March—Trading Places (Students stand behind their pushed-in chairs. Call outa trait, and Deena Haberman--Goal 2017-2018--Brain Breaks September--Slap to 30 (Then shake it up by changing the number because students quickly figure out the pattem needed fo win) ‘October--Pick a Number Cards (Have physical activities on each card numbered 1-32, call ona student to “pick a number’ to determine the activity. Change it up by asking student to choose a “multiple of 5" or an “even number’ or “a number divisible by 3°, etc.) Noverber~Drama (act out vocab words, act like a zoo animal, act ike you're walking through thick mud, etc.) December~Corner Choices (Go to SW corner if wearing tennis shoes, NW if boots, etc.) January--TAPS (Total And Perfect Silence strategy learned from Jackie/BIST) February--Physical Challenges (Challenge students to do something physically difficult, such as standing on one foot with arms extended, tap head/rub tummy, etc.) everyone who has that trait must change places with someone else (students who do not have the trait stay where they are). Examples: “Everyone with curly hair.” “Everyone who ate cereal for breakfast’ “Everyone who is wearing stripes.") April-Six Spots (Number six spots around room from 1-6. Have students each go to a spot of their choice. Roll a die. All the students at the number rolled must go back to their seats, Students that are left go to a new spot, and the die is rolled again. Continue until only a few students are left.) May-~-5-4-3-2-1 (Teacher has students do five different movements in descending order. For example: "Do five jumping jacks, spin around four times, hop on one foot three times, walk all the way around the classroom two times, give your neighbor one high-five)CLASS MEETING SHARES Ifyou could be an animal for one day, what animal would you be? Why? Do you have any brothers or sisters? How old are they? What do you want to be when you grow up? What is your favorite sport or hobby? What is your favorite TV show? Ifyou could jump into any book, what book would itbe? Ifyou could be anyone for a week, who would it be? ‘ What is the best present you ever received? When did you get it? Why is it the’best? Name 3 things that make you unique? Ifyou were on a deserted island and could have only 3 things with you, what would they be? Ifyou rubbed a magic lamp and a genie said he would grant you 3 wishes, what would they be? What is the most exciting thing you have ever done? Ifyou could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go? Ifyou could get in a time machine, what time period and where would you visit? Who is the most important person(s) in your life? Finish these statements: lam, My favorite I would like Ifyou knew me, you'd know that. .. If could play a musical instrument, it would be a... If [could live anywhere in the US/world, where would it be? My goal for today is ... When | grow up, I want to be ... I'm going to have a good day because... I promise. .. You won't believe this. I'mexcited about ... Today I feel because... Iwish I could... If | were a color today I'd be ... because..: If were an animal today I'd bea ... because... If I were weather today, I'd be. ., because .. “ME" stick or “YOU” stick, pull one out. ME—say something positive about yourself. YOU—say something positive about the person next to you. 32014Would you rather... Be 3 feet tall or 8 feet ta Be a deep sea diver or an astronaut? Have a pet that was a giant hamster or a tiny rhino? Be able to stop time or fly? Be born with an elephant trunk or a giraffe neck? Have a missing finger or have an extra toe? Have a very strict teach and learn‘a lot, or have a very easy teacher and not learn much? Be able to control the weather or be able to talk to animals? Have bright blue teeth, or bright blue hair? Only be able to whisper or only be able to shout? Only eat your favorite food for the rest of your life, or never eal if again? Be hairy all over or completely bald? Live without music or live without TV? Have a big group of friends or one very close friend? Be invisible or be able to read minds? Find out your parents are secretly spies or aliens? Live in a world where people suddenly break into song or break into kung fu fights? Be the worst player on the best team or the best player on a great team? Get stung by a bee or get a sunburn? Go fo the pool or go,to the beach? Have your body tum green when you get wet, or have your hair turn purple when you are in the sun? Be a pencil or a rubber band? Have someone give you $100 or give $1,000 to the charity of your choice? Jump into a pool of marshmallows or a pool of jello? Have a head the size of an orange or a watermelon?Who is the funniest person you know? Y im / What do you | Would you normally do ’ rather scream during : : { r whi ? recess? | or whisper Whatis your Mi | a4 if youhada favorite W | 1d/ robot, what choretodo {| I 7¥ would you do at home? e with it? Copyright 2016-HappyTeacherHapyWhat would you be allowed to ! do on your ideal ' . Chew gum in | ‘perfect day’? | What is your ff favorite part of \ the school day? Y How old should J E you be when you ie do if you got \ get married? i. lost? Copyright 2016-HappyTeacherHata a Students sit down in a circle. Students stand in a circle Students count out up to and whisper a message to number 5. The fifth student each other. The goal is to stands up, shouts POP!, and see if the first message that (|) stays standing. The counting inlet students who ara up unffl ol message at the end. z ts are standing, Oe Don’t Make “44 ovine abl Sereea neue Two students volunteer to jabbadhal stand in the middle of a 1S 66) Out gates Tot example, simple machines circle. One student is going inter, sh , animals, fo stand with a straight face ee shacienas Wa canes unt witt and the other student is going a way to work together to act to try to make the other out the word. The class will then laugh.Whai’s the News? Students will think of something they did over break or the weekend. Choose one student to go first. The class will say “Good Morning ._, what's the news?” The student will state 3 facts about their weekend or break. Continve until all students have Give students a card wit! the name of part of a character couple. Students will try to greet the student with the matching character. For example, Beauty & Beast. Card Greeting Give each student a card from a deck. Call to middle all students with a specific suit. Then, students will greet each other in the middle. Students stand in a circle. Give one student a piece of yarn or string. Student will then greet astudent. That student will come over and take the yarn to their spot with the previous student still |“ holding on. Continue until a webAcademic Games Password Divide the class into two teams. One member of each team comes to the front of the class, stands against the board and faces the class. Above their heads, write a single word. The students standing at the front of the class take turns calling on their own teammates to give them a one-word clue. After the clue is given, the person at the front gets one chance to guess the word. If the word isn't guessed, it’s the other team's turn. Encourage students to call on teammates who haven't had a turn. Clues given must not contain any part of the word that is written on the chalkboard. Points are earned by a team if the word is guessed or if a member of the other team says the word accidently. Get Out of Here ‘Get Out of Here’ is a fun game to play right before the end of the day, right before recess, or lunch. Stand in the doorway with either a set of Trivial Pursuit questions or flashcards. In order to get out of the classroom students need to answer 3 questions correctly. If not, they head to the back of the line and start over. For students who answer those questions correctly, they can get out of the room earlier than others. Who doesn’t love that? Jeopardy It’s great to use as a studying tool before a big test. Italso works so well for when preparing for the end of a unit, midterms, or finals. There are plenty of free Jeopardy templates for teachers available — online. This helps make prep time for this game more manageable. If you play Jeopardy enough times, you could actually make it a project for small groups of students to create their own component of jeopardy, under a certain heading, and have the whole class play together. Scavenger Hunts Scavenger hunts are a lot of fun, but they definitely take some planning to get set up. The great thing is, they can be used for nearly every subject. Scavenger hunts work well for when starting new units. Go through the material beforehand and create questions, fill-in-the-blank, pictures, dates, people - anything that you want your students to really know before getting into the unit. And then put them into small groups and have them search the textbooks, encyclopedias, online, and around the classroom for the clues. Educational Bingo There are literally countless ways to use bingo. feces History teachers could put people's faces on bingo cards and the clues are all facts about e people. Math bingo - the boards have numbers and the clues are problems that the students have to solve mentally (or with scratch paper). Bingo can be used for phonics, vocabulary, spelling, sounds of letters... ‘To make it free and easy, print out blank bingo cards and have students randomly fill in answers from the word/number bank before you start.use the "Triple Play” card and answer correetly, the team will receive 35 points. If the team answers incorrectly for a "Triple Play” question, they have s points deducted from their score. Teams should use this tactic on questions they are most confident about answering correctly. BOUNCE BACK Divide the class into two groups. The students organize their groups so that each student had a number. Then we asked a question of the first student in group A. That student could answer for 5 points or he/she could bounce the question back to student 1 in group B. The student in Group B would either answer for 5 points or bounce it back to student 1 in group A. If student x got it right they would get 10 points. Then the challenge went to the 2nd student in each group - but group B got to start the next time. The kids love the game because they get to take chances, trying to earn more points by “bouncing” the questions back. BLUEE Divide the class into two groups. The teacher takes turns giving each group a question. When the teacher gives a question to group A, all the students who think they know the answer stand up. Then, the students in group B get to decide which of the students in group A should answer the question. If the selected student can answer the question, that group gets as many points as the number of people who stood up, but if the student cannot answer the question, then group B gets to answer (any student in that group can answer) and group B will get the same number of points. The fun part of this game is that student try and bluff the other team into thinking that they know the answer so sh their points up! The teacher then altel ernates the teams who get to answer the question _ first. SINK OR SWIM Form two teams and have them line up in two lines across the room facing each other. Ask team 1a question, if they get it right they may sink someone on team 2. Then ask team 2 a question, if they answer their question correctly they may either sink someone on team 1 or rescue their "sunken" team member. The winning team is the team with the most people still standing. Leapfrog Divide the students into as many teams as you would like. You will need lots of little frog pictures with point values written on them 5, 10, 15, 20. . . until 50 and 5 frogs with the word leapfrog on them. Mix them all up and have them face down s0 that studerits can't see what's on the cards. Ask a team a question, if they get itrright they get to pick a frog and they get however many points the frog has on ‘it. Then you repeat this with the other teams. The fun part is when someone gets the leapfrog, all of their points “leapfrog” over to the next team. ZONK! Divide the class into groups. Ask the teams a question. The first team to answer correctly draws a card, 1-20. The team gets that number of points, but if the card has ZONK! on it you erase the whole team's points and they start over. BUMP! Line students up along a wall in your room. Give the students a question. The question could come verbally or you can present it through a document camera or through an LCD projector on Word, Powerpoint, ete. When students know the answer, they raise their hand. Call ona student. If they get the question right, they may “bump” the person on their left or the person on their right (students on each end of the line can bump the person on the other end, as if they were in a circle).‘Stump the Class Assign teams of 3-4 people per team and give each team 3-index cards. They are to write a review question and answer on each card that would test the class's knowledge of the topics covered so far. ‘They have 10 minutes to review all their materials and come up with the questions. The teacher collects the cards and tosses a ball to anyone in any group. The person who catches the ball may answer the question, confer with the team, or toss the balll to someone else. Once the question has been answered correctly, the person who has the ball tosses it to someone else and the process continues until all the questions have been answered. What Have You Learned So Far ‘This activity is designed for teams to list all the skills, concepts and topics they have learned so far in the course or unit. The team with the most items will win. The learners are encouraged to go back to their notes, training manual, user guide, reference cards, on-line help and also look at the software ‘screens and menus to come up with their list. Give a 5-10 minute time frame so they have to work quickly. Reward the team with the most items and then have everyone stand. Do a ball toss and ask each person 1 thing they now know how to do. As each person answers, have he/she throw the ball, then sit down. The only rule is that you cannot repeat what someone else has already stated. Relay Race- Acrostic ——-List.a word or phrase vertically on flipchart paper. Post copies in the 4 corners of the room and____ divide the class into 4 teams. Each team lines up ina single file and the first person given a marker fills in.a word or phrase that goes along with the Vertical word or phrase. As soon as the first person is finished, he/she must run back and hand over the marker to the next person in line, and go to the end of the line. Ifa person is stumped, they can just pass on the marker and go to the back of the line. Repeat until all letters are completed. The team who finishes first wins! Graffiti Review ‘Take several words or topics from your unit, ex. galaxy, sun, star, astronomer, satellite. Write each one in the middle of a piece of chart paper. Spread the chart papers around the room (wall, desks or floor). Give each student or group of students a marker (different colors if you can). Each student/group starts at one chart paper. When you say "go" they have to start writing down everything they inow/can remember about the word or topic. Use a tinier, and call "switch" after whatever interval you decide to use (30 sec., 1 min., 2 min. etc). At ‘switch’ they must rotate to the next paper. When all students/groups have written on each paper, I collect them. One ata time, I put ‘them up on the board, as a class we read through what has been written, and I correct any inaccurate information or mention any important information that has been missed. Lave. Who Has : g ‘This game is great for reviewing almost any topic. Make “I have, who has” cards. One of the cards says ‘begin’. The student with that card reads their card, then sits down. Whoever has the answer to "Who Has" then reads their card and sits down. The game is over when everyone is sitting. The last persons card can say, “Ihave _____ and I am the end!”‘The teacher creates and displays a matrix with content-based categories across the top and point categories. The teacher creates clues (words, pictures or combination of the two) with more difficult clues corresponding to the higher point values. (similar to Jeopardy) Talkamile a minute ‘The teacher prepares a set of cards, each with a category and list of items that fit in that category. ‘The teacher organizes students into teams, and each team designates one team member as the talker. The talker tries to get his or her team to say each of the words on the card by quickly describing them. Classroom Fend ‘The teacher constructs a question for each student in the class. The class is divided into two team. Once the question is asked to a student the student may confer with their team and then the responder states what the answer to the question is. Which one Doesn't Belong? ‘The teacher creates word groups containing three terms that are similar and one term that is different. The teacher displays one word group ata time. Students, working independently or in groups, have a set amount of time to pick out the term that does not belong and write down why they think that term is different. ‘Teacher provides inconsequential competition including academic games to engage students in their learning. Vocabulary Review Games ‘A few apps that are worth looking at for Vocabulary Review are the following: Knowji, Quizlet, and Flashcards with Cram.J ' Lap t while... Saying the ABCs inging a song Do Barking like a dog Spelling your name