Creativity to the Core

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games

Quick Fluency Games to Increase Student Engagement

Fluency is such an important part of our lives in the primary grades. Letter fluency, sound fluency, sight word fluency, math fluency…the list goes on and on. Our classroom even has a “Fluency Center” where students practice their very own set of 10 sight words each day. However, there is not enough urgency at that center….and to be honest, I was craving more urgency. I wanted my students to want to see how quickly and consistently they could recite letter sounds and sight words, but I wasn’t quite happy with what I had going on.

Fun fluency games that are focused on academic skills and increase student engagement. Great for small group warm up in math and reading!

Then I was introduced to Spot It. By a second grader. …and of course I ordered it the very next day. Yup! That’s the truth!

This game transformed my small group warm up in literally one day. All students are on task. They have to be. They game requires that you are constantly observing, constantly reassessing, constantly making connections between different images or words. There are so many versions of this game, which is wonderful for teachers who want to keep those struggling students actively engaged.

Fun fluency games that are focused on academic skills and increase student engagement. Great for small group warm up in math and reading!

How to play:

The game is extremely simple, but challenges the brain the entire time. Because of this, it is perfect for primary grades. Students feel successful and are excited to play every time you open the game. To play you simply deal out the deck of cards evenly to the small group of children, place the last card face up in the middle, and make matches. There is no “taking turns”. Students must quickly scan the middle card and then search their top card for a match. (This is key. ONLY the top card. “One card at a time, or you are cheating, and scholars don’t cheat!” That is the end of that issue!) The quicker you are, the better. You want to get rid of all your cards as quickly as possible. First one with no more cards is the winner!

Fluency Activities:

-Simple alphabet matching – say the letter you identified as a match as you place your card in the middle.

-Letter/sound matching – I used the alphabet set, but my students had to say the letter sound as they placed their match in the center. This was a lot more challenging (even for me) because your brain wants to say the actual letter that your eyes see.

-Math fluency using the number/shape set.

-Simple English word fluency – I plan on using this set with my ESOL student so that he can become more familiar with common day to day words.

Fun fluency games that are focused on academic skills and increase student engagement. Great for small group warm up in math and reading!

Overnight, we have become Spot It kings and queens. We are competitive and focused on building letter/sound knowledge every day. We also had a kindergarten conversation about not bragging, complimenting others no matter who looses, and saying congratulations. 

If you use this game, share your ideas and experience with it in the comments. We’d love to hear new ideas for our classroom. If you’re interested in grabbing a game of Spot It for your kiddos, check out the link below.

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Fun Test Prep!

 

Are you ready for testing?!?! We are!
We have one more school day before the FSA (Florida Standards Assessment) reading test. Over the past few weeks, we have been working oh so hard to get ready. We have reviewed in groups, in small group, in pairs, and independently. But, truth is, we are all sick of reading comprehension pages and practice assessments. (Can I get an AMEN?!) Sometimes they are just not fun to do. As teachers, we can change this attitude!
This year, my co-teacher incorporated many fun activities in order to keep our students engaged while continuing to practice using our strategies in the text and on test questions. I am sharing three of our favorites with you today! These “games” are extremely simple to make and will not break the bank. Many thanks to the Dollar Store! Plus, all of these activities can be saved for next year!
Students should read the passage(s) and answer all questions first, showing their evidence in the passage. All of these activities are to be done while REVIEWING the answers with students. The review can happen in small groups or whole group.
Ping Pong Balls & Cups
Place cups in front of a group of 4-6 students (clear cups work even better than these styrofoam ones!). Label the cups with the letters included in the answer choices. Give each student a ping pong ball (cotton balls will also work). As you go over each question, thinking aloud, have students bounce/place their ball in the corresponding cup. Announce the correct answer (Cue student cheering). Students hand all the ping pong balls back to each other and you start over on the next question.
***Yes, students may look around and follow their peers, but we make sure to let them know that we are looking for their own answers only! “Cheating does not help you in life.”….and that whole teacher spiel.
Our Rule:
We allow students to bounce their ping pong ball on the table, ONE TIME ONLY, trying to aim for their chosen answer cup. If the ball doesn’t make it in, they are to just place it in the cup. They follow this rule religiously. If they don’t follow this rule, we would have ping pong balls ALL over the place. Follow it, or don’t play. 🙂
Jenga

You will need a couple Jenga towers, unless you plan to do this whole group (then you only need one tower). We use about five in our classroom. You can borrow them from other teachers or grab them from Amazon.com. While students are completing a reading comprehension packet/review page place a Jenga tower in the middle of each group. As you go over each question, think aloud. Announce the correct answer. (Cue student cheering) Walk around with a pen and give students stars or checks beside the correct answer. When they get a star/check, they may take a Jenga block from the tower. If they do not answer correctly, they work through the question again. Continue through the rest of the questions, walking around to assess as you go. The goal is to see how many blocks you can successfully pull without knocking the tower down. If the tower falls, simply gather all the pieces and rebuild it.

I have also played this in small group with struggling students. We read the passage together and then went one by one through the questions. After they answered one question, I would check it. This provided immediate feedback to them. Plus, they were always excited to pull the blocks!
Fly Swatters
Each child will need a fly swatter. (We bought them at the dollar store, but here is another good deal from Walmart. These are reusable from year to year.) Students break their desk into fourths with dry erase markers and label with the answer choices. (Just use a clorox wipe to clean up!) As you go over the test questions, think aloud.
Say something like, “One, two, three — SWAT!” When you say that, students “swat” their answer. They must hold their fly swatter on the letter until you tell them to remove it. Walk around and assess student answers. Announce the correct answer (Cue student cheering), and then move on to the next question.
Our Rule:
If you mess around with the fly swatter (including but not limited to: hitting another person, lifting it up and changing your answer, swinging it like crazy in the air), you will loose the privilege of the fly swatter, and have to continue reviewing the questions the “normal” way.
 
Those are a few of our classroom favorites! These little games give students a reason to try their very best during our review. It also keeps review a little interesting on the teacher end, too! 

Happy Testing Season!