Use this teaching resource to improve your students’ fine motor skills at the same time as developing their speaking and listening skills.

This resource is a barrier game that is played in pairs, with the players separated by a barrier. There is a speaker and a listener. Prior to beginning the game, the speaker selects one of the task cards and makes the threading sample, copying the photograph on the card. The listener does not see the card. During the game, the speaker gives directions to the listener about which items to thread and in what order. The listener must listen carefully and reproduce the same threading sample.

This activity provides opportunities to reinforce identification of 2D shapes and numbers from 1–13.

The resource includes:

• instructions for the barrier game
• photographs of each threading sample with a rating system (1 star is easiest, 3 stars is more difficult)
• templates for the shapes and numbered rectangles.

To enable students to easily copy the task cards, the ideal situation would be to provide materials very similar to those in the images. However, if particular colours of materials are not available, teachers may need to explain these discrepancies to their students. Alternatively, the cards could be printed in black and white. The game could also be played with the speaker designing their own threading sample for the listener to copy.