Paper Chains for Learning

 

My boys love making paper chains for counting down the days to special events (Christmas, birthdays, vacations, etc.), so I love this idea from the Mailbox for using paper chains for learning.  Their suggestion was to use them to sequence events in a story, but my wheels started spinning with lots of other ideas as well:

Math Facts: Why not have your child write a series of math facts on the chains?  For example write 9 X 1 = 9 on one, 9X2 =18 on another and so on for all the facts of 9s (or whatever fact they are working on).

Steps in a Math Problem: As your kiddos get older, math problems get more complex with more steps.  Why not have them write each step on one of the chains.  The steps of long division would be a great idea for this.

Life Cycles: Why not have your child write each of the stages of a life cycle on each of the chains? (Butterflies, frogs, etc.)

Parts of Speech: If you are learning parts of speech, have your child make noun chains, verb chains, adjective chains, or adverb chains.  As they encounter these in their reading they can add to the chain.

Book Report: Turn a paper chain into a book report with one chain for the title, one chain for the author, one for the genre, several for main characters, and several for their thoughts on the book.

What other ideas can you think of?