My, oh,
my! Indiana was popping with great
ideas!!! There were so many that
I’ll share some today and some tomorrow.
It’s like Christmas every day when I do a workshop because of all the
new gifts/ideas you give me!
Park
Your Car (Gina Courtois)
Make a
large parking lot with the numerals 2-12.
Give students two dice and a play car. Students roll the dice, add the numbers, and park their car
on the answer.
Purchase a
crown (from the good old Dollar Store) and wear it during reading groups as a
sign that you are the “Queen of Reading” and they have to wait to talk to you.
Slap-a-Word (Amy Ritter)
Write sight
words on cards and spread them out on the table. (You could write the words on seasonal shapes like
gingerbread men.) The children put
their hands on their heads and when the teacher calls a word the first child to
slap the word and read it gets the card.
The student with the most cards at the end of the game is the winner.
*Could be
adapted for numbers, letters, vocabulary, math facts, etc.
Pioneering
Day (Naomi Trojan)
Plan a
school-wide Pioneering Day so students can learn history and do an activity
that relates to that era. Each
grade level does a different activity.
Science
Buddies (Naomi Trojan)
Get an
older grade and pair them up with younger students to help with projects. Both older and younger students get to
take home a project.
*How about
a “Dig It Day” where students pretend to be archeologists and dig for
artifacts?
Stickers
(Naomi Trojan)
Give
students small stickers when they receive a perfect score on a worksheet. When they collect 30 stickers they get
to cash it in and choose something from the treasure box.
Body
Trace (Katie Wilson)
This is a
great way to get the kids thinking, writing, and working together. At one of the stations have large
pieces of butcher paper rolled up with a rubber band. One child lays on the paper while the other child traces the
outline of their body. They then
“fill” the body with words. After
the station time (8-10 minutes) is over they turn it over and reverse
rolls. When they are finished,
roll it up, cut it in half, and give each child half to take home.
*Ask
children to write adjectives, nouns, sentences, etc. on their body.
Tape a
clear sheet over each square on a toss across game. Slip sight words, numbers, etc. into the squares. Toss bean bags on the game and read the
words that are turned over.
F.R.E.D. (Betsy G.)
Create a
F.R.E.D. (Families Read Every Day) folder that
children take home nightly.
Students record the title and their favorite part of the story. The goal is for all students to read
100 books by the end of the year.
Plan a big celebration for everyone!
Pop the
Balloon (Penny Cooper)
Write antonyms
on small pieces of paper and insert them in balloons. Blow up the balloons and tie. Children pop the balloons and then try to find their partner
with the opposite word.
Smellie
Spellies (Melissia Hole)
Use scented
markers to write different word families.
(Use a different scent for each word family.) After the children read over the words ask they to close
their eyes, smell, and identify the word family by smell.
*Use
spelling words for older students.
