Games I play with elementary...
5-10 mins on marking/reviewing homework
25-30 on one page from the book.
5 minutes giving out stars/assigning homework from workbook.
These are games I play with elementary that need no prep. It helps kids to make the connection on the lesson rather than lecturing at them and finding out the next day they didn't understand.
Today's chapter had 8 words and the verbs that we use with them, usually in the chapter we review what the words are, how to use them in a positive and negative sentence, and how to use them in a questions form.
Like, take a shower, or get dressed, eat breakfast.
First the class repeats after me for reading the words. They can do it in a silly or loud voice if they want, I don't penalize anyone unless they're screaming in a high-pitch migraine enducing tone. (It makes it more fun if you can say it how you want).
Then we match the pictures on the page with the words. One person answers "What is he doing?" then the next person answers, what number is "getting dressed?" (I do it this way because there's sometimes not enough words for the amount of students I have.. and it's apocolyptic meltdown if someone doesn't get a turn... even if they get a turn in the next activity, it's not good enough. My class wants a turn for every round of questions.)
Depending on the day of the week we're using to cover this... we could either play charades... What is s/he doing? She's getting dressed! The child picks one of the words from the list and acts it out. Make sure all the words get acted out.
Another option is: match the words with their correct verbs! (although I don't say that, I just tell them to match them... I'm not in control of their grammatical terminology so I'm never exactly sure of what they know...)
I'll have a list on the left that never changes of "get" and "take" and "eat"
and then I'll mix up the other list with "dressed" "a shower" and "breakfast". I think it's important that a goes with shower so they know shower needs an article, rather than associating it with the verb take.
Children then come to the board and draw lines to match. I never allow a child to do the last, obvious one (like #5 out of 5).. I always erase and reset the list and start again.
Another one I recently begun was "What's wrong?"
You choose the basic sentences the book is trying to teach students and you write one of them with an obvious error (or two-three, depending on the student's strength.. they can also be hard or easy)....
What's you doing?
Students come to the board and correct or rewrite the sentence. You can give them prompts like "How many is 'he'? or How many are 'they'?" and they answer you... 1 or 2 and more... and then you say.. so what do we use with 1? Do we use 'are' with one? Or 'is'?
Of course, the tricky one is you where 'you' is often thought of as singular but can be both.. but regardless we use 'are' with it always.
Maybe it's the motivation of stars but kids love it, and often will demand they get another turn with more mistakes to fix. They also love coming to the board because it gives them a chance to play teacher.
These are things I came up with on the fly. Sure, they're not my original idea I'm sure, but I'm proud that I was able to think of them on the spot when we had 20 minutes left of class :) I thought I'd also share for those people on my flist who teach who might find themselves sometimes in a position where they have finished their lesson but still have 10 minutes, but didn't prep for anything... (sometimes it happens, lessons end quicker, or take longer, depending on certain situations). I'm sure the games can be modified to fit other subjects as well :D
Please also share any other games you can think of, teachers or not, so I might further improve my teaching skills :D
25-30 on one page from the book.
5 minutes giving out stars/assigning homework from workbook.
These are games I play with elementary that need no prep. It helps kids to make the connection on the lesson rather than lecturing at them and finding out the next day they didn't understand.
Today's chapter had 8 words and the verbs that we use with them, usually in the chapter we review what the words are, how to use them in a positive and negative sentence, and how to use them in a questions form.
Like, take a shower, or get dressed, eat breakfast.
First the class repeats after me for reading the words. They can do it in a silly or loud voice if they want, I don't penalize anyone unless they're screaming in a high-pitch migraine enducing tone. (It makes it more fun if you can say it how you want).
Then we match the pictures on the page with the words. One person answers "What is he doing?" then the next person answers, what number is "getting dressed?" (I do it this way because there's sometimes not enough words for the amount of students I have.. and it's apocolyptic meltdown if someone doesn't get a turn... even if they get a turn in the next activity, it's not good enough. My class wants a turn for every round of questions.)
Depending on the day of the week we're using to cover this... we could either play charades... What is s/he doing? She's getting dressed! The child picks one of the words from the list and acts it out. Make sure all the words get acted out.
Another option is: match the words with their correct verbs! (although I don't say that, I just tell them to match them... I'm not in control of their grammatical terminology so I'm never exactly sure of what they know...)
I'll have a list on the left that never changes of "get" and "take" and "eat"
and then I'll mix up the other list with "dressed" "a shower" and "breakfast". I think it's important that a goes with shower so they know shower needs an article, rather than associating it with the verb take.
Children then come to the board and draw lines to match. I never allow a child to do the last, obvious one (like #5 out of 5).. I always erase and reset the list and start again.
Another one I recently begun was "What's wrong?"
You choose the basic sentences the book is trying to teach students and you write one of them with an obvious error (or two-three, depending on the student's strength.. they can also be hard or easy)....
What's you doing?
Students come to the board and correct or rewrite the sentence. You can give them prompts like "How many is 'he'? or How many are 'they'?" and they answer you... 1 or 2 and more... and then you say.. so what do we use with 1? Do we use 'are' with one? Or 'is'?
Of course, the tricky one is you where 'you' is often thought of as singular but can be both.. but regardless we use 'are' with it always.
Maybe it's the motivation of stars but kids love it, and often will demand they get another turn with more mistakes to fix. They also love coming to the board because it gives them a chance to play teacher.
These are things I came up with on the fly. Sure, they're not my original idea I'm sure, but I'm proud that I was able to think of them on the spot when we had 20 minutes left of class :) I thought I'd also share for those people on my flist who teach who might find themselves sometimes in a position where they have finished their lesson but still have 10 minutes, but didn't prep for anything... (sometimes it happens, lessons end quicker, or take longer, depending on certain situations). I'm sure the games can be modified to fit other subjects as well :D
Please also share any other games you can think of, teachers or not, so I might further improve my teaching skills :D