Give your first-grade class some time to get comfortable with the concepts associated with ordinal numbers by planning some warm-up games. For instance, you could design a simple matching game that will help the children begin to associate ordinal numbers with their cardinal number counterparts. Use blank index cards to create the game, writing the cardinal and ordinal numbers in pairs of cards and then mixing them up. Lay the cards face down one by one and have the children play the games in pairs or in small groups to find the correct matches for the ordinal and cardinal numbers in the deck.
Incorporate ordinal numbers into an in-class scavenger hunt game to give the children some more hands-on experience with the learning material. You can use ordinal numbers as part of your scavenger hunt clues to help the children practice; for instance, state that an item can be found near the fourth coat hook or the eighth desk from the door. Pair the students off or place them into small groups to perform tasks on the scavenger hunt list, and then award a small prize like a sheet of stickers to the team that finds the most items.
Host your own classroom Olympics to practice with ordinal numbers and to get the students moving with a little physical exercise. Choose a variety of different events for the children to participate in; these could include relay races, track and field events or sports competitions. At the end of each event, award fake medals made from paper and yarn that indicate the ordinal numbers for each child's place in the competition. Review the results from each event during a special closing ceremony for your classroom Olympics.
Give the children some extra practice time by having them use their ordinal numbers skills to complete some sequencing games. For instance, you could give them a mixed-up sequence that must be put in correct order. You could cut up a calendar and have the children work as fast as they can to put the pieces back together correctly, or you could give them a set of mixed-up steps that they'll have to work quickly to fix. You could also have them work together as a class to order themselves in a line in terms of things like age or height.