One Manipulative - Multitude of Concepts and Skills

(I apologize for the overly bright colors in the pictures. Photography is not my area of expertise. They give you the general idea though.)


Concepts:
colors
shapes
big/little
same/different
more/less
prepositions (on, under, over, by, up, down, etc.)
simple arithmetic (counting, simple addition and subtraction, etc.)
simple and more complex patterns

Skills:
Counting
Sorting
Compare/Contrast
Description
Fine Motor Skill of Lacing (using laces or pipe cleaners)

My children love lacing beads onto laces. I have some animal/transportation beads in my crafting supplies that I used when making busy book pages and the children beg to do the activity.

I was ordering some more art supplies and some bright foam beads caught my eye. I thought the children would enjoy some new beads so I tossed them in my order. The children loved them. I enjoyed lacing them as well. I also realized how useful they can be as a math manipulative or when teaching early language concepts in therapy (they are a choking hazard though - closely supervise or only use with older children).

Homemade "Deluxe" Kitty Condo

Michael has recently developed an obsession with dragging things out of the corner where we tend to pile recyclables until recycling day to use in "projects". As one example, I walked around the corner one morning to find soda can dog (please ignore messy piles of random things behind soda can dog).

As an aside, to alleviate the problem of being buried under huge piles of abandoned art projects I have had to introduce the concept of some projects being practice projects while other projects are keeper projects. The practice projects, we make and then throw away or recycle perhaps taking a picture of it first. The keeper projects are displayed, but only after taking something else down off the wall, or off the table to make room first.

I decided to redirect Michael to a project that might actually be useful. We collected sturdy, decently sized boxes and built a four story, six room, double-wide kitty condo. The boxes are held together with packing tape. Scissors cut openings in the boxes and we used pipe cleaners as toys to tempt the kitties in. I did most of the work while Michael "helped" by enthusiastically bounding around, decorating the condo by taping on scrapbook paper (often covering entrances), and twisting up pipe cleaners into interesting shapes and calling them kitty toys.

The kittens (now a year old - see them when they were tiny) were definitely intrigued and the entire project kept Michael engaged for at least an hour. Hmm. Ignore random messy piles in the background of the picture again. I'd say I'm going to work on that problem with my housekeeping, but I try to be truthful here.

Teaching Children Their Own Personal Information Through Song

When Michael was little (as in still eating in a high chair little) I modified a nursery rhyme to teach him his full name. As he's gotten older I've added verses to teach him his address and his phone number. Song is a fun way to teach and learn and the children will beg to hear the song again and again because it is about them.

The names, addresses, and phone numbers used here are completely made up. Insert your own child's information (or student's information) as appropriate.

I use the tune for "Do You Know the Muffin Man?" (click on the link and hit play sample if you don't know the tune).

The original lyrics are:

First Verse:
Oh, do you know the muffin man,
The muffin man, the muffin man,
Oh, do you know the muffin man,
That lives on Drury Lane?

Second Verse:
Oh, yes, I know the muffin man,
The muffin man, the muffin man,
Oh, yes, I know the muffin man,
That lives on Drury Lane.

Here's the modified version for teaching a child's full name:

First Verse:
Oh, do you know Brian's full name,
Full name, full name,
Oh, do you know Brian's full name,
It's Brian Lewis Brown.

Second Verse:
Oh, yes, I know Brian's full name,
Full name, full name,
Oh, yes I know Brian's full name,
It's Brian Lewis Brown.

Alternately, you could sing:
Oh, do you know Brian's family name,
family name, family name,
Oh, do you know Brian's family name,
It's Brian Lewis Brown. (etc.)

This is how I sing the song when teaching their street address:

First Verse:
Oh, do you know Brian's street address,
Street address, street address,
Oh, do you know Brian's street address,
It's 44 Westing Estate.

Second Verse:
Oh, yes, I know Brian's street address,
Street address, street address,
Oh, yes I know Brian's street address,
It's 44 Westing Estate.

Alternately, you could sing:
Oh, do you know Brian's house number,
House number, house number,
Oh, do you know Brian's house number,
It's 44 Westing Estate. (etc.)

This is how I sing the song when teaching their phone number:

First Verse:
Oh, do you know Brian's phone number,
Phone number, phone number,
Oh, do you know Brian's phone number,
It's 123-456-7899.

Second Verse:
Oh, yes, I know Brian's phone number,
Phone number, phone number,
Oh, yes I know Brian's phone number,
It's 123-456-7899.

You could choose to leave out the area code if you live in an area where only one area code is commonly used. I also slow the tune down significantly when singing the 10 digits of the phone number to make sure each number is distinct.

Then put it all together.

And then you can string all three parts together for a "Song About You" - a six verse song that teaches your child's (or student's) full name, street address, and phone number. (You could also add two verses about city and state and another two about zip code if you are so inclined.)

Feel free to click on the image at the top of the post to open a one page printable to save to your computer. If you're using the song in therapy you might want to send home an example of what you're doing for parents to practice.