With all the technology at our fingertips, teachers can find new and engaging activities all over. One of the most trusted places to find great teaching materials is Scholastic Printables. They have over 20,000 award-winning lesson plans, coloring pages, awards, craft activities, games, puzzles, flashcards, and skills sheets. Better yet, you can sign up to get access to all these high-quality teaching materials when you try Printables RISK-FREE for 30 days! It’s all prepared with instructions and ready to download and print for your class. So you’ll have your nights and weekends to relax, instead of working all those extra hours. Sounds good to me! If you teach PreK-6, it’s definitely worth checking out. Hey, after all, it’s FREE! Games in the classroom are one of the most effective means of engagement and behavior management. Every teacher scours the Internet for ways to mix up their lessons and teach the material in an entertaining way. High-paced games and mindful activities have actually been proven to reinforce the material you may have already taught, or to introduce new material without losing the attention of your students after five minutes!
1. PICTIONARY
Materials needed:
Whiteboard
Dry-erase markers
Timer
Vocabulary list
How to Play:
Split the class into 2 teams
Taking turns, students from each team come up and choose a vocabulary word
Set the timer to 30 seconds
The student draws something on the board while only their team tries to guess the word
If they guess before time runs out, they get a point and a new student from the same team draws
If the same team guesses correctly 3 times in a row, let both teams guess
The winning team gets a prize, a bonus point on the test, a privilege, etc.
If s/he answers CORRECTLY, s/he takes a Jenga block from the tower and leaves it on the table. A student from the opposing team must place it on top of the tower, and answer the next question
If s/he answers INCORRECTLY, s/he takes a Jenga block from the tower and leaves it on the table. But a student from their OWN team must place it on top of the tower and answer the next question
The team that makes the tower fall loses, and has to rebuild it for the next game
The winning team gets a prize, a bonus point on the test, a privilege, etc.
This game gets students to repeat vocabulary words, practicing pronunciation and committing them to memory.
Materials needed:
Whiteboard
Dry-erase markers
Vocab list
How to Play:
Write the vocab list on the board
Choose 1 student to be the “detective”
Ask him/her to leave the room, while you choose 1 other student to be the “secret student”
Have the “secret student” come up with a signal (i.e. raise eyebrows, blink eyes, etc.)
Call the “detective” back in the room
Instruct the rest of the class to chant the first word in the list (on the board) until you get the signal from the “secret student” to change to the next one
The “detective” moves around the room, trying to find the “secret student”
If s/he guesses before the end of the list, then the “secret student” becomes the “detective”
9. NO-HANDS CUP-STACKING RACE
This game trains motor skills, and teaches critical-thinking, patience, and teamwork!
Materials needed:
Paper cups
Rubber bands
String
How to Play:
Split the class into teams
Each student in the group ties a string to the rubber band
Set 6 or 10 cups on each table
Each student holds on to one of the strings attached to the rubber band
Students work together as a team, stretching the rubber band around the cups, in order to lift them, and carefully stack them into a pyramid
First team to finish wins!
10. SPEAK, CLUE, ACT!
Great game for building confidence, concentration, and an AWESOME way to get students to remember vocabulary.
Materials needed:
Small Pieces of Scrap paper
Pencil/pen
Bowl or hat
Timer
How to Play:
Write down 20-30 words on small pieces of paper (i.e. places, animals, vocabulary, etc.)
Each paper represents 1 point
Put them all into the bowl or hat
Split the class into 2 teams
Students individually come up to the front of the classroom from each team, to play for their team
Set the timer
Each student that comes up gets 30 seconds to go through as many as s/he can, keeping the strips of papers when his/her team guesses correctly
In the first round, players can only explain what’s on the paper in words, NO actions or gestures!
When 30 seconds are up, a student from the other team goes
Each team takes turns going until there are no more pieces of paper in the bowl/hat
Count the number of papers (points) each team has at the end of the 1st round and keep score on the board
Put all the same papers back in the hat/bowl
In the 2nd round, using the same papers, players can only give their team a 1-WORD clue! (They’re the same words as the 1st round, so if they pay close attention before, they’ll be easy to guess!)
In the 3rd round, using the same papers, players can only make gestures, NO words or noises!
The team with the most points after 3 rounds wins
The winning team gets a prize, a bonus point on the test, a privilege, etc.
Two students from one team come up to the front of the room
Give them a list of vocabulary on an index card
Set the timer
The first student starts by describing the first word on the list to the rest of their team, who tries to guess the word
If his/her team guesses the word, s/he passes the card to the 2nd student, who describes the next word on the list, and the cycle continues until time is up
If their team guesses all the words before the buzzer goes off, they get a point (or they get 1 point for every word they were able to guess correctly)
Then the other team goes
The winning team gets a prize, a bonus point on the test, a privilege, etc.
You give the person holding the chicken a task (i.e. “Name five American States”). Then say “Pass the chicken!”
As soon as you say, “Pass the chicken,” the student holding the chicken passes it to the right
Students quickly pass the chicken around the circle
If it returns to the “chicken holder” before s/he can name the five American states (or whatever), then s/he is still “the chicken holder”
If s/he finishes, the student who has the chicken at the time s/he finishes will be the new “chicken holder”
**Tip: It’s a good idea to prepare topic cards before the game. Topics can relate to your curriculum or be general topics (i.e. foods, animals, sports, celebrities, etc.)
Have fun playing these with your students! And if you have any suggestions for other great games, let us know in the comments!
This article is sponsored by Scholastic Printables. Learn more about their amazing teaching resources HERE.
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