Materials:

• Construction paper in four different primary colors
• Index cards or small sheet of paper
• Small ziploc bag
• Dot stickers
• Dry erase marker

Directions:

• Take the construction paper and cut out four large circles from four different colors of paper that are large enough that your child can easily stand on the circle. I recommend using one sheet of paper for each circle you create.
• After you have your circles, take an index card or sheet of paper, and use the dot stickers to create your map.
• Your map will be a in a 4×4 pattern, keep in mind that every row needs to have the same color dot stickers.
• Make sure your dot stickers are the same color as the construction paper you are using.
• After you have made your map, lay your paper circles out on the floor in the same pattern as your map.
• It’s best to secure the circles on the floor with tape so they don’t move around too much while you are playing the game.

• Now take your map and put it into a ziploc bag.
• Take your dry erase marker and draw a path on the ziplock bag so it shows up on the map.

When first playing this game, keep it simple and draw an easy path with two different turns of direction in it, and then get more complicated as your child becomes more confident. You can draw arrows marking the start and end of the path to make it easier for your child to follow along.

As you encourage your child to follow the directions on the card and stand on the matching dots, ask them to anticipate where they need to go next. “Which way do we turn here? Right or left?” or “Are you going to take a step forward or back? How many steps are left before we get to the end? Let’s look at our card for directions!”

Throughout the day you probably do this without even thinking about it.  You say things like, “Put you coat inside your cubbie.” (Inside is a spatial reasoning term.) Or you might say, “The tissues are on top of the shelf.” (On top of is another spatial reasoning term.)  The reason that this is important is that we don’t want to say general things like “The tissues are there,” as the general nature of the statement doesn’t expressly support the learning of the these important terms.

I like playing “Hotter, Colder” with children.  You know the game.  It is when you have a child or children try to find something hidden in the room either in plain site or hidden away and you give them clues by saying, “Hotter” when they get closer and “Colder” when they get further away. Instead of using the words hotter and colder, you could use closer and farther, or nearer and farther.  This is will be one more way to incorporate spatial terms into your everyday activities.