The Bub in the Belly

The "hot" card game is easy to practise at home as it is very simple and requires very little preparation. In class, the "hot" card game is played straight after the "Which One?" games.

Present two cards of the same size and colour, about the size of your child's hand. On one card is the picture which you want him to find - this is the "hot" card. The other card is either blank or has a different picture. For example, one card can have a picture of an aquarium with many fish and the other, a picture of an aquarium with just a few fish. Or one card has a picture of a hexagon and the other card is blank. Note that the blank card should never be the "hot" card. It doesn't have to be fancy, you can draw a simple picture or shape, you can use stickers or you can cut out a picture from a magazine. If you have the linking memory cards for two year olds, you can use those too.

For example, in the set in the photo below, the "hot" card can be the zebra. Show him both cards and tell him the zebra is "hot". Place the cards face down on the table and shuffle them around. Ask your child to rub his palms together and feel the cards by placing his palm on each of the cards. Ask him to find the "hot" card. You can do this a few times with the same set in the same session.

Ok, now back to "Which one?" games. In addition to the ones I showed you in Part 7 and Part 8, I wanted to show you three examples which are a bit more creative. These were done in class and from these, you can see that we don't always use paper scenes, and also that there are many ways to ask "Which One?". I hope these will give you more ideas to come up with different and creative games of your own at home. Remember that, for home practice, you don't have to rely on paper scenes that we use in class. You can use real objects instead.

Prepare a red and a green apple. Tell your child that the red one is sweet and juicy and the green one is sour. Hide one apple away. Ask your child to pretend to eat the apples and taste them. Then ask him to guess which apple has been hidden away. In class, this was done with a picture of a green apple and a picture of a red apple. One was hidden in an envelope with the word "taste" on it. Here, I'm showing you a picture of the paper apples with a paper bag to hide one in, but remember, you can use real fruit at home.

Next example - take three ribbons of different colours and connect them end-to-end to form a line. Put it all in a tissue box or a toilet paper tube and ask your child which colour will emerge from the box/tube first. After he makes his choice, pull the ribbon out to reveal the first colour. Then ask what's the next colour and after he makes his choice, pull the ribbon out to reveal the colour. Repeat for the last colour.

This last one is a little tricky to explain. I hope the photo helps. 

There are three snails with different coloured shells in the example. They are each paired up with a snail behind. Ask your child to find the pair with matching colours, eg. in this case, the green snail in front has a green snail behind it so this is the pair we want. Ryan did this in class recently (they did it with turtles). At home, you can do this with anything - you can use earrings or socks or crayons or Lego pieces, just hide one set under some cloth or behind a sheet of paper.

That's all for now. As always, keep it fun!

[This post also appears in our Learning at Home section.]