Alphabet Grid: Phonics

materials: sidewalk chalk or masking tape

ABC GRID

Phoneme-Grapheme Correspondance & Letter Recognition

1. Jump on letter name, say the sound

2. Teacher calls out a letter sound, student jumps on the letter that represents the sound

3. Hold up an object, have the student locate and jump on the beginning, middle or end sound. Ex: Beginning sound of the word ball. Student jumps on the letter /b/

Segment & Blend the Word

After children find beginning, middle and end sounds of the word, have them segment it 

and blend the word on a separate. Ex: grid /b/ /a/ /ll/ = ball

(Phoneme segmentation. The ability to identify separate phonemes in a spoken word.)

SPELL

Have child choose an object and spell the word phonetically, jumping to each letter on the alphabet grid. Child shouts out letters Ex: dog: child jumps on D-O-G 

Place Value Hopscotch

Create a place value hopscotch with sidewalk chalk! (You can include higher values or decimals as well). One player hops and the other watches and figures out the number. 

Ex: 823,005
The player hops 5 times on the 1
0 times on the 10 and 100
3 times on the 1,000
2 times on the 10, 000
8 times on the 100,000
The other player must watch closely, so he can figure out the number. Then, he writes the numeral on the pavement.

After kids take turns hopping a couple times, have them compare the numerals they made. Which number is the largest? Who created the smallest number? Can they point out the odd and even numbers they created?

Outdoor Math + Checkers

Practice your math skills by playing checkers! Check out Relentlessly Fun, Deceptively Educational for a milk cap version (addition and subtraction).

Then, visit Crayola to see how to make an oversized checker board on the pavement! (featured above)

Add math equations to the blank boxes and you're ready to play! Kids move their checkers across the equations and try to solve them!

House # Math

This activity is from one of my favorite sites for real world math, Illuminations! Students create a three digit house number, using numerals 0 through 9. The three numbers they choose must add up to a certain sum. They can't repeat numbers in their combination or begin their combination with 0. For example, if their number has to equal 6, one combination might be 321. There are 14 combinations if the sum is 6. If the 3 addends must add up to 7, there are 18 combinations. Visit Illuminations for details and printables to go along with the activity.

Afterwards, incorporate measuring by having students create a "house that measures up" from Cathy Searcey. After kids make their "house plan," they head outside and draw a large version of their house using sidewalk chalk. (House dimensions: 6ft. x 6ft. frame, a 3ft. x 1ft. door, and two 1ft. x 1 ft. windows).

You could also explore geometry by having students design their very own clubhouse! Click here for details!

Fraction Hopscotch

Have kids design their own hopscotch board! The only catch, it must consist of fractions!

Dara

Nigerian problem solving game from the Cincinnati Art Museum : Dara! It can be played on the pavement or on paper! First, create a 5 x 6 grid. Next, create teams of two. Each team gets 12 counters (sticks vs. stones or other manipulatives). Teams take turns laying down a counter on a square (anywhere - see note below). Once all counters are laid, the game begins. Teams take turns moving their object to an adjacent open square. Moves can only be up, down, left, or right. The goal is to get three counters in a row. If they get three in a row, they remove one of their opponent's counters. The game is over when a team cannot make any more moves. The team out of moves loses! 

Note: 
1. Teams must scatter their objects around the board, when placing them before the start of the game. They are only permitted 3 objects in a row before the game.
2. Counters placed 3 in a row before the game begins don't count. They must make a move to remove an opponent's counter.
3. Teams can only remove one of their opponent's counters, even if their move could knock out more than one.

Click here for more math games from Nigeria, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique!

Run N Round

Practice rounding to the nearest hundred (featured above), ten, or with decimals (tenth, hundredth, etc.) with this active game on the blacktop! I was inspired by Education's Rapid Rounding Version to create my own. Write oversized numbers on the pavement and circle them. Have various numbers written on notecards, ready to call out. Call out a number and kids round it in their head and run to the correct numeral. For example, you call out the number 615 and tell kids to round it to the nearest hundred. Kids run to the number 600. 

Hot Wheels Math

Grab a ruler (yardstick), a bunch of hot wheels vehicles, and some sidewalk chalk for a measuring project! 

1. Set up a mini Nascar stadium with your vehicles! Kids draw lines on the blacktop, creating lanes to separate their cars - number the lanes. Once the lanes are setup, assign each student (or group) a numbered lane. Who's car is the fastest? After you race your cars, measure the distance they rolled from the starting line. Compare the distances and the vehicles.

2. City Project: Kids team up and are given specific measurements for a street. They work together to construct their street. Then, they work with their peers on designing a city. As a class, they decide the placement of each road. After they've completed their roadways, they can add skyscrapers, stores, and signage. They can even make a Fraction City on the pavement (click here for details)!

Note: You could do this activity indoors with masking tape to create roads.

Kid Calculator

Draw an oversized calculator to help kids with math! Kids throw a stone on a number. Then, they have to figure out how to make the number (addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division). For example, the stone lands on 8. You jump on 8. Then, you hop to 4, hop to the multiplication sign, jump to 2, jump to the equal sign, and hop back to 8. 

Excuse the 3 2 1 line (it's written backwards), my bad!

Bounce! Retell

Story telling ropes and roads / streets are super popular. Put a twist on the activity by adding a little bounce and getting the kids outdoors. Help students with reading comprehension by creating a winding path for them to bounce on as they retell a story. Draw different shapes and write key details inside of them (title, characters, narrator, setting, fact vs. fiction, main event, and chronological order - first, next, last). Kids plop on a jumping ball with handles, answering the key detail block they land on. 

Wet N Wild Math

Water Balloons
1. Division - Count up how many water balloons you have in all. Then, figure out how many you and your friends will get.

2. Fractions - Choose what color balloons you would like and figure out the fraction for each color.

3. Addition - Water balloon bullseye! Hit the target, aiming for the sections worth the most points. Keep track of your score. Make sure you watch where your balloon bursts! Also, you probably want to tape the target marks. Otherwise, your board will wash away!

4. Geometry - Measure your balloon's circumference. What is the diameter and radius of one water balloon? Also, measure the length and width of your balloon. Can you figure out the volume?

5. Measuring - See who can throw their water balloon the farthest. Measure where the balloon lands.

Click here for water balloon experiments, involving gravity and potential / kinetic energy.

Sidewalk Scrabble

Brush up on your vocabulary by creating words on the pavement. Kids take turns playing off of each others' words. If you wanted to add a little math, write down letter worth near your writing area. Kids can add up what their word is worth.

Oh Snap! Experiment

Combine math, science, and a little competition with this fun experiment! First find a super stretchy rubber band. Mine measured three inches at rest. Grab some sidewalk chalk and a ruler and head outside. Stretch rubber band and aim, but don't shoot yet! Have a friend measure the stretched band with a ruler. Then, let go and mark where your rubber band lands. Next to the mark write down how far the band was stretched before shooting (see image). 

Math - You already did some math, by measuring your rubber band before each shot. Now, use a tape measurer to record the distance from the shot to where the band landed. Example - 14 inch stretch before shot and band landed 14.5 inches from where I sat and shot it. 

Science - Talk about potential and kinetic energy. A rubber band has potential energy and when in motion, it's energy is kinetic! By stretching the rubber band way way way far out, it will shoot farther. Visit Science Buddies for a recording sheet and more twists on this experiment!

HOP the Clock

Get kids out of the classroom to hop and tell time on the blacktop! Draw small circles within an extra large imaginary circle in the format of an analog clock. Then, call out two kids' names, give one a number to represent hours and the other minutes. Have them hop on the number. Once, they get the thumbs up, have them create the time, each taking on the role of clock hands, by laying down on the imaginary clock. After each person in the class has had a turn, switch off and give the hours kids minutes and vice versa.

Blacktop Geometry

Over at 3 Teacher Chicks, they found the area and perimeter of each kid in their class! Bring kids outside to a pavement and split them up into teams of two. Have them trace around each other with a yard stick and chalk to find exact measurements in inches. Add all sides for perimeter, multiply L x W for area. Visit 3 Teacher Chicks and check out the activity!

Precipitation, Evaporation, Transpiration, Condensation

Precipitation - Make it Rain!

Raining Rainbows (shaving cream and food coloring) -  A Bit of This and a Bit of That!

Rain in a Jar - Guest Hollow

Transpiration - Collect Plant Sweat!

Learn about transpiration through this hands on experiment from Weird Science Kids. By tying a large baggie around a plant's leaves on a super hot, sunny day, you will demonstrate how transpiration is part of the water cycle. Pour the water from the plant into a measuring cup. Kids use their measuring skills to figure out how much water the plant produced. Click here for full instructions! Save your water for the puddle experiment below!
Also, check out Parents.com to see how to conduct this experiment with a patch of grass and a jar!

Evaporation - Watch a Puddle!

Science With Me conducted a puddle experiment to teach kids about evaporation! Pour water on the pavement in a sunny spot. Then, draw a line around it with sidewalk chalk. Let it sit, then check up on it later. What happened? The water evaporated! 

Condensation - Create a cloud!