Barrier Games

Barrier games are an easy and fun way to build listening skills, an understanding of position language, and oral language abilities in young children. They can be incorporated into the math center or sent home as an extension activity for parents. Two players sit on either side of a barrier (e.g., small screen, open folder) so that they cannot see each other. Each person takes a turn giving instructions to the other person to perform certain tasks. Players alternate between speaker and listener roles. Because they cannot see each other's work, they must learn to give clear, concise directions, and listen very carefully to one another. Players can use a variety of materials (e.g., blocks, magnet letters, shapes, crayons) for this task.

Examples:

*draw a blue circle, draw a small yellow circle inside the blue circle, write your name under the blue circle

*place the square on top of a triangle, put a rectangle next to the triangle on the left side

*write your name in the center of the paper, put a large red circle around your name, cross out the first letter of your name