Fidget toys are all the new rage with the current generation of kids. You’ll find them in classrooms, playrooms, and playgrounds everywhere you turn. Even my 10 month old has a few easter themed ones that she loves!
But as a former teacher, I am always looking for ways to incorporate learning into playtime. Learning should be fun! So I bought two of these 6 x 6 pop its from Amazon and started labeling them with a sharpie.
I created one board with the 26 alphabet letters, a few punctuation marks and the numbers 0-5. I chose to write the letters in all caps, but you could write in all lowercase letters instead. Either way will work great with the 14 pop it games I created.
I created a second board with the numbers 0 through 35 labeled from left to right. If I were doing this over a second time, I there are two things I would change.
First, the numbers got pretty crammed on those tiny bubbles. I should have used a thinner marker. Second, the numbers do rub off of the pop it over time.
If I was going to redo this activity I would definitely use an oil based, fine-tipped sharpie instead of a regular one. Using an oil-based sharpie on pop its will smear less over time, which is what you want for this activity. Or I would simply buy a pop it with everything already labeled – like this one below.
Once you have your pop it boards labeled (or purchased) download my free PDF of 14 Educational Games to Play with Pop Its below:
14 Educational Games to Play with Pop Its
Download PDF • 14.06MB
The free PDF includes the instructions to 14 simple learning games along with over 420 playing cards. The playing cards include 3 letter words, 4 letter words, and 5+ letter words (in a variety of capital and lower-case lettering), written numbers and roman numerals, basic addition problems, basic subtraction problems, and simple images that can all be used to play the pop it games. I love how we can use fidget toys for learning!
Check out this video I made with a few samples of the playing cards that are included in the free PDF:
If you decide to give it a try, come back and let us know in the comments which game was your favorite and if you have any other fun and educational ways to use a pop it!
Jess
