Learning Play

There are some moms out there, especially around the blogosphere, who teach and teach and teach their kids at home long before kindergarten. 

I am not one of those moms. 

But we have done some fun activities here at home that stretch the kids' brains as they play. Here are a few of those ideas. Everything can be made with materials you likely already have or that are super cheap and readily available should you need to purchase them. 

GIANT Maze

I made this maze on a portion of a large sheet of thick painter's plastic so it would be durable, reusable, AND dry-erasable! I used duct tape for the lines, but any tape should work. I free-handed the path and designed it to have many possible successful routes to keep it as engaging as possible. Oren LOVED driving his cars along the "roads," and we set up his super hero bases at various points. Tovi liked to track down the bad guys and take them to Gotham City Jail. The kiddos can also use dry-erase makers to draw paths or even walk the paths themselves. 

Ball (...or Angry Bird...) Wall

We LOVE the ball walls at the children's museum, and I plan to eventually construct one for the playroom. In the mean time, this idea is a cheap, easy alternative. I took toilet paper, paper towel, and wrapping paper tubes and wrapped them in tape so loops of tape would stick to them (tape doesn't adhere well directly to the cardboard, so a tape layer helps). I used duct tape, but painter's tape would be safer for your walls if you're concerned. We arranged the tubes in various shapes and orders, then dropped small balls, cars, and Oren's beloved Angry Birds through them.  We had fun re-arranging the tubes, seeing how far apart we could put them without losing the ball/car/bird, etc. 

Alphabet Parking Lot

I've seen variations of this idea online using taped parking spots on a floor. But I had these cheap Dollar Tree table cloths and used those instead. I write the alphabet on duct tape (can you tell I love this stuff?!) and put one letter on each car. The goal is to park the car in the spot with the matching letter. I used upper and lower case. This summer I plan to put words on the cars to have the kids match them with the initial letter on the parking lot. There are MANY possible variations!

Counting With Bubble Wrap

I actually used this with my kindergarten Title 1 group first. I wrote one number per bubble in mixed-up order and had the kids pop them in counting order. This builds several skills including number recognition, counting order, and pincer grasp fine motor skills. You could easily do this with the alphabet. Or for older kids, you could say a word and have them pop the bubble that corresponds with the first sound of that word. These could easily be used in place of Bingo boards too!

What are your favorite activities using ordinary materials in creative ways?

Activities for the Book Holes

Check out more similar ideas on my website! http://www.teachbeyondthedesk.com/

Holes, by Louis Sachar, is one of my favorite young adult novels to read with my students.  Although it's challenging for my classes (reading level 5.2), it's funny, engaging, and smart.  This book doesn't talk down to my students.  It's proud of its complexity, but not too proud to be silly in all the right ways.  I mean, a book about pre-teen boys sweating away in a desert work camp is BOUND to include lots of stink-humor.  And my kids LOVE it.

We've been reading aloud in small groups of 5-6 students.  The kids take turns reading a page aloud, under the supervision and guidance of my amazing cohort, Chris, while I run grammar and writing skills groups.  We use rotations, so small groups of students are all doing different things around the room at any given time, and I am fortunate to have Chris with me this year to help supervise these groups.  I mean, after all, we KNOW 6th graders will always do what they're supposed to do without direct supervision, right?? Ha!

Anyway, the students have worked very hard through this book and have participated fully.  They've asked thoughtful questions along the way to improve their understanding, they've made connections with their own experiences, and they've made smart predictions about what may happen next.  Because they've knocked my socks off, I felt it was only fitting to celebrate the conclusion of the book with some fun activities.  Feel free to use any of them with your own classes and modify things as you see fit (thought it's always nice to give credit to your source...ahem...me!).  If you're on MyBigCampus, look me up (Katie Powell); I have quizzes and other resources in a bundle I'd happily share with you.

Trivia Challenge

I selected 30 or so questions from the quizzes we've done along the way, focusing on themes and plot elements that run throughout the story (such as why Kate Barlow became an outlaw, how Zero and Stanley are connected back in their ancestry, what The Warden is really looking for, the importance of Stanley and Zero's journey on the mountain, etc).  I printed a clip art of a shovel in a hole and pasted one question onto the back of each.  I also printed a picture of treasure and one of a lizard (colored to have yellow spots).  Then I asked our secretary to laminate them all.

For the game, I laid the "holes" out on the floor.  Since my students are already divided into three groups, they played in their rotation groups, but you can group your students into any number of teams.  The objective is to "dig" the most "holes" by answering questions correctly.  The first player from the first team tosses a bean bag and has to answer the question the bean bag lands on.  I did not allow team-mates to help so that each individual student was accountable for full participation.  If the player cannot answer the question correctly, the card is returned to the floor.  Similar to memory games, other players should make note of the card's location, especially if they know the answer, so they can get an easy "hole" on their turn.  If the card has treasure on the back, everyone on the team gets a piece of candy (but I did not count this card as a "hole").  If the bean bag lands on a yellow-spotted lizard, the team must surrender a "hole."  The team with the most "holes" when all cards are collected is the winner.  Total game play for 3 teams of 5-6 students, 30+ cards, took us approximately 40-45 minutes.

My students were VERY engaged.  They cheered and jumped around for the treasure and groaned and yelled about the lizards.  And they KNEW the information!!  I was so impressed by how well they did!

Typically I make games that can be applied to multiple areas of content, so I was hesitant to spend this much time setting up a game that would just be used once a year.  But this book is such a hit year after year that I felt it was worth it. 

Extension Idea:

This game could be used as an assessment.  You could call students back one at a time to toss the bean bag to answer a set number of questions, however many you want for your assessment.  You could tally how many they get right or wrong.  You could even number the cards to keep question statistics, such as which questions were most often missed, etc.  You could take a quiz or assessment score right from the game!  I'd probably remove the lizard cards but keep the treasure in for random candy/sticker incentives along the way :)

Celebration Stations

To celebrate the end of the book, I set up centers around the room for the following activities:

1) Holes-inspired treats: donut holes, samples of various kinds of onions, dirt pudding, and sploosh (for us, I used peach-flavored applesauce, but peach preserves, sliced peaches, etc would also work).

2) What's Your Nickname prompt: I printed this page.  The students wrote their Holes nickname on the name tag picture and then wrote a sentence explanation on the page.  I had name tag stickers for them to wear too :)  We then hung the prompts in the hallway.

3) Yellow-Spotted Lizard pencil pals: The students traced my example lizard twice onto craft foam, cut them out, and then I helped hot-glue them together along the sides, leaving the space down the middle open.  I allowed the students to use any color spots they wanted.  Once dry, you can slide a pencil down inside.  This "pencil pal" keeps pencils from rolling off the desk :)

4) Moon Sand: On a teacher message board, a teacher said they go outside to dig holes every year to celebrate the end of the book.  She said it's the student's favorite activity every year.  I found this surprising and funny, so I told my class about it.  And guess what--they all wanted to go dig holes.  I don't know if you're familiar with February in Indiana, but our ground's pretty frozen.  That's a no-go.  But I found a recipe on Pinterest (yay!) for moon sand that called for 8 cups flour and 1 cup baby oil.  I had about 3/4 cup baby oil, so I supplemented with cooking oil, and it seemed to work just fine :)  I dumped the whole concoction in a large bucket, tossed in some sand box toys, and laid down a plastic table cloth to protect the floor.  I tried it out at home with my own kiddos first, and I have a couple observations: my 3 year old was less messy than my 6th graders, and my 6th graders enjoyed the moon sand as much as my 3 year old.  What a hit!

5) Of course, the movie was part of our celebration too!  And since my projector burned out recently, we got to watch with our BRAND NEW projector!  Woot!

Writing Prompt

We have ISTEP coming up in a week.  But even if you don't have statewide testing (lucky!) or aren't in testing season, writing prompts are great assessments.  This is the prompt I'm using this year:

I print several on a page and then cut them apart to affix to photocopied ISTEP prompt paper to keep the experience as authentic to our assessment as possible.

This is the rubric I'm using.  The students do peer assessing first which helps deepen their own understanding of the writing process while also helping them catch their weaknesses.  After revising, I grade.  I use the rubric as a basic checklist (the element is present or isn't), but you could use a point scale too.

 So there ya have it!  That's our Holes celebration, at a glance.  Again, if you're on MyBigCampus, look me up.  I have more resources on there I'd be happy to share.  What are your favorite Holes activities?

Some Classroom Freebies

Thanks to my slightly off-the-wall, kooky, active teaching style, I've generated a sizable repertoire of unexpected learning activities.  I've found that if I can hide the learning inside absurdity, humor, and fun, my students learn more and actually enjoy doing it.  So here are some activities we've done lately.

Verbs with AFV!
To build anticipation for and gather some quick formative assessment data on what my students already know about verbs, I used the hit show AFV.  I streamed clips of America's Funniest Home Videos (but you could use any clean, funny videos) and had the students write a sentence describing what they saw happen in each clip and then identify the verb(s) in each sentence.  The kids LOVED it, I got the data I needed, and we all had a good time.  MUCH better than a worksheet!

Checkers for Worksheets or Review

For this one, you'll need a checker board (and checkers).  I labeled each square used in play with numbers (there are 32 squares played in checkers, but my worksheet had only 27 questions, so I labeled 5 spaces as free spaces, similar to those used in BINGO).  Because I wanted to use these checker boards for other activities, I used Post-it strips to number the spaces, but you could easily write directly on the board.  I wanted students to turn this worksheet in, so I made copies for each student.  However, you could laminate your worksheet or use page protectors and rotate kids through the activity, reusing the same sheet with dry or wet erase markers to save paper.  My kids have iPads, so they could even snap a picture of the page and email it to me (though most of my kids have iPad 1's, which don't have cameras...).
OK, here are the rules of play:

Checkers Review Game o  Set your checkers up as you would to play a normal game of checkers.
o  Move your checkers as you would in a normal game.
o  When you JUMP your opponent, look at the number you LAND on.  You must answer that question correctly to take your opponent’s checker.  If you answer incorrectly, your opponent’s checker stays.
o  When you move your checker in to be KINGED, you must answer the corresponding question correctly.  If you answer incorrectly, your checker is NOT kinged.
o  The player with the most opponent’s checkers at the end is the winner.

You get the same information a worksheet would provide, but you're also breaking up the monotony and allowing learning to happen in an unexpected way :)

4 Corners
You've probably already heard of this one.  Label 4 areas of your room, one for each term or concept you're covering (we did the 4 types of sentences).  Then you give an example and have kids WALK to that area.  You can also use this activity as an ice-breaker or time-killer ("Your favorite zoo animal: tigers, lions, chimpanzees, or alligators--go!").  Cheap, quick, and easy!  And the kids LOVE it and tend to remember the concepts because their BODY was there.  When we did the types of sentences, kids connected the type of sentence to where they had stood in the room and used that to help them on the final assessment.

Voting Paddles
These are great for yes/no questions or any question that can be answered with one of two answer choices (think math--positive or negative or opinions--agree or disagree).  I made mine very simply: laminated paper and craft sticks.  That's it.  Then I have the students use wet-erase marker to write our answer choices for the day so we can reuse the same paddles for other activities.  I ask questions and have the students quick vote with their paddles.  Students can also poll each other that way.  Again, quick, fun, easy formative assessment!

Give me a ., !, ?
I'm using this one currently for our reading log.  I have the students give me a brief statement summary (.), one thing that surprised them (!), and one thing they're still wondering about (?).

Adverb Charades
You'll need strips of paper or index cards, two different colors.  One one color, have the kids write one verb that could be easily demonstrated.  Then have them write one adverb on the other.  Gather the cards in separate stacks.  When a person is "it," they draw a combo and act it out.  Students then guess the combo.  I usually quickly write a word bank on the board as I gather the cards.

And one last instructional freebie: If you haven't yet checked out the site classdojo.com, you need to! It's a free, online classroom management site that lets you award or deduct points for any issue (you can input your own, positive or negative) and keep running totals and even email reports to parents!  I LOVE this site, and it's motivated my students like never before WITHOUT creating more work for me!  Woot!

Finally, I try to do things on open house or conference night to make my room as welcoming as possible.  Sometimes parents and/or kids are nervous, younger siblings are squirmy, and everyone is tired and frazzled.  I appreciate that parents take the time to come in, so here's what I do to make the whole experience a little more enjoyable:

And since our conferences are student-led, students often sit there uncomfortably unsure of what to say while parents impatiently flip through page after page of old homework assignments.  This year I developed a conversation guide to focus the time.

Name__________________________________________Student-Led ConferencesDiscussion Guide1) Thank your parents for taking the time to come in. 2) Show your parents your 1^st Quarter grades on PowerSchool.  Go through each class and take the time to answer any questions they have. 3) Show your parents your agenda.
Do you fill it out each day? _____________________Do you take it to every class?_______________________
Do you look at it at home to see what you need to do for homework? __________________Do you show your parents your agenda each night? ______________________________________ 4) Go through your accordion folder.
Have you kept your folder organized? ____________________Have you shown Mom and Dad your graded work, notes home, etc? ___________________Are you keeping ALL your important papers in your folder? ____________________________Are you as organized as you need to be? _____________________________________ 5) Homework:Have you turned in ALL your assignments on time? _____________________________________Are you doing homework at home? _______________________________________Are you taking the time to do it well? _________________________________________Does any of your homework feel too difficult? _______________________________________Do you have a specific time and place at home to work on homework? ________________Look back through your grades on PowerSchool.  Are there any marked as missing, late, or zeros? _________________________ 6) Studying:Do you tell Mom or Dad when you have a test coming up? ______________________________Be honest.  Do you REALLY study? ___________________________________How much time do you typically spend studying at home for a test? ___________________Look back through your grades on PowerSchool.  Are your test grades above 70%? ________________________What could you do to better prepare for tests 2^nd Quarter? _____________________________ 7) Attitude:How do you feel about school? __________________________________Do you like coming to school? __________________________________What do you like best about school? _____________________________________________________Do you get along with your classmates? ____________________________________________What do you need to do to improve your attitude or behavior? ______________________________________________
  8) Goals:Did you give your very best 1^st Quarter? _____________________________________________________What do you want to improve most for 2^nd Quarter? ___________________________________________What will it take to accomplish that goal? ___________________________________________________ 9) Read180:Show your parents your rBook and talk to them about each of the workshops we’ve done so far (1, 2, and 6).  What was your favorite? _________________________________________Look back at your Read180 and English class grades.  What were some assignments you think you really gave your best on? ______________________________________________Explain bell work, daily trivia, journals, reading rotation, etc.Go over your Reading Fluency rubric.  What did you do well? ______________________________________What did you need to improve? ________________________________________________Go over the rubric for your Halloween poem.  What did you do well? _____________________________________What did you need to improve? ________________________________________________Explain Class Dojo and how you’re doing.Make sure you SHOW them your poem too!You can show your parents the software, the different areas of our room, etc. 10) Math (if you have Mrs. Powell for math)Go over your math grades.  We covered whole numbers, story problems, integers, and decimals this quarter.  Which of those skills was your best? ___________________________________Which did you struggle most with? ______________________________________________Do you typically take the time to check your work? ______________________________________Do you SHOW all your work? _______________________________________________Did you take advantage of the chance to re-take or redo tests and quizzes? ________________________________Did you do all your homework assignments? _____________________________________________How do you feel about math? ____________________________________________________ 11) Social Studies:Review the things Mr. Weimer told you to review.  Use your data notebook app. 12) Science:Review the things Mrs. Kreienbrink told you to review.  Use your data notebook app. 13) What is one thing you wish your parents knew about you or school? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________14) What is one thing you really should thank them for? _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________If you or your parents have questions to address with other teachers or you’d like to stop in to see them, you can go visit other classrooms.LOCKER:Show your parents your locker.Is it organized? ____________________________Take a moment to tidy it up.

So there ya go!  Feel free to add your own activities and resources in the comments!