Sunday, August 12, 2012

Activity Sticks!

Activity Sticks!

When the kids are starting to get distracted during an activity I say "activity time!". I set the timer for one minute and draw an activity. We then do the activity until we finish or the timer goes off. The kids love it! The idea is to give them a break and help them focus better when you go back to the original activity they were doing!
Here is the template for the labels:
1-Macarena- the traditional dance "baila tu cuerpo alegria macarena...."- Teach your students ahead of time so they know how to dance it!
2-Tic-tac-toe- students find a partner to work with and quickly play tic-tac-toe on a small piece of paper or in a section of their notebooks named 'games.'

3-Spin X 3- Students stand up and spin 3 times around themselves or go around the desks/group.

4-Seat switch- find another seat to sit!

5-Open Mic (1 minute)- students start singing a song of their choice, a chant, etc.

6-Would you rather...
  1. Would you rather… You'll need at least three or four people to get the game to last. Although some people prefer two person games, generally, the more people you have the better the game will be. Determine who will go first and who they will ask a question to.
  2. Formulate a question. try to make the choices similar, so that it will be harder to choose. For example, "Would you rather lose your mobile phone or your iPod?" Be bold and creative when asking questions, and don't be afraid to get wacky. The question should include these things:
  3. It should begin with the phrase, "Would you rather...?" You should come up with two or three bizarre and uncomfortable options to say after.Some good examples of options include..."Brad, would you rather shave your head or wear lipstick and eye shadow to school on Friday?" or "Julie, would you rather drink an entire jar of pickle juice or have to burn your laptop?"
  4. Give the person time to choose an answer. Make sure they know that they have to pick an answer. The person answering the question can ask some clarifying questions of their own, such as "What color eye shadow would I have to wear?"
  5. Have the person that just answered then ask someone else a question. The game then continues like that. Try to get everyone to be able to ask and answer a question at least once or twice.

7- 10 Push-ups
Students do 10 push-ups or any other movement you determine!
8- Dance Party- students start dancing as the music starts.

9- High 'Cincos'- students need to 'high five' as many students as they can in 30 seconds.

10-Rainstorm- students make rain noises and movement, moving around the room.

11-Telephone
    One person at a given end of the line will whisper a word or phrase into the ear of the person sitting or standing next to them. (Ex. they say, "banana") The next person will then whisper what they hear to the next person, and so on, until the person at the other end of the line receives the given word or phrase. Keep it going. Now, here's where the fun begins! Say the second person thinks they hear the word "bandana" instead of "banana", so they whisper that to the next person, who may hear "Band Anna" or something similar, and so on.
    Have the last person say the word or phrase out loud. The fun part is when the last person to hear the word says it out loud, and the first person says the original word out loud. Everyone usually gets a good laugh out of it, since most of the time the 2 words that are spoken sound nothing alike.
12- Categories



1-Gather your group together in a circle. Choose someone to pick a category. These can be anything from simple ideas like boys' names, to more challenging ideas such as tropical fruits.

2-Everyone must stand with their legs slightly crouched, with their hands on their knees (similar to a baseball player's ready position).

3-When everyone is ready to go, start slapping your hands against your thighs. This gets energy going and increases everyone's awareness.
4-Then call out the category, for example "tropical fruits." You'll then go around in a circle, one by one rapidly spouting out tropical fruits. For example, person A would say "kiwi" then instantly person B would say "papaya" and so on. Continue at a quick pace until you get back to person A.
5- Without stopping, person B would then call a new category such as, "types of birds." When the birds reach all the way back to person B, person C will begin and so on.
6- The game is over when it is person A's turn to choose the category once gain.

13- Get in order!
Students make a line from the tallest to the shortest, first names from A to Z, last names A-Z, shortest hair to longest, etc...

14- Repeat After Me
Teacher come up with a sentence related to the content (or not!) so kids can repeat and memorize it!

15-Song
Students sing a song or chant you taught them. Good for memorizing content!

16- 20 Jumping Jacks
Students do 20 jumping jacks

17- Rock, Scissors, Paper

The famous rock, scissors and paper game. Students play in pairs!


18-Follow the Leader or Simon Says
Simon says... touch your nose... Simon says... jump twice... (create any movement you want your students to follow. It is a great activity to teach action verbs!)

19- Jump Rope
Have ropes available so kids can jump them in a minute or so.

20-“Be Banana”
Students walk around making funny movements and going bananas around the romm! (for 1 minute or so)

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