Special Days
Sit on the chairs backwards.
When walking in the halls walk backwards.
Do your daily routine in reverse order.
Teach from the back of the classroom instead of the front.
Wear clothes backwards or inside out.
When children arrive say "Goodbye" and when the children leave say "Hello".Children are called by their last names instead of their first names.
Write or have children write their name backwards on a nametag. Stick the nametag on their backs.
Count backwards by 1's, 5's, and 10's. Which is easier?
Art
Table Drawing
Tape paper to the underside of the tables. Children lay under the tables and draw on the paper taped to the underside of the tables.
Backwards Painting
Need: paper, water,paintbrush, classroom markers
Backwards painting is to paint first then add color. Have children apply water using a paintbrush to their paper, covering the entire paper. Add color to the draw with markers. The colors will run and mix together creating bright colorful art.
Video
Language
Backward Town Poem Read and illustrate.
Read books children are familiar with from back to front. "Green Eggs and Ham", "Goldilocks", etc.
Scavenger Hunt
Turn objects in the room backwards or upside down. Such as turn the teacher's desk around. Turn some wall letters upside down. Have children find and list everything that has been changed. Award a przie to the children who finds the most backward objects.
Palindromes are words or phrases that read the same in both directions (ex. mom, dad, eye, pop, straw, and racecar).
Recommended Books
Mom and Dad Are Palindromes
by Mark Shulman
Movement
Movements<
Play music and do different movements; walk backward, hop backwarkds, circle arms backward, jump backward, crawl backward...
Backwards Slow Race
Use to to mark the start and finish lines for the race. Children line up at the finish line with their backs facing the start line. Give a signal to start the race. Children start walking backwards slowly, toe to heel, as slowly as possible. The winner is the last person to cross the start line.
Snacks
Have soup for AM snack.
Have cereal for lunch or PM snack.
Eat dessert before eating lunch.
Recommended Book
The Story Starts Here!
by Caroline Merola
Little Wolf has decided that today things are going to be done differently. It will be a contrarian day. Why? Because he said so! He will stand, not sit, for dinner — and he’ll start with dessert. He’s going to play the piano with his toes and wear his pants on his head. And when he says “The Story Starts Here,” he means it — this book starts at the back and ends at the front. After Little Wolf’s parents send him to his room to think about his backwards behavior, he decides to run away. But outside, everyone is running from a giant, shadowy monster. Readers will need to flip the book over to discover the monster’s true identity — and that he’s not so scary after all, just a little turned around and out of sorts.
See Also
Opposites worksheets at Boggleword.
