Ordinals concentration

Ordinals Concentration is a matching game that provides practice and review identifying ordinal numbers to ten.

A lesson plan for grade K Mathematics

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Related topics

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Learning outcomes

The children will be able to identify ordinal numbers one through ten in line, and will identify matching patterns.

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

25 minutes

Materials/resources

Five pairs of matching patterns (such as wallpaper or gift wrap), mounted on tagboard and laminated

Pre-activities

Introduce your class to the concept of ordinal numbers; practice lining up and counting off, “first, second, third…to tenth.”

Activities

1. Choose ten students to form a line in front of the whole group (the “audience”).
2. Shuffle the pattern cards and give one to each of the ten students, being sure not to let the audience see the patterns.
3. Have the students hold the cards close to their bodies, pattern side toward them.
4. How the game is played:
   • This is a game of concentration. A student from the audience asks two players to turn over their cards. He must question them by their ordinal position and not by name.
   • For instance, “I want to see the first and eighth cards.” If the two cards match, the winner gets the two cards, and the two students involved sit down.
   • The winner continues until he fails to make a correct match.
5. Play continues until all the cards have been turned over; the student collecting the most cards is the winner of that round.

Assessment

• Teacher Observation
• Oral Language Communication
• Anecdotal records made by the teacher will provide a concrete form of assessment for recording purposes.

Supplemental information

When children first play the game, they need reminding that when two players sit down, the ordinal positions of the remaining players may have changed. For instance, after the first correct match, there will only be eight players standing. Therefore, there is no longer a ninth and tenth position.

Comments

You could correlate this activity to another curriculum area by using pictures from a particular story in your reading text, or a certain artist you have studied instead of using wallpaper or gift wrap patterns. The variations are endless!