I Need Some Space

What You Need:

• Two glass jars
• Paper
• Pencil
• Scissors
• Blocks of any kind

What You Do:

1. Write out a list of words that describe spatial relationships. Start out with words that will be easy to demonstrate with two jars. Include words like near, beside, next to, in, under, on and between. Cut these labels out so that your child can place them appropriately.
2. Hand your child the labels one at a time. As you give them a label, help read it. Can your child put the appropriate label near one of the jars? What about far away from the jar? They will have to open jars and may have to move things around a bit for some commands. For example, in a jar, under a jar, and between two jars.
3. Encourage your child to keep going until all of the labels are in fitting places.
4. Now it’s time to play with the blocks. What can they build by stacking these blocks on top of each other? What happens when they are put beside each other? Encourage your child to build walls, towers, and other structures. As they work, discuss which block is on top, which is on the bottom, and which is in the middle. You can also talk about over, under and beside.
5. Now ask your child to give you instructions and be sure to do exactly what you are told. This will help your child learn to use the correct words when giving directions to others.