fishing for some new ideas?

This is a hodge-podge of ideas that I have gathered from other teachers.  We can certainly learn a lot from each other! 

 

A through H

K through P

Q through Z

 

 

Alphabet Books - A great idea that can be modified for any grade or ability level.  Have students create class or individual ABC books about a certain topic.   Jerry Pallotta writes a lot of these, which are terrific to use as models when teaching students how to go about writing.

Attention Getting Signals - Some ways to get your students' attention when you need it:  a doorbell, chimes, a clapping pattern, wooden train whistle, kazoo, a short song or chant that students join in on, "If you can hear my voice, clap once . . . If you can hear my voice, clap twice . . . etc. until everyone is with you, Teacher: "Voices!" Students: "Shhhhh!", raised arm with peace sign, counting backward from 5 or ten.

 

Backwards Day - Ask students to wear their clothes backwards; reverse your schedule and do the last thing first, etc.  Fun!

 

Beach Bottom Volleyball - Split the class in half and have each team sit cross-legged facing each other on opposite sides of a  row of chairs.  Use a beach ball, and play as you would volleyball, only no one can get off their "bottom"!  I have played this game in very limited space - works great and the kids love it.

Bedtime Story Hour - A favorite of first graders in my district!  Set aside an hour one night for students to return to school in their pajamas to listen to staff members (also in PJs!) read stories to them.

 

Book Bingo - Make this as easy or as challenging as you want.  On a bingo board, print different types or genres of books you would like students to read.  After reading that type of book, students color in or cross off the box.  Some teachers have them write the titles in the boxes also.  When students get Bingo, they earn a prize.  You can make it 4-corner bingo, straight line bingo, or full card bingo to vary it.

Book Buddies - Cross-age reading pairs get together as often as once a week to share and discuss books together.  All it takes is two willing teachers, and some planning.

Big Tic Tac Toe - Use a vinyl tablecloth or butcher paper to make a huge tic tac toe board that students can sit around.  Divide the class into the x's and o's, and come up with a question for each of the nine spots on the board. In order to move, the team must get the answer correct first.  You can use construction paper x's and o's, or come up with something more fun!  Use this to review vocabulary and concepts.  Easily adaptable to any subject area.

 

Buzz - This is a game many people are familiar with, but often forget to use.  It's great to play while waiting for something, or as a sponge activity.  Choose a number to be the buzz number (usually it's 7, but can be any number).  A student begins counting at 1, and see how far they can get.  The catch is, they must say "buzz" instead of the buzz number, any number with a digit that is the buzz number, or any multiple of the buzz number.  Challenging and engaging!

                                  

"Caught Being Good" Tickets - These are given out to students who are behaving.  Students save them and trade them in for special treats or privileges.  I call  mine "Being Unusually Good" Tickets --- BUG tickets for short.  You can decide how many kids need to save to earn things.  These are especially good to use with kids who have a difficult time doing what they are supposed to!

Clock Partners - If you do a lot of partner work, and don't always want to determine ahead of time who will work with whom, this is terrific!  Give students a blank clock face, and ask them to get 12 other students to write their names where the numbers would be.  Make sure both students write their names on each other's clocks in the same position.  When their clocks are full, students can keep them in a folder to use all year.  Then, when it's time for partner work, you can say, "You will work with your 4 o'clock partner for this activity."  Students look up who they will work with, and get busy.  This helps eliminate a lot of complaining, too!

Class Mascot - Usually a stuffed toy of some kind.  Students take the mascot home overnight or over a weekend, and students write in a journal what they did, then share with the class.  Cute!

 

"Chance" Slips - Students earn slips of paper when they do something well.  They write their names on them, and drop them into a fishbowl.  At a designated time, the teacher draws names, and gives out prizes.  The better you behave, the better your "chance" is to earn something, because you will have more slips with your name in the bowl!  Great for explaining probability, too.

Clothespin Game - Younger students won't be as good at this game as older ones.  It requires the ability to be a very good pretender!  Students stand in a circle with their backs facing inside the circle, and close their eyes.  The teacher walks quietly around the circle, and clips a spring-loaded clothespin onto someone's clothes.  It must be visible.  The person with the clothespin on has to act like s/he doesn't have it!  At a signal, all students open their eyes and try to find the person with the clothespin.  Students may walk around the room, and gesture, but no talking is allowed.  When you see the clothespin, you must sit down in your chair.  The last person to see the clothespin is out.  The person who had the clothespin gets to put it on the next person.  You will find that some classes are better at this than others!

Communication Book - Students glue or attach all memos and notes to and from school into an ordinary composition book.  No loose papers, and everything is chronologically preserved for future reference.  You can ask students to get their parents to sign important papers or information, and have a record that they were aware of it.  Nice!

 

Computer Name Tags - If you have only a few computer stations in your classroom, and are looking for a way to rotate your students on them, you can do this.  Make tent-style nametags out of cardstock that stack easily on top of one another.  Divide these evenly among your computer stations, setting them on top of the monitors.  The name showing is the person whose turn it is.  After a designated amount of time, the student takes his tag off the top of the stack and puts it on the bottom, displaying the next person's name.  Now it's their turn!

 

Desk Inspector / Desk Fairy - Tell your class that you have a desk inspector or desk fairy that visits when students are not in the room to leave goodies for kids with neat desks!  You can leave a certificate, coupon, note, or small piece of candy in the neatest desks.

Do Not Disturb Sign - When working with small groups, some teachers use a do not disturb sign to remind the other children not to interrupt the group.  I have also read about teachers who wear a certain hat that means not to disturb them!  Very creative!

Extra Box - I don't know what I ever did without one of these in my classroom!  Designate one large bin for all extra or leftover papers.  Label it "EXTRA". Train students to put extras of anything in that box.  When students need another one, have them search for it in the box!  Most of the time, they will find one, and you don't need to stop teaching!  We put in PTO notices, permission slips, book order forms, extra worksheets, fliers, you name it!  You will rarely need to search for or make another copy of something for a student.

"Encyclopedia of _____ "- Another neat way to review at the end of a unit.  Give each student a blank page and a word for their encyclopedia entry.  Students must write to describe what the word means, and draw and color illustrations to go with their words.  Put together in order, and add a cover.  Keep as a reference book - kids will read it over and over again.  My former classes have made "The Cowboy Encyclopedia", and "The Encyclopedia of Colonial Life".  You could do this with any subject area!

Fabric - Use fabric in your classroom to create table cloths and curtains in your favorite style.  Some teachers use burlap, felt, or prints to back their bulletin boards.  You can use it to hide a multitude of flaws, and make your room feel more cheerful.

 

Family Trips - Field trips for families!  Meet with your students and their families outside of school to do fun things!  This really strengthens the teacher-student bond, and provides many opportunities for positive interaction between home and school.

 

Freckle Friday - As far as I know, second grade teachers at my old school are still doing this, and it's wonderful!  After reading Freckle Juice together, have the next Friday be Freckle Friday.  Concoct some harmless "Freckle Juice" for students to sample, use washable paint to dot their faces with blue freckles (and your own, too!), and make signs:  "If you want to know why, read Freckle Juice by Judy Blume!"  A fun extension would be to have the class write recipes for other kinds of "juice".

Friendship Soup - Make this for Thanksgiving or Valentine's Day.  Bring in 1 or 2 crock pots, and have each student bring one ingredient for making a basic vegetable soup.  Put them into the pots in the morning, and by the end of the day, you will have a delicious treat waiting for you to share!

 

Glyph Necklaces - Great beginning of the year activity.  Supply students with cord and pony beads.  Each color or type of bead stands for something about the student.  Pink - girl; blue - boy; yellow - enjoys reading; green - enjoys math; etc.  Make up your own meanings for each color.  You can also give students the letters for their first names or their initials.  Students gather the beads that represent information about them, and put it on a necklace.  By looking at other kids' beads, students learn about their classmates!  Some teachers I know made key chains or zipper pulls instead.  The kids love this!

 

Homework Bingo - Make and laminate a large bingo board with as many squares under the BINGO as you can.  When a student turns in homework, he writes his initials (or PIN) in one of the squares.  At the end of the week, the teacher selects a random letter/number combination.  Whoever has their initials in that box wins a prize.  If no one's initials are there, pick another combination.  Clean the poster and use again the following week.

 

Lamps - I didn't realize how much charm and coziness a lamp can add to a classroom until I brought one into my own room.  You can get all sorts of small, interesting lamps for a reasonable price.  Try it!

Leprechaun Traps - The week before St. Patrick's Day, give students the assignment of building a leprechaun trap!  Have them bring these to school on St. Patrick's Day, and present them to the class.  These always turn out to be one of the biggest hits!  We invite younger students in to see them.

 

Loft - If you can get the okay to do this, and have the means to, build a loft in your room!  I have seen amazing pictures of these, but sadly have never had my own.  Make sure it is safe for students to go under it, and you will double the space it takes up!  Students can go up in the loft to read silently or as a special reward.

 

Lunch Bunch - A lunch date with the teacher!  I have used this several ways.  I let the birthday child choose three other students from the class to have lunch with us.  I have met with student book clubs over lunch.  I have also given lunch bunch coupons out as rewards. 

 

Mastery Clubs - These are sets of questions or problems for student to answer.  You can make them for any subject area.  Students work through them independently, and earn something when they complete all of the activities. 

 

Math Cave - The original idea was to cover a table with brown butcher paper, and post math problems underneath on the "walls" of the cave.  Students crawl into the cave with a flashlight to copy and solve the problems.  I made a bulletin board called the math cave, and posted random addition, subtraction, multiplication and division problems there.  Students still got to use the flashlights to "find" a problem.  They had to find 10 of each type and list them together, with the answers.  They were very motivated to finish, even though they weren't crawling all over each other under a table where I couldn't see them!

Mini Offices - By stapling two file folders together, you can make privacy screens for your students to stand up when they are taking a test, or need to work independently.  Some teachers add helpful tools to the folders such as:  alphabet strips, number lines, high frequency word lists, multiplication tables, and other things.  You can attach anything you think it would be helpful for your students to have as a reference.

 

MOOSE Notebooks - There are several acronyms for this!  Basically, it is a binder that holds, organizes,  and transports all important work and information that students need.  I call  mine BEE Books.  See this link for more information.

Mystery Readers - Here's a great way to invite parents and other members of the community (or even the school staff) into your classroom.  Set aside time each week for your Mystery Reader to read to students.  Don't tell the students who is coming!  See if they can guess.  Lots of fun.

 

Mystery Trash - When students are reluctant to pick up all those tiny scraps on the floor, tell them you see a piece of mystery trash.  Whoever picks it up will get a treat.  Watch them scramble, and reward someone with a small token of your appreciation!

 

Nim - I play this on the first or second day of school every year.  There are many versions, but here's what I do:  Line up 11 counters on the overhead projector.  Have a volunteer play against you the first time.  Players take turns removing 1 or 2 counters  at a time.  Whoever is stuck with the last one is the loser!  To switch it up a bit, try starting with 10 or 12 counters.  Or, make the person who gets the last counter the winner!  This game requires more critical thinking than is apparent at first glance.

Pennies in Your Pocket - I have only had to do this once, but it really helped me with a particularly difficult student!  Before students arrive, put 10 pennies in your right hand pocket.  Try to find something positive to say to or about your "problem student" all day.  Every time you do it, move a penny from your right pocket into your left.  If you end the day with all the pennies in your left pocket, you win -- and so does your student!  She has received ten wonderful comments from you today!

 

Pizza Box Portfolios - Use 12 inch pizza boxes as student portfolios.  They can decorate the boxes, and periodically put examples of their best work inside.  My students always like this, and their parents do, too.  At the end of the year, they take them home.

 

Peanut Butter and Jelly Game - When I taught Basic Skills Reading, I was always looking for ways to make vocabulary acquisition more exciting, and this game was a big hit!  Laminate 4 inch squares of manila, purple, and brown construction paper.  Program them with vocabulary words, and place them all face down on the table.  Students take turns choosing squares, reading the word, and telling you what the word means.  The object is to build a PBJ sandwich with 2 manila squares as the bread, 1 purple "jelly" square, and 1 brown "peanut butter" square.  Kids will play this over and over again, until you can't stand it anymore!  In fact, they liked it so much, I made up the Cheeseburger Game - same concept with colored circles (2 manila, 1 brown, 1 yellow).  I'm sure there are lots of other creative people out there who can think up lots of other things to make!

Pony Bead Multiplication Facts - One of my colleagues helped her class to master the basic multiplication facts by giving them large safety pins on which they accumulated different colored pony beads.  When they knew their 2 times table, they got a red bead.  When they master the 3s, they added a blue one, and so on.  Very cute, and very motivating!

 

Paper Talk - Have conversations with your students on paper!  Lots of teachers in my district learned to use this strategy at a workshop.  It is a packet of lined paper.  The cover sheet is reserved for your questions and comments back to the student.  Students date their entries, and can tell you things or ask questions.  You collect them periodically to respond - just a quickly jotted note.  Date your response on the front sheet, and record your thoughts.  When you run out of room on the front sheet, staple another one on top of it.  Your students will enjoy getting their packets back to see what you have said.  This is a really good way to build trust with very shy students, who may not be confident enough to speak to you aloud.  It's a nice way to establish relationships with the individual students in your class.  Younger students can draw and label instead of writing in sentences.

Poetry Break - One day, one of my colleagues brought her students into my room to give us a poetry break.  A pair of her students recited a poem to my class, then they went on to do the same for another class.  You could easily do this within your own room as well.  Just use some sort of signal, and say "Poetry Break!"  Then recite a poem to your students.  Challenge students to memorize poems and tell you when they are ready.  Let them ring the bell sometime during the day, and recite the poem.  I also have students keep copies of poems and songs we use in poetry and song notebooks.  We refer back to them many times!

 

Project Jambo - A non-profit organization run by Sue Gilbert.  The goal is for students in the US to learn about the African culture from children in Kenya.  I stumbled upon this when I was on the internet one day, and joined.  Check it out here!

 

Pueblo - One year, my second graders built a mini-pueblo using milk cartons covered with brown paper.  It was just big enough for about three of them to fit in.  They liked to sit inside and read or do their work.  This is a neat way to highlight part of your curriculum.   I have seen teachers make igloos when studying the Inuit, teepees during Native American studies, and bee hives after learning about insects. 

Recipe for Me - After drawing a self-portrait, have students write a recipe for themselves.  These turn out so adorable!  Two cups of curly brown hair, one missing front tooth, and a sprinkle of freckles . . . you get the picture!  Be sure to hang these in the hall so everyone can see!!!

 

Reading Restaurant - Transform your room into a cafe!  This takes some planning, but turns out to be very worthwhile.  Have each student in your class choose a picture book, practice reading it several times, and write a short blurb about it as if it were food on a menu.  Group students into tables, and compile menus listing the books of all group members.  Invite classes of younger students to make reservations to come to your restaurant.  Your students seat them, take their "orders" from the menus (reading the menus aloud for non-readers), and serve up their books.  They read their books aloud to whomever ordered it.  You can really go crazy with this, as I have in the past.  Make theme tables, or tables based on a series or author.  Name your restaurant, and have your students make posters announcing the grand opening to hang in the halls.  Bring in table cloths.  Offer poems for dessert!  One year, we even had after dinner mints and a strolling violinist!!!
 

Rain Gutters - A creative way to display the front covers of books so students can choose what to read.  Of course, you will need permission, and maybe some help to do this, but the end result is beautiful!  Click here for more information.

 

Rainbow Reading Log - I used this with younger students, as it doesn't require them to write titles or  authors, but is a way to keep track of the number of books they read.  On a full sheet of paper, use a rainbow graphic, or sketch a rainbow with the seven layers.  Divide each part of the rainbow into 10 blocks.  Label the bottom layer 'red', the next one 'orange', and so on.  As students finish a book, they color in one block on the rainbow, beginning with the red part.  My second graders really liked to see who would get to the violet part first!

"Safe" Place - I read about this idea somewhere, but have never used it.  Find a graphic of a safe to photocopy for your students.  Have them glue it to the front of a pocket folder.  Whenever you give them a handout that you want them to keep and use again, tell them to put it in a "SAFE place"!

 

Simulations - Having my students participate in simulated events really helped to spice up my Social Studies lessons.  Instead of just reading about it, have them do it!  A second grade teacher in my school held a trial with lawyers and a judge.  When we read about Balto, we break into teams and have a simulated Iditarod.  When we study immigration, we become 'immigrants' and face all of the same challenges our ancestors did.  If you study the Revolutionary War, you can have your students be red coats and patriots, or even Paul Revere.

Secret Student - Secretly choose one student every day, and be especially kind to him or her.  Try to do as many nice things as you can for that child that day.  Rotate your students through the cycle, so everyone will have a day of being treated extra special!  You don't have to tell anyone, and it will make you feel terrific.

 

Shamrock Shakes - Yep, they have them at McDonald's, but my sons' teacher did this, too, and it has stayed in their memories for years!  On St. Patrick's Day, treat your students to milkshakes made with mint ice cream, tinted green, of course!  The teacher would also invite her former students back to her room to have some!

"Sparkle" - The BEST spelling game ever invented!  Very fun.  Even your weakest spellers will like this!  Read how to play here.

 

Snack Mix - As I got older, I became more "allergic" to cooking with my students!  So now, I make snack mixes with them.  You can find lots of different kinds, but my favorite is one I created myself and like to call "Third Grade Snack Mix".  We put in: 
  • mini marshmallows to remind us to treat each other with kindness and softness
  • M&Ms to remind us that even though we look different on the outside, we are all the same inside
  • goldfish crackers (or pretzels) to remind us that we need to 'swim together'
  • and raisins to remind us that it's okay to make mistakes!

I like to make and eat this at the end of the first day of school.  NOTE: Never use nuts, in case of allergies!

Snowball Book Blitz - One of the second grade teachers in my old school did this every January to motivate her students to read.  In the middle of winter, it gave them something to get excited about!  She devoted a bulletin board to a snowy scene that held snowball cutouts listing books students read.  I believe she divided the class into two teams, and ran it like a snowball fight!  Whichever team read the most by the end of the month won the Snowball Book Blitz!  Cool!

Tattle Box - There's always one in your class, isn't there?  Now you can tell the tattler to write it on a slip of paper and put it in the Tattle Box.  Decorate a small shoebox and label it "Tattle Box". Hopefully, after you keep referring the child to the box, he or she will get the picture, and you won't have to listen to any more daily reports!  Some teachers have a stuffed animal for students to tell, instead of a box.

 

Technospud - Another neat site I came across!  I have participated in the Doublestuf Oreo project, and the Lucky Charms project.  Look it up for other creative activities!

 

Themed Room - Consider having a year-long theme in your room.  It's fun to coordinate everything around a favorite theme.  Try dogs, frogs, stars, bees, monkeys, or anything else that catches your eye!  the students like to be part of this, too.  You may want to choose a new theme each year, or keep one theme for several years in a row!  I love my bees!

Table Races / Table Captains - A little competition between groups of students might be all you need to keep them behaving all year long.  Have tables earn points for having their homework, finishing on time, and anything else you want students to do.  Table captains are responsible for collecting things from the students at their table, passing things out, getting  materials for the science lesson, or whatever you want.  A nice little management tip!

"Three Before Me" - To get students to be more independent, and rely on their classmates for help rather than always asking you, tell them to ask 3 classmates before coming to ask you.  Usually, they never make it to you, because someone else knows how to help them!  If students try to ask you first, just say "Which 3 classmates did you ask for help?"  This will remind them about "3 before me".

 

Word Jar - Our fourth graders read Donavan's Word Jar.  My son's fourth grade teacher set up a huge plastic jar in her room for students to put interesting new words in.  At the end of each day, she would pick a few out and share them so the class could discuss their meanings.  You can also make a large jar-shaped cutout of butcher paper, and have students write their words directly on the jar.  Excellent for vocabulary development and teaching word choice in writing!

 

Walk - On Number Line - When I taught second grade, I made a number line large enough for students to walk on.  I laminated it so I could gather the class around it.  Choose a student to walk the line, and give the student a math fact to act out.  For 11 - 7, the student would begin on 11, and walk back seven numbers, ending up on 4.  A very concrete way to show kids how to use a number line!

Xmas Trees - These are just so darling!  I have never made them, but I really want to!  You can make them with dowels, and paper circles.  See Mrs. Pearson's site for details!

 

Zip Around the Room Game - Also known as the Chain Game - One of my colleagues taught me how to make the cards for this game, and ever since then I have used it for reading, math, grammar, science, and social studies!  It's a very versatile tool to have in your repertoire.  Click here for directions.