Left and Right Math Craft

Did you see our new rhyming text, finger play - A Kind Bee?


In it bee flies to the left and right.

Today I thought I would share with you a few ideas for teaching positional language so you can extend upon the rhyme into your math lessons.

Ideas for Left & Right

  • Left and right days - have a special day where students wear something on their left or right wrist (ribbon, tie, bracelet etc) - perhaps red for right and yellow (lemon) for left
  • Tapping Sticks - if you use tapping sticks in your percussion or music activities, paint a red strip around some and yellow around the others - encourage your students to hold the red in their right hand and yellow in their left. Here they'll be integrating movement, sound, beat and a math concept to build powerful memories of left and right!
  • Passing Game - play a passing game with a ball and students can only pass with their left hand or foot
  • Do the Hokey Pokey - need I say more? It's always a favorite!
  • Picture Talks - use a clear picture or photo to encourage a math talk. Encourage students to describe the picture in terms of where the objects are positioned. Perhaps you may like to scribe their sentences and display them with the picture.
  • Make a classroom visual by tracing your hands

Kind Bee Picture Talk

Use the picture from our finger play printable for a math talk. 
  • seat students in front of you
  • tell them that you would like them to describe the picture
  • ask them to look carefully at the picture and name the things they see - e.g. Here is a bee, a cloud, a flower, a hive and clouds.
  • review some positional language if needed - e.g. above, across, behind, below, forward, further, close, center, down, in, in front of, inside, left, low, middle, near, next to, on, onto, top, under, underneath
  • model your expectation for them by saying a few - e.g. There is a hive near the flowers
  • ask for students to share some observations, scaffolding some support where necessary
  • record some of your students sentences on strips of paper to display with the picture

Math Craft

Combine creativity with math using bee in the flower garden! After learning about positional language, your students will love making a cute bee friend to record their learning visually.

Find it in our TpT store and the Apple Tree bundle!

left right math craft

math craft position