Engaging Classroom Games for any Subject: Series II

Welcome back to Engaging Games for any Classroom Series. This week I will be explaining two more high engagement games you can use in your classroom for any grade and any content. All you need are problems written on tiny pieces of paper. 

• If you missed last week’s games, click here for the post. 

Join my email list for more games like these and an exclusive EDITABLE math freebie to get you started right away.

This week’s games are called Suck it Up and Hot Potato. 

Suck it Up

Materials: 

- Tiny Problems cut out. - One set should be enough problems but if you want to make a separate color for each group to collect that is fine. I usually do one set for the class to share. 

- Tiny Problems recording sheet

- colored straws (I recommend plastic straws. Buy thin straws if you teach younger students. Thick straws make it a tougher challenge.) 

Set up: 

Put all of the Tiny Problems face down on a table, desk or flat surface. Split your students into groups in advance. Have straws divided so each group member gets a different color straw to avoid mixing straws between students. YUCK!

How to play: 

• Students get out a Tiny Problems recording sheet (Optional: Dry erase boards to use as scratch paper.)

• Students join their teams and pick a different color straw. Give them 15 seconds to establish an order of who is going first to last OR say, “Red straws go first, blue go second, yellow go third”….and so on.

• One student at a time will head to the Tiny Problems table, suck up air through their straw to pick up a problem and bring it back to their group. 

NOTE: This DOES have a learning curve and some students might struggle at first. I tell them to try three times to “suck it up” with their straw, then bring it back to the group.

• EVERYONE in the group needs to answer the question.

• When the whole team has an answer, they write it in the recording sheet in the corresponding numbered box. 

• The next student to retrieve a Tiny Problem needs to return the old problem, face down, to the table before “sucking up” a new one for the group.  

• This continues until all the Tiny Problems are solved.  

You can go over the answers in class or collect the recording sheets. If you want to make it more competitive, set a timer and the group who completes the most questions correctly wins!

Hot Potato

Materials: 

-Tiny Problems cut out. (Only the teacher will need a set.) 

 

-Tiny Problems recording sheet OR dry erase board and markers.

-A “musical” Hot Potato OR something to pass around music. 

Set up: 

Have your class sit in one big circle. Each child should have their recording sheet or a dry erase board for recording their answers. 

How to play: 

• Students will be sitting quietly in a circle ready to listen.

• The teacher will read a Tiny Problem aloud to the group and EVERYONE needs to answer the question.

• When each student has an answer, the teacher will tell the students to begin HOT Potato.

• The children will pass the potato until the music stops.

• The child who is holding the potato when the music stops gets to share their answer with the group. 

• The students check their boards, ask questions if needed and then prepare to answer the next question. 

You can even make multiple circles so more children get a chance to share an answer. I’ve had one giant circle with four or five stuffed animals circulating as potatoes. This is another way to give more children a chance to share their answers when the music stops. 

Thanks for stopping by today. Please come back next week for two more games in the series that will keep up student engagement in your classroom with minimal prep. Join my email list for more game ideas like this and an exclusive EDITABLE math freebie to get you started right away.

Happy Teaching! 

Kelly

Engaging Classroom Games for any Subject: Series

            Student engagement has always been a top priority when planning each of my lessons. I usually try to play some sort of game during the week with the concepts that we covered. 

The games explained in my blog posts over the next four weeks are engaging ways to motivate your kids no matter what content you are teaching. All you need are Tiny Problems* and a few simple materials to make content review hands-on and loads of fun! 

*Tiny Problems are content related questions written on small pieces of paper.

This week’s games are called Balloon Pop and Dig it Out. 

Balloon Pop 

Materials: 

-Tiny Problems cut out. 

 

-Tiny Problems recording sheet

-Good quality balloons

 *A balloon inflator is optional but extremely helpful

Set up: 

Put one question inside each balloon and tie it tightly. If you want certain teams going after certain colors take that into consideration when choosing your balloons. Inflate the balloons accordingly. 

         

How to play: 

• Students need a Tiny Problems recording sheet (Optional: Dry erase boards to use as scratch paper.)

• Split students into teams and assign each team a color balloon. Give them 15 seconds to establish an order of who is going first to last.

• One person at a time will retrieve a balloon and pop it however they wish. 

• They grab the question that was in the balloon and head to their group where EVERYONE needs to answer it.

• When the whole team has an answer, they write it in the recording sheet in the corresponding numbered box. 

• The next student is off to grab another balloon. This continues until all the balloons are gone. 

You can go over the answers in class or collect the recording sheets. If you want to make it more competitive, set a timer and the group who completes the most questions correctly wins!

You can even write the questions on the outside of the balloon and put the answer on a piece of paper inside. They can ask the question to the class, see what some of their classmates respond and then get the answer out by popping the balloon to see who was correct.

Dig it Out

Add anything into the container you are using to make it a bit more challenging to grab those problems. 

Materials: 

-Tiny Problems cut out. (One set per team. I make them in different colors.) 

 

-Tiny Problems recording sheet

-A bag of plastic ball pit balls or a large amount of packing peanuts.

- Foldable laundry baskets or deep buckets. (One per team.) 

Set up: 

Put a set of Tiny Problems inside each laundry basket/ bucket. Dump ball pit balls, balloons or packing peanuts on top of all the problems. I even mixed in base ten blocks. 

How to play: 

• Students need a Tiny Problems recording sheet (Optional: Dry erase boards to use as scratch paper.)

• Split students into teams and assign each team a basket. Give them 15 seconds to establish an order of who is going first to last.

• One person at a time will retrieve ONE problem from the bottom of the basket and race back to their group. 

• They will read the card aloud to the group and EVERYONE needs to answer the question.

• When the whole team has an answer, they write it in the recording sheet in the corresponding numbered box. 

• The next student is then off to dig out another Tiny Problem. This continues until all the problems are completed. 

          

You can also put other items in the baskets as distractors or decoys. For example, base ten blocks, unsharpened pencils, block erasers etc. Another option is to add little action cards the size of the Tiny Problems that the students will complete if they bring those back to the group. Some ideas might be jumping jacks, spins or other movements. The possibilities are endless! 

That’s all for today, but come back next week for two new games in the series that will keep up student engagement in your classroom with minimal prep. Join my email list for more game ideas like this and an exclusive EDITABLE math freebie to get you started right away. Thanks for stopping by. 

Happy Teaching! 

Kelly

The Roaring 1920s for the 100th Day of School

The 100th Day of School is always an exciting day for elementary students. Lower elementary (Kindergarten, first grade, second grade and even third grade) focus on the number one hundred, counting to one hundred and doing math that equal up to one hundred. Teachers also join their students in dressing up like 100 year old people. I have seen some really neat shirts with 100 items on them. Families can get super creative with costumes and projects for the 100th day of school.

100th Day of School for Upper Grades

Sometimes it is more difficult to motivate older students to participate in "100 day" activities. Unless you make them age appropriate and motivating. This school year I was moved from 2nd grade back to upper elementary, so I wanted to be sure my students were able to celebrate the 100th Day of School in a way that didn't feel "babyish" or immature to them. 

With help from the internet and each other, the 4th and 5th grade team came up with an idea that we knew would surely surprise our students. This would be a mixture of social studies, reading, fun and engagement. We brought our students back 100 years to the Roaring 1920s! That's right! The age of flappers, jazz music, the Model-T and prohibition. 

The Content

I chose some of the biggest concepts that made an impact one hundred years ago and created a scavenger hunt for the children to solve based on our current skill of finding main idea and key details. 

     

Click here for the Activity.

We split the children up in teams. They read the passage and figured out the main idea based on the supporting details. Once the children did this, they scanned the QR Code to check their answer. At the bottom of the screen, it would tell them which passage to find next and so on. As the children moved through all the cards they would finally reach the end. They would then grab the math task cards (based on the same concepts they just read about) and solve the word problems while the other groups finished. 

After the groups were finished, we made a large Venn Diagram on the board and spoke about what we learned from the passages. The children really enjoyed learning about the 1920s time period and comparing it to today. 

Click here for the activity I created for the Roaring 1920s

If you decide to try this in your classroom for the 100th Day of School, please tag me in any social media posts so I can see your photos! Thank you for stopping by my blog!

xoxo Kelly

The Floor Is Lava Classroom Transformation

This classroom transformation was inspired by my two sons. One morning they were playing this strange game around our house where they climbed on the furniture and told me they couldn't touch the floor. When I asked them why, their response was, "Mom, the FLOOR IS LAVA!" I have heard of this game before from my students, but this was the first time my boys were playing it. That's when my wheels began turning and I brainstormed my next classroom transformation. 

The Story

Before this classroom transformation began I needed to set the stage for my 4th and 5th grade students. I dressed in my best Hawaiian garb and explained that we needed to save the island from a volcano that kept erupting and wiping out small villages. I explained that the Head Tiki was very angry and he would only agree to stop the volcano if he was presented with jewels and gems. 

I advised them that their brains were the only thing that would help these poor people in danger. They needed to complete tasks, answer questions and earn gems, all while avoiding the LAVA!!! But the volcano will only erupt if the red light and alarm goes off. I begged them to please tread lightly and save the village!

We entered the room, I handed them a lei for their team color and began to explain the challenges for the day. They were pumped and ready to go! 

The Content

I knew right off the bat that I wanted to use The Floor is Lava Transformation as a review. We were finishing up the steps of the writing process and identifying different types of figurative language, so I wanted to revisit these concepts. 

During the classroom transformation there were two activities going on. One was a scavenger hunt around the school and one was earning gems by answering questions. 

Writing Process: 

This activity was the school scavenger hunt. I split the students into partnerships and assigned them a color for the whole day. That's the color lei they got to wear. To begin this scavenger hunt, they needed to read a passage about the different parts of the writing process. It helped them review all the steps of writing before they began the clues. 

Once their team finished reading the passage, they were given a clue about a location in the school. When they figured out the location, they needed to show me the clue and tell me where they were headed. When they arrived at the location, there was a large envelope with a question in their team's color about the writing process. The students took their color only, answered the question, checked it with me, then grabbed the next clue for another school location. This would carry on until the whole scavenger hunt was completed. 

On each question card was an additional puzzle. They needed to write that word down on their recording sheet because later they would need to unscramble the words they collected to answer a riddle. 

            

    

Figurative Language:

While the teams were figuring out their clues for the scavenger hunt an alarm would randomly sound and a red strobe light would blink. This alerted the students that the volcano erupted and THE FLOOR IS LAVA! The students needed to get to a safe place because they needed to present the Tiki with gems so he would stop the lava flow. This is when the children hopped along the rocks on the floor to get to one of the colored balloons. 

Attached to a balloon was a question about figurative language. If the team answered it correctly, they earned the gem to present to the Tiki...without touching the floor of course!

Once all the teams presented a gem successfully, the lights came back on and the scavenger hunt commenced. The kids truly loved this engaging review activity. 

The Decor

The Floor is Lava wasn't that difficult to assemble. I used a lot of butcher paper from my school for this transformation so that made it cheap. I will list the items in the classroom and where I got them. 

1. Volcano: Butcher paper from school and hot lava table cloth from Amazon. This was the first item I assembled and taped to the wall before I did anything else.
2. Flames: I ordered one roll of these flames on Amazon and covered the other walls around my room. 
3. Leis: I ordered this box of leis from Amazon and gave one to each student. I matched the color with their team for the day. I will be able to use these in the future as well. 
4. Full Body Skeleton: I actually used this skeleton as a Halloween decoration so I repurposed him for this transformation. I got him from Target during Halloween. 
5. Hula Skirts: I used these hula skirts as decor across my windows. I got them from The Dollar Tree a few years ago and used them for my Jurassic Park transformation but I reused them again for this one. They also have a good option on Amazon if it is out of season at The Dollar Tree. 
6. Paper Lanterns: I used colored paper lanterns to hang from the ceiling for the task cards but you can use regular balloons. I was gifted these lanterns but I linked a good option on Amazon. I reuse them each year for different classroom transformations. 
7. Multicolored Gems: I've had these multicolored gems for years but you can get them on Amazon or Party City. Honestly, you don't even need to use these. You can use little stones, plastic coins or whatever you have on hand. 
8. Wooden Tiki Masks: I borrowed these tiki masks from a local Polynesian restaurant. I just returned them when I was finished. 
9. Mini Strobe Lights: I use these mini strobes for so many things through out the year. I literally use them all the time so they were a great purchase for me. These are the same lights I posted in my Glow Day transformation. 
10. Tiki Poster: I bought a trifold board from the dollar tree, taped it to the board and traced a tiki on it using my Smart Board. As simple as that! You can even project or draw a tiki mask on your board and use that! 

Keep in mind, you DO NOT need to use all of these decorations for you Floor is Lava transformation. That is always the beauty about classroom transformations. You use what works for you, in your classroom, with your students. I hope you decide to do a Floor is Lava transformation for your kiddos this year. 

If you like my ideas, follow my blog and check out some of my other classroom transformations. Below is my Floor is Lava Transformation pack that you can find in my Teachers Pay Teachers shop. It is editable for any grade level. 

Click Here for this TPT Resource.

Happy Teaching!

Kelly