File folder games are a great way to teach children learning skills while having fun. Many teachers use file folder games clear until the 4th grade to help their students learn math, reading, rhyming, and other skills. Kindergarten teachers use file folder games to teach their students how to identify shapes, colors, numbers, and other things. Deciding how to choose the best file folder game depends on the age of your child and what you would like them to learn. Some “standard” file folder games are as follows:
The Fire Safety file folder game. It is important to teach your child about fire safety. Using a manila folder, you will divide it into four squares. In the top square, draw a picture of a child sleeping in their bed, the next three squares should have pictures of stop, drop, and roll.
This is a great way to teach your children about the importance of fire safety and what to do if they are ever in a situation where there is fire.
A fun game to play with younger children is Dress the Animal like a paper doll game of the past. You can use an animal of your choice and your child’s choice, have it placed on one side of the manila folder. The clothes can be a variety of things like emergency uniforms or fun things like a clown suit. On the opposite side of the manila folder, you should glue a zip lock bag that can hold all the pieces.
Many people use file folder games to teach their students or children math skills. The Adding Game is a simple game that can be made with a file folder, paper, and markers. You will glue the paper onto both sides of the manila folder and write numbers on the paper, four rows with about twenty numbers per page. Web sites like EnchantedLearning.com offer free templates with all the numbers on them for you to download. You will use another piece of paper and cut windows to reveal the numbers behind them.
You can do addition, multiplication, division, or other mathematical formulas and write the numbers on the window. Teach your child how to perform the necessary math skill by looking at a window and equating the question and then have them open the window and reveal the number that should be behind the window. This is a great way to teach your children math skills and it can be increased to a number of different difficulties.
If you have younger children, they are probably beginning to learn about colors and shapes. The Color Wheel is a great way to teach them about colors. You will need a plain manila folder and poke a hole on each side of the folder. One side of the folder will be for the primary colors and the other side will be for the secondary colors.
You will need several colors of construction paper. Cut each piece of construction paper into equal sizes of a pie. Use a black piece of construction paper and glue all of the other pieces on top of it in a circle, fitting together like a pie. Poke a hole in the center of the color wheel. Using a wheel spinning tack, you will attach the color wheel to the manila folder. Once the wheel is in tact, write the names of the colors above them, and this will be the starting position, have the children spin the wheel to properly align the correct color with the correct name.
If you would like to increase the level of difficulty, create two wheels, one that is the colors and the other is the name of the color or something the color goes to. For example, yellow can be matched with a banana or the sun. Make both wheels spin and be able to align with each other.