Children like arranging toys in lines, straight or curved. This activity links with their everyday experiences of traffic jams or queues in shops or lining up in school. Adults can build on this interest by for instance making a traffic jam on a road play mat.
Make a road block of your choice e.g. roadworks on a road layout play mat. With the children make and talk about the single file traffic jams it has caused. Focus on positions and order.
Talking about the positions: in front of, behind, between, back, front, first, last
Using simple language related to ordinality: first, second, third
Comparing, ranking and pattern making.
using mathematical language about length and number, such as bigger, smaller, the same and moving to more appropriate language such as longer, shorter, more people, less/fewer, equal
using mathematical language about shape, moving from informal such as wiggly, to more specific such a straight, curved
counting and cardinality - using number names, one to one correspondence, knowing that the number in the queue is the last count
conservation of number through spacing out objects in the queue and number remailing the same
addition and subtraction by increasing or decreasing number of objects in the queue
part-whole numbers, noticing number within numbers, division by splitting queues into two or more
using positional language to describe place of objects such as in front of, behind, between
using ordinal language progressing from first and last to other numbers
describing the order progressing to using a rule to create patterns within a queue such as alternate colours
You might encourage the children to talk about why they have made a queue. Have they been in a queue themselves? When? Why? Why do queues happen?
Tell me about your queue.
Which car/person/teddy is at the front of the queue? Which is at the back?
Which car is behind the red bus? What is in front of it?
What is between the green van and the digger?
Can you put this lorry behind the yellow bus / in front of the tractor / between the pink van and the police car?
How many cars are there in your queue? Betsy's queue? Can you make it longer? shorter?
Which car is first in the queue? Which is second..?
Which do you think is the smallest car in the queue? Which is the biggest/tallest?
Can you put them in some other order?
Is there a pattern to your queue? Why did you put this first? Why did you put this next? Who's last? Why?
Can you make a queue with all the ** at the front and the ** at the back.
Look out for children making their own queues in self initiated play, providing an opportunity to observe their non-verbal activity and their self-commentating as they manipulate the objects.
Children will develop understanding of modelled language before they are ready to articulate the words themselves. They may begin to use positional language as they talk about and share ideas, or describe the queues they have made.
Resources for activities :
Encourage child-initiated queues through providing materials, inside and outside, for:
Make way for ducklings by Robert McClosky
The Enormous Turnip
Interactive NRICH screen
Screen type: 'drag around objects'
A line of 10 penguins, all different and all queuing at a bus stop that can be seen at the far left of the screen. The bus stop sign reads ' South Pole Bus'
The penguins are widely spaced. Each penguin is a separate Drag Around object. All penguins are partially turned towards the bus stop so that the direction of the queue is clear.
Having ten penguins will make this screen versatile in that penguins can be added or removed form the queue to support number bond work.
Prompt questions adapt to artwork
Which penguin is first in the queue? Which is last?
Make the penguin with the bag be first in the queue.
Make the blue penguin be last in the queue.
Find the penguin wearing a hat. Put it next to the penguin with a football.
Find the pink penguin. Put it between the sleepy penguin and the penguin carrying a fish.