“The slap game” is something I developed during my time in the kindergarten classroom. It’s a very energetic and fun way for young children to learn letters, numbers, and more!
Don’t worry, no one gets slapped! The slapping takes place on the chalkboard or whiteboard!
Books and phonics worksheets are a great way to give kids an activity for learning their numbers and letters.
However, sometimes you also want to get them up and moving during the learning process!
The Slap Game: Learning Letters and Numbers
This is a very simple learning activity to set up, and even easier to play!
All you need is a large area on which to write: such as a chalkboard, white board, or even a large piece of paper!
If you don’t have any of those, tape together a few sheets of regular white or construction paper to create a larger writing surface.
Then you’ll be ready to write out your letter or numbers.
Setting Up the Board
1. Write big! I like to make the items large and spaces well, so that the child can easily slap one item at a time.
2. Don’t have too many items on the board at once! For letters, I do 1/3 or 1/2 of the alphabet at a time. For numbers, I usually just do 10 to 20 numbers at a time.
3. Keep things in order! While children are learning, keep the numbers and letters in order, so they have the visual confirmation of the order while they are playing
As they advance in their skills, you can mix things up a bit. But don’t try that too quickly!
Ways to Play The Slap Game
Once you have everything set up, you can just call out the items for your child to find!
I try to not go in order, so they have to actually seek and find a bit, though you can go in order to start with if you want.
This game can be played with letters, numbers, letter sounds, and even shapes!
If you in a classroom setting, you can have two sets of items and let the kids “compete”.
It’s a fun way to “race” without a lot of pressure. I usually gave a point for each right answer and then everyone got a piece of candy (like one chocolate kiss) when the game was over.
Wrong answers are not penalized.
I had a headmaster who wanted me to take away points for wrong answers (he came to visit our classroom while we were playing one day, and suggested the change), so I gave it a try.
Terrible mistake! Kids were in tears and having panic attacks over what used to be a fun game!
So, moral of the story is to just have fun and don’t put too much pressure on it!
See This Learning Game in Action
If you’d like to see a quick video of my son and I playing this game, I was able to catch about 45 seconds of it before he realized I was recording and got very annoyed. Ha!
That’s it! A wonderfully simple learning game that can be played several different ways.
You can even start out with shapes for younger children who aren’t ready from numbers and letters yet. Or just for a fun change of pace!
Enjoy!
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