DIY Chalkboard Branch Circles

I am always looking for fun ways to encourage and motivate children in developing their fine motor and writing skills. I made these DIY Chalkboard Branch Circles for my Pre-primary class (5 year olds) to create an exciting new canvas for children to draw and write on.

There are countless ways that you can use the DIY Chalkboard Branch Circles, such as, writing letters, numbers, shapes, words and names. The ideas are endless!

What you will need?

You will need, branch circles, black chalkboard paint, paint brush and chalk.

When applying the chalkboard paint, you will only need one coat of paint.

Shapes

Some ideas:

• Sorting – matching – classifying shapes into groups, pairs, etc.
• Play Memory: Draw the shapes twice on each branch circle and turn them all over. Children turn over 2 branch circles at a time to expose the 2 shapes, if they match children keep the pair, if they do not match, they turn the shapes back over to have another try.
• Drawing shapes – fun canvas to practise drawing shapes. We started with basic shapes, circle, square, rectangle and triangle. You can extend this to other shapes too.

Numbers

Some ideas:

• Writing numbers – depending on ability this can be numbers 0-5, 0-10 or 0-20.
• Place one number on each branch circle and order the numbers from 0-10 or 10-0.
• Create a jumbled number line, children un-jumble the numbers and place them in the correct order.
• Play Memory: Write the numbers twice on each branch circle and turn them all over. Children turn over 2 branch circles at a time to expose the numbers, if they match children keep the pair, if they do not match, they turn the numbers back over to have another try.
• Matching Counting Game: Write the number on one chalkboard branch circle and on another to match draw on some dots. For example for the number five, write the number 5 and on another branch circle draw 5 dots. This becomes a counting and match activity for children.

Alphabet Letters

Some ideas:

• Write all the letters in the alphabet onto the branch circle chalkboards using chalk.
• Order the alphabet from a to z. Use an alphabet chart to assist if needed.
• Add props beginning with each letter in the alphabet such as toy car for the letter ‘c’. Children place the toy car on top of the chalkboard branch circle with the letter c written. Continue this for all the other letters in the alphabet.
• Use only the letters SATPIN to create small CVC words such as pat, sat, nap, sap, pin, tin and so on.

For more Alphabet Letter Activities and Play Ideas click here.

Names:

Some ideas:

• Children write each letter in their name onto a separate chalkboard branch circle.
• Un-jumble the letters in your name and place them back in to the correct order.
• Extend the learning by adding the letters in the child’s surname.

For more NAME Activities and Play Ideas click here.

SATPIN and CVC Words

The SATPIN letters are the first 6 recommended letters to teach children in structured synthetic approach to teaching reading and writing program. It is a well-known synthetic phonics method of teaching the letter sounds in a way that is fun and multi-sensory.  Children learn how to use the letter sounds to read and write words.  The letters are not been introduced in alphabetical order. The first group (s, a, t, i, p, n) has been chosen because they make more simple three-letter words than any other six letters.

Some ideas:

• Move the S, A, T, P, I and N letters around to create words. Write these words onto a mini white board, student work book or paper.
• Make flash cards with CVC words or SATPIN words. Children work with a partner, one child calls out a word for the other child to create using the letters on the Branch Circle Chalkboards. Each child takes it in turn to complete the different tasks.

Take a look at our PRINTABLE CVC Word Bundle Activity Pack

Let’s Learn

Learning Opportunities

• Fine Motor Development
• Hand-Eye Coordination and Control
• Language development – shape names, numbers, alphabet letters, CVC words
• Mathematics – sorting, classifying, matching, number recognition, name and draw basic shapes, counting

Click here for more FINE MOTOR activities & play ideas

Click here for more PRE-WRITING activities & play ideas