Education Category: Games
Ages: 0-4, 4-8, 8-12, 12-16, 16+

Donated by Erwin

What do you need?
memory game(s) (multiple)

How does it work? 
The students team up in groups of four. The students place the memory cards picture down on the table. The first student picks a memory card and tries to find a similar one by picking up one of the other cards. If this card is not the same as the one he already picked up his turn is over. The other students will do the same thing until there are no cards left on the table. The students with the most matching cards wins.

What else do I need to know?
Bring more memory games so multiple groups can play at the same time. Memory can be played by a limited number of people so this prevents a lot of students from doing nothing. If you don’t have memory cards you can let the group make them together. You can also make a set of memory cards with a certain theme, like animals, countries, flags, numbers or words.

Purpose of this activity?
It's all in the name. With the game memory the students can train their brain and especially their memory. If you add al theme like countries, words or numbers the game has more educational value.

Education Category: Language
Ages: 0-4, 4-8, 8-12, 12-16, 16+

Donated by Lisa

Donated by Lisa

What do you need?

Big paper/chalk board

Pens/crayon

Directions, when you prefer to have pre-prepared directions

How does it work? 
Everyone loves competitive games. This type of game can involve running and writing the answer on the board, throwing balls, or the quieter tabletop version of simply holding up the correct answer. Don’t forget: adults can be just as competitive as children, so introduce these games to all age ranges. They take little preparation and can be used as a starter or a main activity in your lesson. This version tests listening skills and comprehension of directions, but can equally be used for numbers, items of clothing, or even animals.
1. Go over directions (turn right, turn left, go round the corner, take the second right etc)
2. Split class into 2 or 3 teams, line each team up in front of board
3. Shout out a direction; the first student from each team must then run to the board and draw the corresponding direction. The first person to draw the correct direction wins a point.

What else do I need to know?
If you prefer, you can have the directions pre-prepared so the student selects the correct direction and pins it to the board, but we find that students gain more from the process of drawing out the direction.

What is the purpose of this activity? 
With this game, memory, working in teams and being competitive will be trained. Of course it is also a great way to spend time together and to enjoy.

Education Category: General, Games
Ages:

Play Shape and Seek Game

Shapes are all around us and young kids love learning about them!  
Our surrounding gives us plenty of excuses to talk about shapes.  
For example:
while you are sitting at the backseat of a car you can show your kid the differences in traffic signs,
the circle roundabout ,
the rectangular parking ,
space  or the octagon stop signs etc.

When you go for a walk ask your kid what shape the bricks on the neighbor's house are made of or talk about
the triangle shaped roof as an example.

Here is a Shape and Seek Game:

What You Need:

• 5-10 pieces of construction paper- all the same color (to avoid distraction and keep focus only on shapes)
• scissors
• tape

What You Do:

1. Using the construction paper,  cut out squares,  circles,  triangles,  and rectangles.  
    Once your child masters these basic shape names  you can excercise with more difficult shapes  like diamonds,  hexagons and octagons.   
    While you may be tempted to break out a rainbow of paper choices,  resist!  
    Keeping all shapes the same color will help kids focus on the shape itself rather than the color and speed up the learning curve.

2.   Ask your child to cover her eyes and count to 20.  
      In the meantime,  take your pile of shapes and tape them around the house.  
      When she opens her eyes,  send her off to find one particular shape.
      When she's got them,  move on to the other shapes,  one by one,  until she finds all.

3.   Fair's fair! so it's your turn now!
     Collect all the shapes and hand them over to your child.  
     Close your eyes and him/her hide these.
     Count to 20 and when time's up,  ask your child to assign you a shape.  
     Pretend to need to have reminders of what each shape looks like before you find it.  

     Ask questions like:
     'How many sides does a triangle have again?'
     'Is the square the one with four equal sides?'  
     'Is that a rectangle?'
      ...

changing teaching roles will reinforce the concepts about shapes and your child will feel great being able to help you learn something for a change!

 
4.   Once you both get fluent in recognizing shapes , you can add a guessing game element to the mix.
      Give clues rather than naming the shape.
      For example: 'I  am thinking of a shape that has at least 4 equal sides' and head on over to the kitchen for some shape snacking.  
      You can cut sandwiches into circles with a cookie cutter or the back of a glass or just pick shapes ready to eat such as cookies, sliced carrots make great circles,  crackers etc.
     
      If you can't find things in the cupboard it might be time to take your shape hunt to the next location...the grocery store!

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Education Category: Health
Ages: 0-4, 4-8, 8-12, 12-16, 16+

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Donated by Worldsupporter Juliette Kwee

This is an educational game in which the children can learn about healthy food.

The teacher makes a circle (from paper or on a blackboard). The children get the different kinds of food and they can put it on the right place on the blackboard or paper.

There is also food which shouldn’t be on the circle, because it is unhealthy food. The children have to place this on a ‘garbage place’.

Also it is possible to evaluate with the children about what they did right and what went wrong.