is active, don’t rely on just those resources. Some desk work needs to be done but if you alternate desk work with an active learning activity, the child will have a chance to move in between you will find that they will learn better. Manipulatives make great active learning activities. Math lessons can involve stacking blocks, measuring furniture, racing cars and all sorts of other active learning ideas. Spelling can be made active too if you hang letters around the house and ask the child to run around and find the letters to spell a certain word. Bring puppets into English class to help act out stories or create a craft associated with the story or chapter just read so that the child can be rewarded with an active lesson following a sit-down reading assignment. Music can be a great active learning activity too. Rhythm, rhyming, sound science and more can all be taught through music.
Allowing an active child a chance to be active in “class” can help them learn and make your teaching day less frustrating!
Trick or Treat
After a night of trick or treating and a belly full of candy, getting children to concentrate on school work can be a challenge. The trick is to incorporate Halloween into the lessons!
A bag of Halloween candy is a great math manipulative. It can be used for counting, sorting, graphing and more. Even the wrappers can be used for collage art! A health lesson on the good and bad of sugar is another great way to incorporate treats into the lesson plan. Keep out those costumes and use them to act out plays, fairy tales or other stories that has the character in it. Kids will study topics they are interested in so find a thematic unit on Halloween, ghosts, bats or other spooky themes. Bringing Halloween into the lesson plan will take the trickiness out of teaching over-excited children!
Teaching the Active Child
Many active students are kinesthetic learners. That is they learn by doing. The key to teaching these learners is to keep them doing. A great learning tool for kinesthetic learners is manipulatives.
Manipulatives are items that are used to enforce the lesson rather than worksheets and written work. Other great tools for kinesthetic learners are models, magnet letters, and video games. Educational video games can keep the mind active and amused while helping to encourage learning.