Classroom Rugs – Children’s Inspiration to Learning
Children today are easily distracted when it comes to learning and teaching children is tough. Teachers and childcare providers need all the help they can get when it comes to educating children. A classroom rug is a teaching aid that is invaluable in the classroom. These bright and fun classroom carpets come in many shapes, sizes, and themes. All geared to help the classroom teacher or daycare provider educate and inspire children.
Who uses Classroom Rugs?
Many classroom rugs on the market today have been designed with the preschool or elementary school teacher in mind. Also, faith based rugs have made a big impact in private schools and churches. Educators that teach preschool to elementary age children use alphabet rugs and number rugs to teach the early learning basics. Plus, there are childrens rugs available to teach color and shape recognition. Librarians use library rugs at circle time to organize children for maximum quietness and order. There are even map rugs, Spanish rugs, and music rugs to teach kids social studies, foreign languages, and music. Finally, we know kids are energetic and need play time to be healthy and develop social skills and to meet this need there are many play rugs available.
Classroom Carpets that Teach and Organize
Above we discussed who uses classroom rugs and briefly touched on how they are used, but let’s take a closer look. Below is list of some of the common themes of classroom rugs currently available.
Alphabet Rugs – Available with uppercase, lowercase, combination, and with images and letters. An alphabet rug will aid in letter recognition and phonics. Children’s rugs with letters and images aid in letter association with a word — for example, the letter “D” and a picture of a dinosaur. Teachers can use an alphabet carpet to teach preschool and elementary school students the alphabet and spelling. Learning this way is fun, exciting, & interactive!
Number Rugs – With a number rug children will learn to recognize numbers and learn to count. Some children’s rugs come with both the alphabet and numbers.
Seating Rugs – Seating classroom carpets usually come with colored squares or circles arranged in a grid or pattern and are designed to seat a certain number of children. Depending classroom size you can seat up to 20 to 30 kids on one classroom carpet. The larger the carpet the more children you can seat. Seating rugs are great for sharing at circle time or reading at story time. A seating rug organizes children which translates into a calmer and more peaceful classroom. Teachers and librarians will love seating rugs!
Shape and Color Rugs – Teach geometric shapes and color recognition. Elements of this theme of rugs is often found in some of the other classroom carpet themes, but if you need to teach color and what a square, circle, triangle, oval, etc. look like then pick one of these kids rugs.
Faith Based Rugs – A faith based rug usually includes elements of the above carpets, but also includes a religious teaching. If you teach in a Catholic school, Christian school, Jewish school, or church you will find a large selection of religious rugs to choose.
Bilingual Rugs – Today teaching another language is critical as different cultures come together. A bilingual rug in Spanish-English or French-English are available to teach either ESL kids English or English speaking children Spanish or French. Look for bilingual rugs that teach numbers, letters, colors, shapes, and word association. Some bilingual rugs teach several of these on the same carpet. What a fun way to learn another language & teach cultural diversity!
Map Rugs – A great teacher’s aid for teaching geography or social studies. Look for carpets that include all 50 U.S. States or a world map rug that includes all the continents and their names. With a map rug children will learn U.S and world geography in a snap!
Play Rugs – When kids need to be inside look to a play rug as a fun alternative to board games. Hopscotch rugs are a fun activity that most kids will love. Road rugs that have city streets can be used for playing with toy cars, etc. These carpets help kids learn fine motor skills, coordination, and balance.
As teachers look for new, exciting, and fun ways to grab the attention of children and inspire them to learn, one alternative is to include classroom rugs as a teaching aide. There are many shapes, sizes, colors, and themes available today that preschool and elementary teachers, daycare centers, and churches can find that will fit their needs. Adding one of these children’s rugs will also brightened up a dull classroom!
About the Author
Jeff Cabaniss is President of RTR Kids Rugs and has been in the school supply and classroom furniture business for the past 16 years. You will find a large selection of discount classroom rugs and children’s rugs from the top manufacturers at RTR Kids Rugs.
Alphabets – My ABC – Kids Animation Learn Series
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Sesame Street – Learning About Letters $3.09 Big Bird and Telly Monster lead young viewers through the alphabet, letter by letter, in a magical and imaginative half-hour discovery of letters and their sounds. The perfect tape for young Sesame Street fans who are just beginning to get the hang of what letters are all about, it includes short skits, songs, and other bits of business–some original, some culled from the Sesame Street show–fea… |
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Barney – Now I Know My ABC’s $3.61 Preschool fundamentals–including shapes, colors, and the alphabet–are the focus of this one-hour program set in the after-school learning center familiar to viewers of Barney & Friends. Today, everyone is preparing for an art show, which provides plenty of scope for Barney’s gentle tutorials on circles, squares, reds, and blues, while he incorporates beloved songs such as “Mister Sun.” Viewers … |
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Barney – Let’s Play School $4.03 Like perky Kathie Lee Gifford, Barney, the ubiquitous magical purple dinosaur, can elicit violent hatred and fierce loyalty. You’re likely to get the latter from the average toddler, weaned on the inexplicably popular (to some) PBS series. Parents may want to first teach their children the original classic songs before they’re invariably introduced to Barney and his lyric-altering renditions. (By… |
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Sesame Street – Learning About Letters [VHS] $0.16 Big Bird and Telly Monster lead young viewers through the alphabet, letter by letter, in a magical and imaginative half-hour discovery of letters and their sounds. The perfect tape for young Sesame Street fans who are just beginning to get the hang of what letters are all about, it includes short skits, songs, and other bits of business–some original, some culled from the Sesame Street show–fea… |
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Richard Scarry’s Best ABC Video Ever! [VHS] $9.98 A delightful tool to help kids learn their letters, Richard Scarry’s Best ABC Video Ever finds Busy Town pals Huckle and Lowly Worm discovering that it’s Alphabet Day at school. Their teacher, Miss Honey, invites her students to join in a spirited rendition of “The Alphabet Song.” Next comes a series of 26 vignettes developed around each letter and cleverly intertwined with Sergeant Murphy’s inves… |
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LeapFrog: Letter Factory $7.32 Tad, Leap, and Lily hop from the pages of the amazingly popular Leap Pad learning toys onto the television screen in this attention grabbing phonics program. Tad’s disappointment at being unable to help his family with an important presentation at the letter factory quickly turns to excitement when he meets Professor Quigley and joins each of the letters of the alphabet in their own fun-filled cla… |
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LeapFrog: Phonics Farm $5.23 35 min. Widescreen; Soundtrack: English Dolby Digital stereo; audio commentary; music video; sing-along songs…. |
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Melissa & Doug See & Spell $10.50 Place the colorful wooden letters in their proper places to spell words on the cut out two-sided wooden boards. Includes 16 playful pictures with three and four letter words to keep learning fun. Includes over 50 letters…. |
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LeapFrog Scribble and Write $18.88 Light the way to early writing with Scribble & Write! Children trace the lights to get practice drawing simple shapes and pictures, then graduate to learning upper- and lowercase letters with step-by-step guidance. Fun learning games help reinforce letter recognition and pencil control skills. Best of all, Scribble & Write uses a single retraceable surface for ease of use and portability. Parents … |
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Melissa & Doug Magnetic Wooden Alphabet $7.45 Kids will love learning their letters with these wooden letters. Newly redesigned, themed set includes plenty of colorful, generously-sized wooden magnets. 52 pieces. Measurement 8″ x 1.5″ x 5.5″…. |
