Sunny Sprouts by Miss Jane

While open-ended activities are wonderful and children can learn so much from them, there are times in which children must be corrected if they make a mistake. In open-ended and some close-ended activities, children wouldn’t know if they’re making a mistake and will keep making them, oblivious to their misunderstanding. In self-correcting activities, children can tell for themselves if they’ve done something wrong. These activities include puzzles, classification materials, number lines, and more! These are self-correcting as it is obvious something is out of place or doesn’t belong. It’s safe to say that these self-correcting activities are great for learning fundamental math concepts!

You could even modify these activities to fit your child’s interests. Since Christmas is just around the corner, here are a few Christmas Self-Correcting Activities.

Christmas Orna-matching

In this Christmas ornament matching activity, children match the ornaments to the correct spot on the tree. This can be done through color classification or number matching. Each ornament is a different color so children can’t be confused on where to place them. If they decide to match by color, they’ll implicitly take into account the numbers drawn on the ornament and vice versa, adding to their growing number sense.

Optionally, you can glue some felt to the back of the “ornaments” to make them easier to grip and pick up.

I drew and painted the tree and ornaments myself, but you can use these templates: Christmas tree template, ornament template.

Button Up, Snowman!

This activity is just like Christmas Orna-matching, but with buttons on a snowman! You can draw out the snowmen and buttons, or use these templates: snowman template, button template.

This activity takes it a step further by having children count out the dots on the buttons before placing them onto the snowman. Still, they can color classify, if they choose. You can have multiple snowmen and have a different amount of buttons for each.

Hanging Stockings

This activity is slightly different than the first two. For this activity, children create a number line using stocking cutouts. They look to the number on the strip of felt, ribbon, or fabric (you choose!) and place that many stockings onto the strip.

To make this activity, you can draw out the stockings, or use this template. There are many medium options to choose from for making these stockings; you can use colored construction paper, regular white paper and paints, or felt, like what I’ve used below. You will have to measure the strips out so that they hold the perfect amount of stockings allotted for that strip. This makes it self-correcting because the strip of felt holds exactly that many stockings. Children will know if they’ve placed too many because the stockings will fall off the strip, or too little because there’s room leftover.

Gingerbread House Puzzle

Puzzles are always a great activity to do! If you don’t have any access to Christmas themed puzzles, you can make your own! Simply print out a coloring sheet or a pre-colored graphic, cut it into pieces, and there you have it, a puzzle! Optionally, you can paste the paper onto felt to make them easier to manipulate and grasp.

Of course, these are all aspects or objects that I associate with Christmas, so have fun with modifying these activities to your favorite Christmas or holiday festivities.

Happy Holidays!

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These activities corresponds with the following DRDP measures:

ATL-REG 1: Attention Maintenance

Child develops the capacity to pay attention to people, things, or the environment when interacting with others or exploring play materials

ATL-REG 6: Engagement and Persistence

Child increasingly persists in understanding or mastering activities, even if they are challenging or difficult

COG 1: Spatial Relationships

Child increasingly shows understanding of how objects move in space or fit in different spaces

COG 2: Classification

Child shows an increasing ability to compare, match, and sort objects into groups according to their attributes

COG 3: Number Sense of Quantity

Child shows developing understanding of number and quantity

COG 5: Measurement

Child shows an increasing understanding of measurable properties such as size, length, weight, and capacity (volume), and how to quantify those properties

References

Bullard, Julie. Creating Environments for Learning. Available from: VitalSource Bookshelf, (3rd Edition). Pearson Education (US), 2016.