Making Learning Fun

Nature Sequences

This is a game that can be played outdoors, or you can collect the materials to bring home to use. It’s a fun way to teach sequences and problem solving and you could even use it to try some basic algebra ideas!

You will need some natural objects, acorns, cones, twigs, leaves…

Make a sequence of objects and then see if the ones playing the game can guess what comes next?

You can make it more of less difficult. An easy challenge would be acorn, conker, leaf, acorn, conker, ?

Or a more difficult one that could have more than one answer. What comes next in the picture above could either be two sticks or could it be something different?

Although Algebra uses the alphabet in place of numbers, you can use objects to introduce the concept. If two conkers equal one pinecone, how many conkers equal two pinecones?

It’s a fun activities to do in pairs or groups, and to create challenges for each other as well as solve them.

Can you find what goes next on all sides? Can you find ways that you change what comes next but would still work in a sequence?

Learning a Language

This can be a fun way to help little ones with word recognition, or for older ones to start learning a new language.

You will need some card, some glue, some magazines and some scissors.

Libraries often sell bundles of magazines for very little. We found a bundle of Country Living, which has lots of pretty pictures.

We used old file dividers from A4 folders for the card. You could use recycled food packaging.

We wrote the German words on the back of the cards, we also wrote down a phonetic reminder of how the word is pronounced.

You can start with a few words at a time. When you can remember a few of them you could use the cards to help you make sentences.

We used a box to write down some sentences and used the cards to complete.