Ordinal Numbers Race

Kids are pretty good with ordinal numbers when they get to first grade. They have been using the vocabulary since three or four! The tricky part is teaching them how to write them both numerically and spelling the written versions. This activity works on both these skills as well as the basic concept of ordinal numbers.

Preparation

Take a photo of each child looking like they are running toward a finish line. Put all the photos in a document and copy enough pages so each child has one complete class set. I took the pictures, shrunk them down to about 3×3 and put them all in a Pages document.

Print the race page (available here) and enlarge it to your desired size. I made mine 11×17.

Completing the Race

Give each student a copy of the paper with all the photos. Have them cut out all their classmates and place them face down in a pile at their work spot.

Have them color the flags on the race paper as shown in the picture below. Green on the start flag and red on the finish flag. This defines the start and finish for the race and also in which direction the ordinal numbers start and end.

Have students choose on photo at a time from the face down pile- this makes choosing random and kids won’t only pick friends for their race. After each photo is chosen, have the student glue the pictures into the race.

When all the racers have been put in the race (there may be left over photos!), have the students write the ordinal numbers above each students head. So the first finisher has “1st” above his/her head and the second student has “2nd” etc.

Finally, use the recording sheet for students to write the results of their race.

This activity is available at the following link:

Ordinal Number Race from BMTM

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Other Ordinal Number Ideas from BMTM:

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