Nerissa Sampong
May 28, 2010
I made the Blast Off game to help children recognize numbers, practice rational counting, and count backward from ten to one. It consists of a rocket ship, pictures of the children in my class, cats, dogs, hamster (common children pets), timer and several tapes. Choosing one of the tapes a child can arrange numbers on it, personalize the rocket ship with his picture, count backwards to 10 and blast off (fly it). The child can use the timer to determine if he or she can complete the task within two minutes. A child can also select a number and choose a corresponding number of friends or pets to fly with him or her.
The Blast Off game is simple enough for three to five year olds to play on their own once they understand the concept. It can also be modified to make it appropriate for six year olds by having them count backward from 100 in tens or fives. A child can play with it alone or with a friend and choose the level of play. It provides the hands -on opportunity necessary for children of this age group to learn while having fun and social interactions with their peers.
The curricular concepts covered by this game are;
- Virginia Standards of Learning, Number and Number Sense, K5, -The student will count forward to 30 and backward from 10
- Virginia Mathematic Foundation Block 1, Number and Number Sense - the child will count with understanding and use numbers to tell how many, describe order and compare.
Some follow up activities I would do with this game are;
- We will read a book about astronauts and space– Language Arts
- Children would pretend to be flying in a rocket ship while singing – Dramatic play, Music and Movement
- Children would tell stories or predict what will happen in their space adventure - Language Arts
- We would take a nature walk, observe and count items in the sky – Science and Math
- Use shapes instead of the numbers in the game to make a sequence or pattern – Math (Geometry)
- Children would choose a number in the game and look for items of the same color or shape in the classroom corresponding to that number – Math