Here are some that we came up with:
Word Building
Age Group-all
Materials: white board, paper, pencils
Write 5-6 letters on the board,
including at least 1 vowel. Give students a designated amount of time
(5 minutes is usually adequate) and challenge them to come up with as many
words as possible. Share out and record on the whiteboard.
Extension: Have students write sentences or a small story, utilizing
3-5 of the words they built.
*include word families, blends,
digraphs, or endings that you are working on (ing, th, at, etc)
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Rhyme Time
Age Group: Lower Elementary
Materials: white board, paper, pencils
Select a word with a common ending
and write on the board. Give students 5 minutes to record as many words
that rhyme with the original. Share out.
Extension: Have students write a funny verse or poem using the words
they brainstormed.
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Sentence Starters
Age Group: Upper Elementary/Middle (can be adapted for younger
students)
Materials: paper and pencils
Give each student a scrap sheet of
paper. Ask them to write a sentence on the top about a particular topic
(anything from Halloween to carrots). Have them pass the papers behind
them. Give students 3 minutes to add onto the story and pass again.
Continue for at least 4-5 rotations. Allow students to share out
the story.
Adaptation for Younger Students: Write a sentence on the whiteboard or chart paper.
Read sentence aloud. Call on students to share out the next
sentence for the story. Continue adding on silly sentences until
everyone is given the chance to share.
Extension: Assist older students in going through the writing process
to adapt the rough story in a publishable piece.
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Addition or Multiplication Around the
World
Age Group: Elementary
Materials: Flash cards
Depending on the age/ability of your
students you can do addition, subtraction, or multiplication. Arrange
the students in a circle. The first 2 students stand. Display a
flashcard, the first student who calls out the correct answer advances and
goes up against the next student. Each student must keep track of how
many “victories” they have throughout the round.
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Addition or Multiplication Mad
Minutes
Age Group: Elementary
Materials: Mad Minute print outs
Keep a supply of Mad Minutes
available. They are available on the following sites:
Consider making this a weekly
challenge, giving students the same problems and challenging them to get more
correct or finish with a faster time
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Daily Trivia
Age Group: All
Do your research and collect a list
of daily trivia facts. Select a space in your room or facility to
display it. Have students read aloud the fact each day and encourage
them to make connections or share out additional knowledge on the topic.
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Wink Murder
Age Range: 5 to 11
Students sit in a circle on the
carpet and you choose a detective. The detective goes outside whilst you
choose the murderer. When the murderer winks at you, you must play dead.
The detective then must try and catch
the murderer. Another element my class likes to add is 'dramatic death' where
they are allowed to act.
You can add other dimensions such as
- more detectives, more murderers.
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Shoot Out
Age Range: 5 to 11
You then choose two people to come up
and stand back to back with their hats on. You give them a question and the
first person who knows the answer turns around and calls out the answer.
I use the game to test times tables,
basic maths and as a plenary for some lessons as it tests what they have
learned. This game seems to go down a treat with every class.
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Slam!
Age Range: 5 to 11
This game is called SLAM and can be
used in all the subjects.
Before the lesson decide what
questions you like to ask and write down the answers on the board randomly.
1) When the class starts, choose two
people to come at the front both of the should stand on each side of the
board
2) Now you should ask the question
and the pupils should work it out in their head and slam on the correct
answer
3) Whoever gets it correct should get
a point and the first person to get 5 points wins.
The pupil who loses should now go
back to their seat and you should pick another pupil to play the game. The
first person to win three games wins and is the CHAMPION.
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Word of the Day
Age Range: 5 to 11
I have a vocabulary word for the day
on the board. I define the word during
reading in the morning and use it during the course of the day.
The first student to acknowledge that
I have used the word and correctly tell me the definition gets a sticker.
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Back to Back
1. Students stand in pairs; an odd student can stand and play with teacher. 2. Instruct students to stand with their backs touching and say "That's Back-to-back". 3. Students stand facing each other - "Front-to-front". 4. Students stand beside each other - "Side-to-side". 5. Each faces each other and moves one foot forward to touch toes - "Foot-to-foot". 6. Each touches an index finger to the other - "Finger-to-finger".
Teacher then issues
random 'orders' of "finger-to-finger', "Foot-to-foot" etc.
etc. at various speeds or in quick succession. Once students are confident or
bored, throw in mixed orders such as "Back-to-front",
"Side-to-finger" etc. and let them sort it out!
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1. Buzz
As soon as students learn their
multiplication facts this is a great game which is actually entertaining for
students up through high school. You first choose a target number – let’s say
4. The first student starts counting at one and then others follow. When a
student reaches a multiple of 4 or a number with 4 in it, he or she must say
“buzz” or they are out of the game. The pace must be fast. To advance the
game, you can also require students to say “buzz” if the digits add up to the
target number.
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2. Going
on a Picnic
This game can only be played once
with a group of students because the purpose is to solve the trick. Invite
the students to go on a picnic with you, but tell them that each person can
only bring certain items, which are actually items that start with the same
letter as the first letter of their first name. Tell them what you are going
to bring and then start asking students to join you. If they happen to say
something that fits the criteria, let them know that they are welcome to
come, otherwise tell them that you are sorry. If no one catches on the after
first round, give a few clues. “Haley you cannot bring potato chips, but you
are welcome to come if you bring hamburgers.” Eventually, some will catch on
and help you bring the others in on the secret.
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Green
Glass Door
This game is similar to “Going on a
Picnic.” This time students can only pass through the Green Glass Door if
they bring things that have a double letter in the spelling of the word. Once
you have played this game, you can easily vary the rules: On the Huge Blue
Plane you can only bring items that have a silent “e” in the word, the Main
Suite only admits words that have homophones. Students go crazy for these and
they are actually fun to try with adults.
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20
Questions
I love this timeless game that
actually requires a great deal of critical thinking. The classic method can
be played almost anywhere, but a great way to draw students into this game is
to let them bring in an object. Each student gets to take home and return the
“mystery box” with an item for questioning. They love the opportunity to
answer the questions and show off some of their own possessions. Students
will usually want to go well beyond 20 questions to solve the mystery.
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Other
Activities
Ø Flashcards
Ø Legos/K’Nex
Ø Mad Libs
Ø Pictionary
Ø Dominoes
Ø Read
aloud
Ø Buddy
Reading
Ø Illustration/Comic
Strip
Ø Make a
card for someone
Ø Illustrate
a vocabulary word
Ø Fill in
a times table
Ø Adding
with blocks
Ø Write a
math word problem
Ø Writing
prompt
Ø Wordsearch/crossword
Ø Adding
words to word wall
Ø Designing
a building or town
Ø Scrabble
Ø Bananagrams
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