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REWARD
Session 4:
Grid Play
 Grid Play Activities

LANGAUGE

Activity Instructions Tips and Adaptations

Letter Bingo Equipment Tips

Skills development
 Fine motor co-ordination
 Visual discrimination
 Auditory discrimination
 Phonics
 A grid for each learner, with letters printed in the squares.
 Sufficient counters for each learner to cover each block on
their grid.
Instructions
 Give each learner a grid card and enough counters to cover
each block on their grid.
 Call out a letter or show learners a flashcard with the letter
printed on it.
 Learners need to find the letter on their grid and cover it with
a counter.
 Use buttons, or unifix blocks as counters.
 Increase the challenge for learners who
need to practise visual discrimination skills
by using letters that look similar, e.g. ‘p’,
‘q’, ‘b’, ‘d’, ‘u’ and ‘n’.
 For learners who need to practise auditory
discrimination skills, print similar sounding
letters onto the grid, e.g. ‘p’ and ‘b’, ‘m’
and ‘n’, ‘d’ and ‘b’.
Possible adaptions for special needs
 For learners with visual discrimination
problems, use grids with fewer squares.

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 Grid Play Activities

Activity Instructions Tips and Adaptations

Phonics Bingo Equipment

 A grid for each learner with blends, digraphs and trigraphs
printed in the squares.
 Sufficient counters for each learner to cover each block on
their grid.

Instructions
Follow the same instructions as for Letter Bingo.

Word Bingo Equipment

 A grid for each learner with sight words, theme-related words
and spelling words printed in the squares.
 Sufficient counters for each learner to cover each block on
their grid.

Instructions
Follow the same instructions as for Letter Bingo.

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 Grid Play Activities

Activity Instructions Tips and Adaptations

Equipment
Story grids  Word grids for groups of learners to work from.

Instructions
 Print a mixture of words in the spaces on a grid, that relate to
type of story you want learners to make up or write.
 Depending on the ability of your learners, extend the grid.
 The words must relate to the elements that are found in
stories, e.g. character, plot, setting.
 Learners can work on their own or in groups.
 They can tell, perform or write their stories.

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 Grid Play Activities

MATHEMATICS

Activity Instructions Tips and Adaptations

Equipment
Blank grids  100 Chart Tip

 Blank grids  Let learners use a laminated blank grid and

Skills development water-soluble maker so that the grids can
 Counters, e.g. buttons, small blocks be cleaned and used again.
 Visual discrimination
 Auditory discrimination Instructions Possible adaptions for special needs
 Fine motor skill  Give each learner a blank grid.  Use number ranges that the learner is
 Bilateral co-ordination
 Let each learner fill in the grid starting at a given number, for comfortable with.
skills instance 100.  Slowly increase the range as the learner
becomes more confident.

100 Number Charts Equipment Tips

Skills development  Sufficient laminated 100 Number Charts for each learner  Increase the challenge by counting in even
 Visual discrimination  Prestick or clear tape multiples from an uneven number, for
example count in 2s from 15.
 Auditory discrimination
Instructions
 Fine motor skill
 Bilateral co-ordination  Stick a laminated chart onto the right-hand corner of every desk.
skills  Ask learners to count in multiples from any given number.

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 Grid Play Activities

Activity Instructions Tips and Adaptations

Discovering the Equipment

decimal system  100 Number Charts

Instructions
 Ask learners to find a number, e.g. 45.
 Ask what number is below and above?
 How are they similar?
 What is the difference between each of them?

Position of number Equipment

 100 Number Charts

Instructions
 Choose a number and ask questions related to it.
 What number is to the left? And the right?
 What number is above? And below?
 What is one less than the number? And one more?

Incomplete charts Equipment

 Prepare number charts where some of the numbers are missing.

Instructions
 Have learners fill in the missing numbers.

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 Grid Play Activities

LIFE SKILLS

Activity Instructions Tips and Adaptations

Equipment Possible adaptions for special needs
Action grid  Chalk or paint  The grid does not need to be adapted.
 OR a roll up grid  If a learner battles, provide more
Skills development  Flashcards opportunities to use grids to strengthen
 Fine motor skills  Prestick core muscles.
 Hand-eye coordination  Bean bag
skills
 Gross motor skills Instructions
 Communication  Create your grid.
 Cooperative play  Write an action word or stick an action word flashcard into each
space.
 Get learners to throw a bean bag onto the grid and perform the
action.

Number action grid Equipment

 As for action grid
 And a large cube

Instructions
 Prepare a large cardboard cube (See Session 2).
 Write a number from one to six on each face.
 Get the learner to throw the die and then toss the beanbag on an
action word.
 They must do the action the number of times indicated on the die.

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 Grid Play Activities

Activity Instructions Tips and Adaptations

Sight words Equipment Tip

 Hopscotch grid  To increase the challenge, tell learners
 Chalk what foot to land on.
 Make sure they use their dominant and
Instructions non-dominate feet.
 Write sight words on a hopscotch grid.
 Learners must read the word as they land on a space.
 If they are unable to read the word they are ‘out’.

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 Grid Play Activities

LINKS TO THE CURRICULUM

Language
Grade 1: Reading and viewing (phonics)
 Develop phonemic awareness
 Recognise initial sounds in familiar words
 Distinguish the first sound (onset) from the remaining part of a syllable (rime)
 Recognise plurals (‘s’ and ‘es’) aurally

Grade 2: Reading and viewing (phonemic awareness)

 Distinguish aurally between sounds that are often confused, e.g. ‘a’ and ‘e’, ‘ee’
 Identify letter-sound relationships of single letters
 Build up and break down 3-letter words using sounds learnt, e.g. p-e-n, p-en, pen
 Recognise common endings in words, e.g. ‘ed’, ‘ing’, ‘y’ and ‘s’
 Group common words into word families, e.g. bin, pin, tin
 Recognise common consonant digraphs such as ‘sh’, ‘ch’ and ‘th’ at the beginning and end of words
 Build up and break down simple words beginning with some common consonant blends, e.g. fl-at, sl-ip, cl-
ap, pl-um
 Recognise at least 3 vowel digraphs, e.g. ‘oo’ as in boot, ‘ee’ as in feet

Grade 3: Reading and viewing (phonics)

 Identify letter-sound relationships of all single letters
 Recognise consonant digraphs (‘sh-‘, ‘-sh’, ‘ch-‘, ‘-ch’, ‘th-‘, ‘-th’ and ‘wh-‘) at the beginning and end of
words
 Recognise digraphs, e.g. ‘oa’ as in boat, ‘ar’ as in far, ‘er’ as in her
 Recognise silent ‘e’ in words, e.g. cake, time
 Use consonant blends to build up and break down words, e.g. ri-ng, i-nk
 Recognise known rhyming words, e.g. fly, sky
 Distinguish between long and short vowel sounds, e.g. boot and book

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 Grid Play Activities

Mathematics
Grade 1: Number pattern and relationships
 Counting
o Count forwards and backwards in ones from any number between 0 and 100
o Count forwards in 10s from any multiple of 10 between 0 and 100, 5s from any multiple of 5
between 0 and 100, and 2s from any multiple of 2 between 0 and 100
 Describe, compare and order numbers to 20
o Describe and compare whole numbers according to smaller than, greater than and more than, less
than, is equal to
o Describe and order numbers from smallest to greatest and greatest to smallest
 Begin to recognise the place value of at least two-digit numbers to 20
o Decompose two-digit numbers into multiples of 10 and ones/units
 Use when solving problems and explain solutions to problems
o Concrete apparatus e.g. counters
 Addition and subtraction
o Add/subtract from 20
o Practise number bonds to 10
 Repeated addition
o Add the same number repeatedly to 20

Grade 2: Number pattern and relationships

 Counting
o Count forwards and backwards in multiples of 10 between 0 and 200, 5s from any multiple of 5
between 0 and 200, 2s from any multiple of 2 between 0 and 200, 3s from any multiple of 3
between 0 and 200, and 4s from any multiple of 4 between 0 and 200
 Describe, compare and order numbers to 99
o Describe and compare whole numbers up to 99 using smaller than, greater than, more than, less
than and equal to
o Describe and order whole numbers up to 99 from smallest to greatest, and greatest to smallest
 Recognise the place value of at least two-digit numbers to 99
o Decompose two-digit numbers up to 99 into multiples of 10 and ones/units
o Identify and state the value of each digit
 Use when solving problems and explain solutions to problems
o Concrete apparatus, e.g. counters
 Addition and subtraction
o Add/subtract from 99
o Practise number bonds to 20
 Repeated addition
o Multiply numbers 1 to 10 by 2, 5, 3, and 4 to a total of 50

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 Grid Play Activities

Grade 3: Number pattern and relationships

 Counting
o Counts forwards and backwards in 1s from any number between 0 and 1000, 10s from any
multiple of 10 between 0 and 1000, 5s from any multiple of 5 between 0 and 1000, 2s from any
multiple of 2 between 0 and 1000, 3s from any multiple of 3 between 0 and 1000, 4s from any
multiple of 4 between 0 and 1000, and in 20s, 25s, 50s, 100s to at least 1000
 Describe, compare and order numbers to 999
o Describe and compare whole numbers up to 999 using smaller than, greater than, more than, less
than and equal to
o Describe and order whole numbers up to 999 from smallest to greatest, and greatest to smallest
 Recognise the place value of three-digit numbers to 999
o Decompose three-digit numbers up to 999 into multiples of 100, multiples of 10 and ones/units
o Identify and state the value of each digit
 Use when solving problems and explain solutions to problems
o Concrete apparatus, e.g. counters
 Addition and subtraction
o Add/subtract from 999
o Practise number bonds to 30
 Repeated addition
o Multiply any number by 2, 3, 4, 5, 10 to a total of 100

Life skills
Grade 1: Physical education
 Locomotor
o Using senses: hearing - listen to instructions while moving around
 Perceptual motor
o Throwing and catching
 Rhythm
o Hopscotch
o Jumping and hopping
o Jump up and down; jump high and low; jump forwards, backwards and sideways
 Co-ordination
o Throwing and catching bean bags
 Balance
o Play games using bean bags to balance on different parts of the body
 Laterality
o Activities using the non-dominant side of the body
o Throw and catch a bean bag with non-dominant hand
o Balance on non-dominant leg
o Hopscotch jump with non-dominant leg

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 Grid Play Activities

Grade 2: Physical education

 Locomotor
o Play an indigenous game
 Perceptual motor
o Obstacle course with bean bag on hand/shoulder/foot/head
o Free play and time to experiment with different ways of using a bean bag
o Flashcards with different action words on them: jump, run, skip, hop, sit, walk and stand
 Rhythm
 Co-ordination
o Throwing bean bags to a partner
 Balance
o Hopscotch
o Control, co-ordination and balance exercises
 Laterality
o Introduce activities using the non-dominant body part, arms and legs
 Sports and games
o Games involving jumping

Grade 3: Physical education

 Locomotor
o Jumping while standing: double take-off and single take-off
 Perceptual motor
 Rhythm
 Co-ordination
o Throw a tennis ball
o Hand-eye co-ordination
 Balance
o Balancing on one and two feet on objects, and balancing bean bags and other objects on head or
in hands
 Spatial orientation
o Changing direction
 Laterality
o Kick moving ball with left and right foot

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 Additional Resources

VOCABULARY
Here are some important words to use when working with grids:
 above  right  jump
 below  left
 next to  hop

ADDITIONAL VIDEOS TO WATCH

 Hopscotch rules – how to play

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZzswQaICfM

 Teaching kindergarten math: teaching kids math with a number grid

This video shows you how using a number grid with your class helps them to visualise the process in a
clearer way.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3JcCzZ4Des

 Teaching kindergarten math: teaching skip counting by 2's

The video shows how a grid can be used to count in two’s.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SeheWVHBYQ

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

 Story-telling grids
www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/story-telling-grid

 10 ways to use number grids in upper elementary

https://www.teachingmadepractical.com/numbergrids/

 One hundred chart

http://themathworksheetsite.com/h_chart.html

 Learn your multiplication tables

This page contains links to charts which are designed to help children learn the different multiplication
tables.
http://www.mathsisfun.com/tables.html

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