Travelling in the lift
Duration/age
While you are waiting for the lift to come talk to your child about the number of the floor that you want to travel to.
Is it a high number or a low number?
Is it a number above the ground floor which means the lift will travel up or is the floor below ground level and so will go down?
Talk about how the buttons have symbols on them that will provide directions and instructions. The buttons may have numbers on them or arrows or letters.
What do the different symbols mean?
Once the lift has arrived on the ground floor talk about the size and the shape of the lift and where you will stand in the lift.
Will you move to the back on the left hand side or is the lift already full so you will need to stand at the front of the lift?
Skills this activity improves
Why does this matter?
Talking about travelling in the lift helps children to develop an understanding of position and location. This also helps children to listen to and follow directional language so they can move around and within space. Talking about the different numbers on the buttons helps children to understand concepts around number.
What does this lead to?
Developing an understanding that there are different ways we measure and compare objects .An example of this is size. Size can be described by different attributes such as distance, time or quantity and can be represented through symbols. Number is an example of how we can represent size through a symbol. There are different ways we can move through space and understanding movement and location will help us to navigate our environment. Learning to navigate the environment helps us to share space with others and to organise and plan how we will live within shared space.
Language to use
- Up, down
- Coming, waiting
- Number, symbol
- Full, empty
- Front, back, left side, right side
Questions to use
- How long till the lift arrives?
- How many people will be in the lift?
- Where will we need to stand when we get in the lift?
- We are on the ground floor. What number floor comes next?
Useful tips
Remember to talk to your child in your home language.
Variation by age
Birth to two year olds
- Build a block tower that matches the number of floors that you travelled in the lift.
- Dig tunnels in the sandpit under your sandcastle to represent being under a building and going down into the ground.
Three to five year olds
- Make pulley systems that can carry dolls in a bucket up the side of a doll’s house.
- Build towers and towns that are different heights. Talk about the number of floors each building will have.
- Draw pictures of the building you went to and write the number on each floor to represent the lift going up.
Questions to ask
- Was the building a big or little building?
- Was the lift full?
- What did we push to call the lift?
- What opened so we could get inside the lift?
Questions to ask
- Which floor did we start on?
- How many floors did we have to travel up?
- How many people were in the lift?
- Could any more people fit into the lift?
