Children today have so much vying for their attention that they are easily distracted when it comes to learning. It's just the times in which we live. Teaching children is tough and teachers and childcare professionals need all the help they can get when it comes to educating children. A classroom rug is one such teaching aid that is invaluable in the classroom. These bright and fun carpets come in many shapes, sizes, and themes. All geared to help the classroom teacher or daycare professional educate and inspire children of all ages.
Who uses Classroom Rugs?
Many classroom rugs on the market today have been designed with the preschool or elementary school teacher in mind. Also, faith-based rugs have made a big impact in private schools & churches. Educators that teach pre-k to elementary age children use alphabet rugs and number rugs to teach the early learning concepts. Plus, there are childrens rugs available to teach color and geometric shape recognition. Librarians and media specialist use library rugs and seating rugs at story time to organize the children for optimum quietness and order. There are even map rugs, bilingual rugs, and music rugs to teach kids geography, foreign languages, and music notes. Lastly, we know kids are full of energy and need playtime for good health and social interaction and to meet this need there are many play rugs on the market.
Classroom Carpets that Teach and Organize
Above we discussed who uses classroom rugs and briefly touched on how they are used, but let's take a deeper dive. Below is list of some of the common themes of classroom rugs currently available.
Alphabet Rugs - These are available with uppercase letters, lowercase letters, combination of both, and with images and letters. An alphabet rug will aid in letter recognition and phonics. Children's rugs with letters and images aid in letter association with a word --- for example, the letter "A" and a picture of an apple. Teachers can use an alphabet carpet to teach preschool and elementary school students the alphabet and reading. Learning this way is more fun and exciting than learning from sentence strips!
Number Rugs - With a number rug children will learn to recognize the numbers and learn to count. Some children's rugs come with both the alphabet and numbers. Teach children by having them walk to and stand on the number that is called out. Some carpets even come with simple math equations so that a teacher can start introducing children to math.
Seating Rugs - Seating classroom carpets usually come with colored squares or circles arranged in a grid or pattern and are designed to seat a certain number of children. Depending on your classroom size you can expect to seat up to 20 to 30 kids on one classroom carpet. The larger the carpet the more children you can seat. Seating rugs are great for circle time sharing or story time reading. A seating rug organizes the children in the classroom which translates into a calmer more peaceful atmosphere. Both teachers and librarians will love these rugs!
Shape and Color Rugs - Teach geometric shapes and color recognition. Elements of this theme of rugs is often found in some of the other classroom carpet types, but if you need to teach color and what a square, circle, triangle, oval, hexagon, etc. look like then pick one of these kids rugs.
Faith Based Rugs - A faith based rug usually includes elements of the above carpets, but also includes a religious teaching. If you teach in a Catholic school, Christian school, Jewish school, or church you will find a large selection of religious rugs to choose.
Bilingual Rugs - Today more than ever teaching another language is so important as different cultures come together. A bilingual rug in Spanish and English or French and English are available to teach either ESL kids English or English speaking children Spanish or French. Look for bilingual rugs that teach numbers, letters, colors, shapes, and word association. Some bilingual rugs teach several of these on the same carpet. What a fun way to learn another language & teach cultural diversity!
Map Rugs - Whether you are teaching geography or social studies a map rug is a great teacher's aid. Look for carpets that include all 50 U.S. States or a world rug that includes all the continents and their names. With a map rug children will learn U.S and world geography in a snap!
Play Rugs - When rainy days occur or kids need to be inside look to a play rug as a fun alternative. Although some play rugs can even be used outsides. Hopscotch rugs are a fun activity that most all kids will love. Also, road rugs that have city streets can be used for playing with toy cars and such. These carpets help kids learn fine motor skills, coordination, and balance.
Carpet Squares - Carpet squares and rounds can be found to be used with many of the rugs mentioned above. These usually are made in 12 inch squares or rounds with letters, numbers, shapes, animals, bilingual, phonics, etc. --- great for matching and playing games!
As teachers look for new, exciting, and fun ways to grab the attention of children and inspire them to learn, one option is to include classroom rugs as a teaching aide. There are many shapes, sizes, colors, and themes on the market that early childhood and elementary teachers, daycare centers, and churches can find that will fit their needs.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jeff_Cabaniss
1 comment:
This is a great site! I teach at a Catholic school so I was looking for religious rugs to put in our classroom. I thought that would be a cool idea if I could find a site that offered stuff like that. I love this blog though, thank you for posting.
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