Make Learning Fun with Educational Game Rugs

Remember back to when you were a kid in school. Did you love school or did you hate it? If you weren’t terribly fond of your daily lessons and tasks, it’s highly likely that you were bored, unchallenged and not having any fun.

It’s incredibly important to make learning as fun as possible, especially for the younger kids. Incorporating games and play into a teaching moment offers many benefits, including:

• Increases engagement in the activity or lesson
• Helps spark creativity and gets the imagination pumping
• Physical activity can help increase attention-span and retention with increased blood and oxygen flow
• Turns “dry” subject matters into a lively and entertaining activity

The effectiveness and value of non-traditional teaching tools like interactive classroom rugs is so well-known that designers and developers have created an entire line of play rugs for kids that are not only fun, but educational as well. While a little creativity and planning can take any patterned rug and turn it into a game, carpets that fall into the game rugs genre were specifically created for play learning across a variety of subject matters.

Check out our top 4 play rugs and classroom games ideas that are perfect for making learning fun and that kids are sure to love. Bonus: all of the fun they have will definitely help expend some of that extra energy!

Teach-A-Tot Rug

The Teach-A-Tot Rug is one of the most versatile teaching and play rugs we have because it has a lot going on. You can use each of the visual elements of this carpet either alone or in conjunction with one or several of the other elements. It has upper and lower case letters, geometric shapes, numbers (1 – 12), checkers, large-scale playing die, and even a center clock that can help kids practice telling time. One of our favorite ways to incorporate this educational rug into teaching is with a “Simon Says” style game where you have the kids stand around the perimeter of the rug and then the leader of the game, or Simon, shouts out commands like ‘put your right foot on the first letter of the word train’. You can also get creative and have kids use their arms to mimic the arms of a clock and display the correct time you call out. This rug provides endless opportunities for learning games- you just have to use your imagination!

STOPS USA Map Rug

The STOPS USA Map Rug takes learning geography from dry, dull and overwhelming to the ultimate in learning fun! Help your children learn more about the United States with this rug based on the award-winning geography trivia game STOPS. Students can play the game on the rug as they answer questions ranging from landmarks and state capitals to American history. Various location and directional sub-groupings are color-coded for an additional learning opportunity; kids can sharpen their knowledge and skills on identifying and locating New England or the Northeast, the Southwest, the South and more. Let your kids travel and explore our beautiful country with this USA map learning game for kids!

Teacher’s Pet Rug

The Teacher’s Pet Rug is another one of our rugs that has a lot going on, which means that the options for incorporating learning into play are numerous! This carpet features all of the classic games kids love, including tic-tac-toe, hopscotch, Chinese checkers, and bean bag toss. There is even a clock for teaching kids how to tell time that can be used to play a variety of time-telling games with. And the fun doesn’t stop there – the border of this rug is the home to a variety of animals with their species name written above their picture. Kids will love trying to decipher the clues you give them that will lead them to the correct animal. This rug can be used for just about any learning game you want to play with your kiddos; use your imagination, get creative, and have fun!

Alphabet Jungle Rug

The Alphabet Jungle Rug may in fact be the cutest rug to appear on our list but it’s easy to see why. Lions, tigers, elephants, koalas and more can be found hiding in the grass, grazing trees and swinging from branches. The border of this rug features the lower case alphabet, while the interior or center of the rug features the letters of the alphabet in upper case letters. There are numerous games and activities that can be done using the Alphabet Jungle rug that will help kids learn about different animals of the jungle, their distinctive characteristics, and the alphabet and spelling as well. One of our favorite games to play with this rug is to call out a letter or a word and then, one kiddo at a time, have them place their foot on the correct letter or the first letter of the word you called out. You can also call out a letter, have them hop, skip or jump to the correct letter, and then they have to name an animal that starts with that letter. As they become more comfortable with the alphabet, you can make the activity harder by having them jump from letter to letter to spell out words and/or their name. The best part about this rug is that the border alphabet is in order, while the interior alphabet is not; instruct your kids to carefully hop, skip or jump from letter to letter in the correct order. Too easy? Try it backwards!

We are true believers that learning should be fun, exciting and engaging. Offering one of the largest selections of classroom rugs, RTR Kids Rugs is committed to providing high-quality, durable rugs for teachers, schools, day cares, and churches. To explore all of our rug options and to discover all the ways you can save on our carpets, please visit us at www.rtrkidsrugs.com.

Catering To Different Learning Styles in the Classroom

Losing the attention of your students during classroom lessons may seem like an inevitable hurdle that leaves you with a “win some, lose some” mentality as a teacher. However, there are many proven methods of increasing student learning rates by catering to all of the different learning styles in the classroom.

Depending on a child’s dominant learning style, certain teaching techniques and learning strategies will be more successful in helping him or her grasp new material in the classroom. Many different psychological models have been suggested for the various learning styles adopted by children and adults alike, but the VAK model is one of the mostly widely recognized models. The VAK model and suggests three main categories of learners:

Visual

Visual learners are categorized by their ability to think in pictures and store mental images to retain information. Children who learn best visually tend to have trouble following verbal directions and can be easily distracted by noise. Some tips for catering to visual learners includes using visuals during lessons, organizing information using color codes, and showing visual patterns to teach grammar, vocab and punctuation.

TIP: Incorporate an educational classroom rug that illustrates the alphabet, numbers, and shapes with color images and pictures.

Auditory

As opposed to visual learners, auditory learners tend to think in words. Children who prefer auditory styles of learning tend to be talkative and social because verbal communication acts as their prime form of information exchange. These learners will understand concepts by talking about them or trying to explain them out loud. Techniques for engaging these students can be reading out loud to them often or encouraging the students to take turns reading sentences aloud. Also try to incorporate rhymes and word games when teaching language and grammar.

TIP: Set up a reading area in your classroom using a circular or oval classroom rug to encourage collaborative reading and learning.

Kinesthetic

Most children start out as kinesthetic learners but start to develop preferences towards visual or auditory learning once school curriculum becomes more rigorous. However, many students maintain a dominant preference for kinesthetic learning as they get older, and it can be difficult to cater to this style in many traditional classroom environments. Kinesthetic learners are often misdiagnosed with ADHD because they can’t sit still for long periods of time and struggle with reading and spelling (subjects that by nature tend to favor visual and auditory learners). Use the outdoors as a learning opportunity when possible and don’t limit study space to only desks or tables.

TIP: Let students practice addition and subtraction with this Drive & Play rug by using toy cars and asking them to show you answers to different equations.

Most experts agree that no child (or adult!) falls into only one category of learning styles. In fact, many people favor more than one learning style. Children’s learning styles can change and develop over the years, so it is important to provide a well-rounded classroom environment to ensure that all of your students can succeed.

About the Author: RTR Kids Rugs provides a wide variety of children's rugs that are the perfect addition to any school, church or daycare facility. Visit www.rtrkidsrugs.com to shop classroom rugs for kids or for more information.