Try these fun brain break ideas to help active kids stay focused and learn at their best like yoga, Go Noodle, and printable cards.
Time filler games are a necessity in the classroom! Don't you hate those awkward few minutes between activities we all have with our students? You know, when everyone's packed up and just waiting for the bell to ring, or when there are only four minutes before lunch, or the lesson you planned went much more...
Impulse Control Activities for Kids: Fun activities, games, and resources that will help your kids practice self-control
Students will have fun while learning how to cooperate and communicate.
Help Save Fred is a great stem activity! This save Fred the worm is super fun stem activity will help your students strengthen team building skills and...
Brain breaks are a great classroom management tool to use regularly in your classroom. Brain breaks are short, 1 to 2 minute, activities that can…
If you teach ESL, then you probably use ESL warm up games. While newer teachers often struggle to find warm ups for English class that are compelling enough for students, veteran teachers may burn out…
FREE printable puzzles to teach preschoolers about antonyms and opposites. Includes 12 self-correcting puzzles with visual cues to find the matching pair of antonyms.
Teaching geometry can be FUN! Take a look at these geometry videos, books, anchor charts, activities, games, and freebies! Perfect for 1st and 2nd grade!
Check out these 5 No-Prep Reviews Games for any classroom or any subject! Click to see what no-prep review games you can add to your teacher toolbox!
Need to help your students get more hands on practice for their vocabulary words? I've got 5 fun vocabulary games you can use right away!
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These engaging strategies to incorporate movement in the classroom are perfect for the fidgety students & kinesthetic learners in your class!
The game is on with these 100 fun icebreaker questions for kids. With these open-ended questions, kids can get to know each other in no time.
Looking for some fun ideas to do with your kiddos?! Take a look at these ten fantastic STEM activities with straws that kids will love.
Use these Six Minutes podcast lessons and follow up activities to plan engaging and fun lesson plans for your middle school ELA students.
Write with a fidget spinner activity, lesson, or summer learning activity that kids actually want to do in class or at home!
Our Wrist Wraps will make acknowledging positive student behavior and achievement fun, engaging and easy-to-prep! We have carefully illustrated 10 gorgeous bands and provided them in color and blackline versions for you to simply print and cut. Wrap them around the wrists of your students and apply a piece of tape or dab of glue to secure. Included in this file so far are the following brag bands: Great work Well done I am wonderful I am a super star I am kind I am an awesome helper I worked hard today I do not give up I am amazing I did excellent work Little learners would love to color a blackline version using crayons or bright pencils before you wrap it on their wrist! In each of the 10 designs, we've provided 5 different color choices. Hop over to TpT to find this new printable in our collection!
This post explains how teachers can use an academic version of the highly engaging Spoons game to review concepts. Free games included!
Use our free printable music activity as a boredom buster with kids stuck at home or as a fun part of music education in a classroom.
Your baby is growing up quickly and is having a whale of a time making discoveries and exploring new things. Of course, your excitement to knows no bounds. However, for your child to master important motor skills, it’s vital that she has good bilateral coordination.
Teaching social skills with Interrupting Chicken Activities can be so much fun! How many times have we as teachers said: “Raise your hand….please” “Don’t blurt out!” “Wait your turn!”. Hey, some of us might be a millionaire if we got paid a dollar every time it happened. What I love about the story Interrupting ... Read More about Interrupting Chicken Activities
Story retelling is an ongoing core kindergarten skill and takes place when a student is able to comprehend a story and retell it in their own words. A retell should include key details like characters, the setting, the problem, main events (BME) and solution of the story. Kindergarten students do most story retells from listening to a story read aloud. Because of this, I feel it’s super important to select high quality and engaging texts to help develop a real love for reading. For me, I’m drawn to a silly or feel good story that opens up the floor for a great conversation. I want it to be a memorable and lovable story that they'll want to tell and retell! My Master's is actually in Library Science, so I'm extremely passionate about book selection AND story retelling for littles. So much that... I've married them into a series of monthly retelling activities, using high quality picture books, that work perfect in a kindergarten and first grade classroom. Pre, During and After Reading: Set your students up for success! Book talk the text prior to reading. When reading, an interactive read aloud goes along way with comprehension, I love to occasionally stop and really dig into an illustration or get student input when reading aloud. Whether you retell on day one or later, your kiddos will need to recall key details, and I love doing it with multiple and varied exposure using a single story. Retelling Hand: I like to start and review with a retelling visual like the retelling hand! You can grab a free retelling hand by clicking here. Review the parts of a story retell and then give the kiddos time to "turn and talk" to recall information in the story together. Retell Games: I love board games and just games in general. They're engaging, casual and get you TALKING and moving a little bit! After the kiddos have spent time with a partner, I like to take it up a notch and retell it in a gaming setting. My retelling activities generally include a low-prep game to help the kiddos start chatting alongside some visual support. Anchor Chart: Shared Writing and Sequence: After double exposure with a buddy, it's time to come together and discuss the retell. Review and record the characters and setting. For the sequence portion, students will help you order the events. Once the events have been sequenced, students will help come up with the beginning, middle and end to wrap up the retell (great shared writing practice). If you're looking for interactive writing opportunities, scripting the BME sentences would also be a great way for students to come up and assist with writing. The picture card activity works great on chart paper, a pocket chart or even repurposed later on using a pocket chart in a literacy center. *all corresponding activities can be found here. The Retelling CRAFT or Printable Option: To offer a chance for independent practice, the story craft or cut & paste printable will allow the individual student to practice sequence and retelling the story at their own pace and sharpen fine motor skills. I've always told my students a retell activity is a keepsake... because it's almost like you're taking the book home to read it to a loved one. This retell activity supports the mentor text Florette by Anna Walker. *all corresponding activities can be found here. Written Expression: The written and illustrated graphic organizer is another way for students to show their comprehension of the story after reading and practice writing. If you're making a follow-up literacy center with the picture cards in a pocket chart, this printable (or any of the others within the kit) would be a great add-on. For more retell activities, click here!
Whether you're looking for a first day ice breaker or games to play at a back to school bash, this list has something for everyone!
Get your students reading and writing this summer with these fun and engaging enrichment activities for elementary grades.
Check out these great ideas for helping your students feel like part of a classroom community during distance learning & social distancing.
Printable classroom bingo game to encourage students to engage and socialize on their first day of school with their new classmates! Bingo cards are a great resource and fun classroom activity for ice breaking and interacting Teaching, Classroom management, educational game, printable kids bingo, For elementary to secondary school. Provided in colour and in black and white.
Impulse Control Activities for Kids: Fun activities, games, and resources that will help your kids practice self-control
Happy November, teacher friends! I love this season so much in the classroom! You can really feel that the breaks are so close and Christmas is in the air! Sometimes, along with that comes the need for more redirection because students can sense it, too. That's when I pull out a classroom behavior management game to get us back on track. The goal of these games is to take students from being extrinsically motivated to intrinsically motivated. I want them to make the right choice because it's the right thing to do and not just for a prize. How you, as the teacher, approach that makes all the difference and sets the tone. They need a good amount of positive feedback when playing these games for them to be successful, such as, "I noticed how quickly and quietly you transitioned from the carpet to your seat." You can then ask a student to add a game piece to the board. If you have strong routines and a classroom management system in place, I promise that you will see a noticeable difference in the way your classroom runs with my Classroom Management Games. I wanted to make the prizes simple and free, so I always post this list as a reminder for me. I will pick maybe three and have students vote on what they want to work towards. This gives them a goal to strive for. We also go over expectations for the game and the specific ways they can earn a game piece. Each game will focus on a specific behavior. Once we get that behavior or routine down, we move onto a different game. Transitions are something I am always working on, so I made this one, Transitions are as Easy as Pie. When students exhibit a quick, quiet, and smooth transition, they get to add a piece of pie to the game board. Once the pie is built, they earn the reward. Some groups tattle more than others, so it's up to you on whether or not you use this game. The group from this year tattled fairly frequently, so I would have definitely used this game! Students can earn a piece by effectively solving problems amongst themselves. I earn a piece for tic tac toe if someone tattles. Be sure to go over what is a tattle and what needs to be brought to the teacher. Good manners is so important to me. I want my students to display good manners throughout the building and to be models for others. When they get a compliment for having good manners, such as in the cafeteria, they earn a dish for the Thanksgiving table. This game really gets them thinking about how they act inside and outside of the classroom. Your definition of goodness might be different than mine, but for me, I am looking for students showing acts of kindness to other students and to adults at school. When they are caught showing goodness or kindness, they get to add a piece to the BUMP board. If they are exhibiting a less desirable behavior, I get to add a piece. You can bump each other's piece off the board; I don't bump them but they do bump me quite frequently. The goal is to get four in a row. I also let students tell me if someone is kind to them for a piece for the class. The turkey challenge is just a classic game of students vs. teacher. Choose the focus you need for your class, such as raising their hand or being engaged. Students are the turkeys and are trying to earn pieces for their side. If they are not exhibiting the desired behavior, the teacher earns a piece. Whoever has the most at the end of the lesson or day wins. I print each of these games on cardstock and laminate them. I use round Velcro dots from Amazon to attach the pieces to the game board. I display the game at the front of the room, so that students can have that visual of what they are working on and for. You can even ask your students what they think the class needs to work on to give them more ownership over the game. You can find the link to the games HERE or by clicking on any of the photos. An update to the December games is on the way, so be on the lookout for that! Thanks for stopping by!
Start off the elementary school year with these special back to school lessons and activities that are fun and important for K-2 kids: Participate in community building activities, get to know each other with All About Me activities, and build friendship and empathy with students.
Students will have fun while learning how to cooperate and communicate.
This spin and spell Easter egg game is a perfect preschool or kindergarten activity to make learning to spell and rhyme fun! Great for learning sight words!
It's more than what it seems.
Help Save Fred is a great stem activity! This save Fred the worm is super fun stem activity will help your students strengthen team building skills and...
Flip Sticks are an amazing participation tool for calling on students at random! The idea of using name sticks is nothing new. In fact, this classroom management strategy has been around for a long time. Unfortunately, what I didn’t learn until a few years into teaching, was how to keep track of which students had […]
It's back to school time! Be successful and avoid the first year mistakes with these ideas about classroom management, organization, personal growth, and much more I wish I knew!
Time filler games are a necessity in the classroom! Don't you hate those awkward few minutes between activities we all have with our students? You know, when everyone's packed up and just waiting for the bell to ring, or when there are only four minutes before lunch, or the lesson you planned went much more...
Try these fun brain break ideas to help active kids stay focused and learn at their best like yoga, Go Noodle, and printable cards.
