When it comes learning a concept, sometimes we need different ways to repetitively learn the concept to really understand it. So why not make those different ways of learning fun and engaging. What better way to feel success for getting a correct answer than to match a key which opens a lock! There are a variety of concepts you can have students practice using keys and locks. The great part also is that you can make the questions or answers interchangeable! Here are some ideas on how you can get started!
WHERE TO GET THE (IN-EXPENSIVE) KEYS & LOCKS
You don’t really need a high quality lock and key for this unless you have students that you think might bend on pull on these things. Of course you can go to your local hardware store, but your wallet is going to be very light afterwards. Here are some alternatives.
-Garage sales or look through your own garage. You’d be surprised how many you might have laying around that are unused.
-Dollar Tree or 99 cent store sells them.
-Order online from a variety of retailers such as Walmart or Amazon. Also keep in mind, you’ll want locks that don’t have universal keys (some sets every key works for every lock). You don’t want that since that will lead to the “wrong” answer.
–Here is a lock & key set from Amazon (affiliate link)
– Here is a key tag set from Amazon (affiliate link)
SIMPLE MATCHING
IDENTIFYING WORDS THAT START WITH A LETTER IN THE ALPHABET
SIMPLE MATH EQUATIONS
MONEY & MONEY MATH
COIN & BILL NAMES
NEXT DOLLAR UP METHOD
VOCABULARY OR COMPREHENSION
If you want have questions and answers that do not fit on the lock, put another tag on the lock. This will give you infinite opportunities to ask comprehension questions on a book you are focusing on, vocabulary and definitions…etc. Depending on the size of the tags you buy, you can even
VISUALS – PICTURE TO PICTURE, WORD TO PICTURE
Depending on the size of the tags you buy, you can even add images onto the tags. This opens up endless differentiated possibilities for your visual learners.
