Teach the students how to play the game London Bridge. [The lyrics and directions can be found here.] After all the students have been “caught,” tell those in the left line to sit down and face the other line of students.
Ask the seated students such questions as:
Who is next to Marcia?
Who is in line just after Eric?
Who is in line just before Carol?
Who is between Tom and Karan?
Next ask the students who are standing to name their position in line using ordinal numbers (first, second, third, and so on). Then ask questions using these positions, such as: Who is in the sixth place in line?
Now have the students who are standing sit down and the students who are seated stand in line on the left side of the bridge. Pose similar questions about the students who are now standing.
[This lesson offers an opportunity for another song-related activity, this one focused on “Down by the Station.” Its words can be found here. If you wish, the students from each side of the bridge can become a separate train, naming their position in ordinal terms and moving around the room to the words of the song.]
Next distribute to each student a bag of buttons and a 10 Strip activity sheet. Display a numeral less than 10, and ask the students to make a button train by putting one button into that many spaces in the 10 strip, beginning with the far left space. [This space has been bordered in a heavy line to distinguish it as the first space on the train.] When they are ready, ask the students to count the filled spaces aloud.
Then call on various students to choose a number less than 10, and ask the other students to fill that many spaces in the 10 strip. Have students count the buttons aloud to check that they have used the correct number of buttons.
Now call on a student to display his or her train and ask the other students questions such as: What button is before the red one? What button is after the green one? Which button is in the second space? Which button is between the metal button and the striped one? Request the students to pose similar questions to their peers.
Next have them place one button in each of the 10 spaces. Then call on various students to describe their button strips using ordinal language. For example, a student might say, “I put a big blue button in the first space and a little red button in the second space. Then I put a button with two holes in the third space.” As a first entry in a unit portfolio, you may wish to have the
students record one way that they filled the 10 strip.
