Learning about ordinals
Here’s a simple activity that Ryan has been doing at home – learning about ordinal numbers and positions. Ordinal numbers are: first, second, third, fourth and so on. Here we combined ordinal numbers with right and left positions, eg. third from the left, fifth from the right, and so on.
I call out, “Which is the fifth from the left?” or “Which is the seventh from the right?” and Ryan identifies the correct one.
Of course, before attempting a combination of ordinal numbers and right/left, do ensure that your child knows the two concepts well. Ryan learned his right and left from putting on his shoes everyday. When he picked up his left shoe, I would tell him, that’s the left shoe. And when he put on his right shoe, I would tell him, that’s the right shoe. He also learned that the index finger and the thumb on his left hand form the letter “L” for left! I didn’t specifically teach him ordinal numbers. I think he picked them up from our day-to-day conversations and through books and watching videos like Hi-5 and Sesame Street.
Sometimes I ask him to hold on to one container while I call out another position and he ends up with both hands on the same container. For example, in this set of ten, the fourth from the left is the same as the seventh from the right. This way, he can see that there are two ways of describing the same thing.
Here we were working with ten containers, because Ryan has recently rekindled his love for this toy. We have also played this game with an assortment of items such as straws, pens, utensils, etc. We have also done it with a row of squares or circles drawn on a piece of paper, so it is a really easy activity to set up. We have also done it in restaurants while waiting for our food, using chopsticks or toothpicks or the coins in our pockets.
Sometimes I try to make it more fun by hiding little surprises in the containers or by asking him to do it with his eyes closed (he never closes them completely!).
alicia
shann
Leona