[whitsmom]

I am having a REALLY hard time teaching ordinal numbers!!! Any magical ideas out there??? When I was teaching today they all looked at me like I had 3 heads....

[Valone]

Five Little Turkeys

The first...
The second...
The third.....

Once they have the fingerplay down, I do some art activities so we have plenty of opportunites to talk about "your third turkey is very colorful,"
Which of your turkeys has the longest legs?"
We make a 5 turkey book with velcro turkeys
I have 5 turkey puppets so as we sing it, they can pull off the turkeys.

We did the same thing with 5 Little Pumkins.
Soon I will have Ten Little Snowflakes
Is that what you are looking for?

[kayakforfun]

I also use fingerplays. I, also, line up 5 students and ask: (which spot is Susie in? and who is in the third spot in line?)
Another activity is to give them 4-5 shapes and a small bear/frog counter. I have them put their shapes in line and then put the bear on the 2nd one, the fourth one OR put their bear on the triangle and ask - which spot is he on?

[whitsmom]

Thank you soooo much!!! This helps a whole lot!!

[firstyear2009]

I give them index cards with numbers 1-14 written on them. I ask them to line up. I'll then say things like, if you're second touch your nose, if you're fourth touch your ears, etc.

[senior42]

I start the year naming the tables first, through fourth and begin using the vocabulary. We progress to who is first in line today, second in line and so through 5th. When I line cards up read or move about I suggest they choose the first card the third card etc. all year long and wenever formally teach it. I test for it in the final exam.

[Bama Girl]

I've been teaching ordinal numbers for the last two weeks. They were just sort of getting first through fifth, when our program started sixth through tenth! Every day more children are catching on, especially when I pointed out that sixth sounds a lot like six, and eighth sounds like eight, etc. It's a concept that you pretty much have to work on every single day. I make a point of giving all my directions using both ordinal numbers and holding up a number card at the same time-hold up a number 1-first you write your name on your paper, etc.