Fun Games for the BUSY TEACHER Nicole Crescentini
Fun Games for the BUSY TEACHER Nicole Crescentini (Roldan) November 4, 2014
My Objectives are to Present Activities … That can be used immediately in all subject-areas. That are easy to prep That are student-led (a. k. a less dog/pony show) That, above all, students love to play and learn from at the same time.
Your Objectives: Learn at least 2 new activities that you could see yourself using in your class immediately. Contribute your ideas. Win a prize!
Activity rankings for the amount of prep time it takes to create it: 1 (least amount of time) – 4 (most amount of time) I have 10 minutes before class and my lesson plans are dull/ non-existent. I have 20 minutes left of prep and I find myself browsing old pictures on Facebook or fantasy football league looking to make trades. I have 1 prep period left until my formal observation tomorrow. Who are you kidding? Free time, what’s free time? my
Student & Teacher Accountability: Exit slip or No exit slip that is the question How are students/us accountable if games are played all hour? Post a learning objective that is observed by all students. Use an easy measuring tool for students to use to gauge their understanding of the daily objective every day. Have students turn in their “level of understanding” at the end of each hour with a 1 -2 sentence explanation. OR Have students complete an exit slip 1 -3 questions relating to the objective with their “level of understanding. ” Example: (www. cvhssracrescentini. weebly. com ) Don’t have time to address all the slips? –Solution: the next morning first thing do peer conferences and have “expert” students address questions.
Hopefully new games/activities If you have tried these before and were successful let us know!
Heart Attack: Uses- Vocabulary, true/false, pictures, balancing equations, formulas, questions in general. Prep- the Power Point slides Game play- 20 -45 minutes Materials 15 mini-white boards (15 markers/erasers) (come borrow mine!) Power Point Template
Heart Attack Game Play: Goal- to get the most points odd v. even 1. Give each student a number between 1 -34 (some will have 2) 2. Every 2 students need 1 whiteboard, marker, & eraser. 3. Start-up the Power Point 4. Press the space bar 5. Keep score odds vs. evens 6. Have students write down the answers per slide on a lined-sheet of paper. Demo … (2 volunteers) Fun things: Have the odds/evens pick team names, have a winners wall, bragging rights, give a prize (participation grade, ½ homework, 1 extra credit point on upcoming test/quiz).
Spoons: Uses- Vocabulary, formulas, drawings, pictures, kingdoms/phylum, dates/events etc. Prep- students make 16 -32 cards (have the students number them) OR teacher makes cards & laminates them. (2 days ahead of time for students or in class) Game play- 30 -60 minutes (how long do you want it to last) Materials Notecards or construction paper (more durable paper) Plastic spoons about 30. Lined-sheet of paper or spoons template
Spoons Game Play: Goal – to have the least amount of letters. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Group the students into groups of 5 -6 kids. Each group needs 1 less spoon than the amount of group members. Have students shuffle all their notecards together. (hopefully they’re #ed) Each player gets 4 cards (they can never have more or less) The dealer begins with the whole deck. That person picks up the top card, if they don’t need it they pass it to the person next to them. If they need it they keep it and discard a card they don’t want. Once a student gets all of the same card or components of a formula or pairs (whatever you decide). They grab a spoon. Once one person grabs a spoon, everyone else grabs one. The loser who doesn’t get a spoon gets the letter “s. ” (spelling spoons). The goal is to have the least amount of letters. The students write down the winner’s formula, definition of that word etc. The paper that students are writing on is collected. (DEMO 4 - volunteers)
Give me the Pencil! Uses- Vocabulary, true/false, pictures, balancing equations, formulas, questions in general, rote memorization, dates, events, chemistry symbols, conversions etc. Prep- the template Game play- 30 -60 minutes Materials About 10 pencils for the whole class About 10 dice for the whole class Give me the pencil Template
Give me the pencil game play: Goal: to completely fill in chart correctly. 1. Group the students into groups of 5 -6. 2. Every group needs 1 pencil, 1 di, and 1 template person. 3. Choose a magic number (1 -6) 4. 1 student begins with the pencil and FEVERISHLY fills in the chart/template. 5. The other group members one at a time roll the di until they get the magic number. 6. Once a student rolls the magic number he/she yells “give me the pencil” the student who is writing gives up the pencil and the student who rolled the magic number gets the pencil and he/she begins to feverishly write. 7. The student who has the most boxes filled in correctly wins! Demo … (4 volunteers)
See you later: Uses- Vocabulary, true/false, pictures, balancing equations, formulas, questions in general. Prep- 1 time make game boards/ questions for students or student-created Game play- 20 -30 minutes Materials Dice (about 8 -10) Questions 30 plastic characters (soldiers, animals) Game boards
See you later Game play: Goal: to get to the end of the board 1. 2. 3. 4. Group the students into groups of 5 -6. Every group needs 1 game board, 1 di, and game pieces person. Students number their paper 1 -… (depending on the amount of questions) Students put their game pieces on start. The person with the birthday closest to whatever date you pick rolls first. 5. They move as many spaces as the number they rolled and can remain there if and only if they answer the question correctly. He/she writes down their own answers as well as the question number. 6. If they land on a space that reads “see you later” they have to move back/forward depending on the arrow. 7. The student who reaches the end first wins. Play again shuffle questions. Demo … (4 volunteers) if necessary.
Oldies but Goodies!!! A twist to old games you may have forgotten about.
Quizlet Uses- Vocabulary, pictures, diagrams, graphs, symbols, dates, events, characters, questions, really anything that could be a matching section on a test/quiz. Prep- Sometimes no prep at all. Game play- 30 -60 minutes (as long as you want it to take) Materials 1 computer per student www. quizlet. com
Quizlet Perks: 1. It’s free! 2. You can copy another teacher’s quizlet sets. 3. You can EASILY create classes for students to join. 4. Students can create a free log-in that allows you to view their progress/ what’s difficult for them. 5. Students can have set discussion. 6. Students can create their own. 7. It’s free! 8. www. quizlet. com (demo)
Flyswatter / Finger flyswatter Uses- Vocabulary, pictures, diagrams, graphs, symbols, dates, events, characters, anything that could be a matching section on a test/quiz. Prep- 1 second to make a hand-written board or to find a picture or that diagram or dividing cell students need to know. Game play- 20 -60 minutes (as long as you want it to take) Materials 1 board that you will copy. 2 flyswatters (from the dollar store) (or come borrow mine!)
Flyswatter game play: Goal: to correctly hit a term that is defined or described. 1. Divide the class in half or group kids into teams. 2. 2 people at the board at a time facing away from the board. 3. Call a term (or have students call them) 4. The student who slaps the picture/word first wins (or who’s swatter is underneath , best 2 out of 3) 5. Keep score. 6. Have a copy of the board between groups of 2 students and they play amongst themselves too and keep score. Sample ideas…
Smartboard Stuff- Game Board Jeopardy template courtesy of Ken Osaer. Game board with random number generator Courtesy of Chelsea Richter. Prep- 1 second to print questions that you want students to be able to answer. Game play- 20 -45 minutes (as long as you want it to take) Materials 15 mini-white boards (15 markers/erasers) (come borrow mine!)
Smartboard game play: 1. Divide the class in half or group kids into teams. 2. Ask a question/ read a definition 3. Students hold up boards, teams who are the fastest with a correct answer will advance on the board according to the number generator generates. 4. Whichever team reaches the end first wins. Show board.
Some of my other favs Line-up (demonstration) Tic-Tac-Toe - verb race (demonstration) - personification- children’s book Story Boards - Dice game (with special rules) Secret Rule - penny tap (with special rules) Bingo / Partner Bingo - museum walk (for projects) A/B partner activity “Who’s correct? ” - Twitter door Marbles - Listening activities… I am Notecard (bomba- lose all of your cards) - Pat, pat, clap, snap (demo) Pointing game demo with powerpoint (can use flyswatter game) Whiteboards- animal drawings Senorita - anagrams (smartnotebook) (demo) - team sentence building on floor Beach ball - team 1/team 2 hold up Vocab memory cue - be the teacher … (stations) Partner cards … I’m in the library - Battleship Absent procedures project - catch phrase (can’t say certain words) Play dough- museum walk - paper basketball – 3 tries game
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