HOW TO MAKE TEACHING MORE FUN AND ENGAGING

INCORPORATE MOVEMENT
Total Physical Response (TPR) is a great way to incorporate movement during
lessons. Teachers and students use their bodies to act out or gesture the meaning of words
or concepts. Students spend seven or more hours in school a day. It is unreasonable to
expect them to sit quietly throughout their lessons and classwork. Movement throughout
the day helps students to re-energize their bodies and their brains, helping them to focus
and concentrate better. So what are some ways you can incorporate movement into your
lessons? One of my favorite ways to incorporate movement in a lesson is to add a gesture or
motion to vocabulary words or important concepts. For example, for the word
“weathering,” the motion would be one hand making a chopping motion, representing wind
or water chipping away at a rock. Another way to add movement to a lesson is to have
students respond to questions in different ways that require them to do something. For
example, give a thumbs up or thumbs down to show agreement or disagreement. Who
doesn’t like to sing and dance to an upbeat song? Singing requires the movement of mouth
and lips. Add a dance to the song and you have the whole body actively engaged, from the
brain in your head to the toes on your feet! An ideal situation for learning to be cemented. If
you can’t find a song to fit your lesson, write your own!

SPEND TIME OUTSIDE

It can really transform the learning environment just to step outside on nice days. Do an
outdoor read aloud in the shade or just head out for an outdoor mindfulness nature walk.

USE STUDENT INTERESTS

Find out what your students are passionate about and then use those interests as natural
motivators to increase engagement. Whether a child is fixated on one thing or has a few
areas of intense interest, there are many simple strategies you can use to work those
fascinations into your instruction. The result? Happier, more motivated students.
 Literacy. Allow a child to integrate their most-loved characters and possessions into your
classroom reading time. One student was able to participate in reading circle when his turn
came once he was allowed to speak through a favorite puppet.
 History. Find creative ways to adapt standards-based content to the fun things your
students are excited about. For example, one history teacher explained the U.S. role in the
UN and its relationship to other nations by drawing an analogy with Super Friends
characters.
 Math. If you’re working on a math lesson, consider asking a student to write a problem,
diagram, or pattern that relates to her particular area of interest. Sometimes, the best way
to combine academic material with a student’s interests may not be immediately evident—
but your students may see connections that you don’t!

USE TASK CARDS

Sometimes, it’s nice to change things up from a worksheet or book. Task cards can be a
great way to get kids talking and working together on important skills. There are many
different ways to use task cards, from center work to group discussions. You can even have
students take turns answering task cards while playing a board game. Grab these free social
problem-solving task cards to test it out!

HAVE A CLASS DEBATE

Using debates in the classroom provide students the opportunity to work in a collaborative
and cooperative group setting. By having students discuss and organize their points of view
for one side of an argument they are able to discover new information and put knowledge
into action. Classroom debates help students learn through friendly competition, examine
controversial topics and “strengthen skills in the areas of leadership, interpersonal
influence, teambuilding, group problem solving, and oral presentation”
Debates can be used in all disciplines on a wide range of topics. Here are some examples of
subject matter topics for debate which can easily be adapted for a variety of subject areas.
 Arts - There should no restrictions upon artistic expression
 English - Language is not a skill
 Geology - Mountain top mining is good for the economy
 Health - There is nothing morally wrong with doing drugs
 Mathematics - Elementary school mathematics should be confined largely to arithmetic
 Science - The theory of evolution is based on both science and faith

USE CRAFTS
When paired with a lesson, crafts are an excellent way to make learning meaningful. Best of
all, there are endless options for crafts in the classroom on any topic. Make a fortune teller,
a spinning wheel, design a poster, or more.

Social Benefits
 Enhances self-expression
By engaging in creative pursuits of music and arts and crafts, children get the opportunity of
expressing themselves in a positive, tangible and meaningful way. They also learn to create
artwork on their own.
 Helps in socializing
Participating, with other students in art class, gives children a chance to interact with others
while sharing common interests. The process of arts and crafts also strengthens parent-child
bonding.
 Boosts confidence
Arts and craft activities help instil a sense of achievement and pride in children, boosting
theirself-confidence.
Cognitive Benefits
 Enhances creativity
The opportunity to create whatever a child desires helps foster creativity.
 Sharpens skills of decision making
A child will learn to make correct and effective decisions by facing and solving artistic
challenges. This helps to develop a problem-solving attitude, which in turn, will help them in
the future.
 Enhances memory and visual learning
A child learns about new colors and shapes through arts and crafts as well as gains
familiarity with various figures and patterns. Activities like learning guitar, jewelry making,
etc. need visualization and memorization of complex designs in mind.

PLAY LEARNING GAME

Kids and teens always love a good game. The best part is that so many games lend
themselves to being true learning tools. For example, you can play Pictionary with science
vocabulary terms. Another idea is to play any board game and have students answer quiz
questions before taking their turn

USE ROLE-PLAY
Act out scenes from a story or novel. Role-play can also be a great tool to build social skills
by acting out scenarios.
Role play exercises give students the opportunity to assume the role of a person or act out a
given situation. These roles can be performed by individual students, in pairs, or in groups
which can play out a more complex scenario. Role plays engage students in real-life
situations or scenarios that can be “stressful, unfamiliar, complex, or controversial” which
requires them to examine personal feelings toward others and their circumstances 
Benefits of Role Playing
Role playing can be effectively used in the classroom to:
 Motivate and engage students
 Enhance current teaching strategies
 Provide real-world scenarios to help students learn
 Learn skills used in real-world situations (negotiation, debate, teamwork,
cooperation, persuasion)
 Provide opportunities for critical observation of peers 

PERFORM EXPERIMENTS
Hands-on experiments are a fun and meaningful way to spark interest in the classroom. One
of my favorite experiments was when we were learning about evaporation. Have students
fill a cup of water. Take a walk out to the parking lot (or play area with concrete). Spill out
that water and have students draw around the water with chalk. In just a few hours, they’ll
come back to notice the water has vanished. As simple as this sounds, it is such a
remarkable way to create that sense of wonder kids need when learning a new topic.
 Experiments can be used to introduce new ideas or to clarify puzzling aspects of
topics with which students typically struggle.
 If the result of an experiment is surprising yet convincing, students are in position to
build ownership of the new idea and use it to scaffold learning.
 In addition to checking that the conceptual focus of the experiment has been
understood correctly, post-experiment assignments can push students to describe a
follow-up experiment or to extend the concept to another application.

The pedagogy is built on research on learning that shows that most students do not respond
best to pure "chalk and talk," but rather to "active learning" environments. Classroom
Experiments keep learners active in a number of ways depending on the nature of the
particular experiment.

 Students are active in generating data or behavioral observations

 Students analyze data, examples or models
 Students answer leading questions posed by the instructor and compare their answers
with those of other students
 Students work together in groups to solve problems, devise strategies or understand
class concepts
 Students predict how changing the experiment will change the outcomes
 Students compare experimental results to classroom theories and use them to confirm
or critique the theories

WORK FOR A FUN FRIDAY
Give something special for kids to work for! A “Fun Friday” is a reward day (or just part of
the day) that kids earn through completing tasks or showing positive behavior. You can have
your students work for it any way you choose. In my classroom, when students completed
their work, our Friday class together was spent watching a movie that they picked out,
coloring, or doing a fun craft. It’s a healthy way to keep kids motivated and add something
fun to look forward to at the end of the week. Use this free reward list to help you come up
with ideas.