LEARNING ACTIVITIES FOR PRIMARY SCHOOL STUDENTS

Top 10 Classroom Games

MARCH 2, 2018 8 MINS READ

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Academic studies naturally coincide with rote teaching styles
and textbook work. However, it is important to make learning
exciting for students with interactive activities. Incorporating
fun classroom games into your lesson plan offers a simple way
to motivate your students, and encourage them to draw on
their creativity and imagination.

These top 10 classroom games provide fun ways to engage

your students in academic learning, without them even
realising!

1. Charades
This simple but classic game is a great way to encourage your
student to get out of their seats and participate in the lesson.

Resources: a list of people, actions or concepts related to the

subject you are teaching.

Game: Select a student to stand at the front of the room and

act out a word from your list (no speaking allowed). The rest of
the class must then guess what the student is attempting to
portray. Other students can shout out their guesses or put their
hands up – depending on your teaching preference! Whoever
guesses correctly can act out the next word.
Alternative: A more challenging version involves the student
describing a subject-specific word but restricted by a list of
forbidden words, e.g. describing ‘habitat’ without using the
words ‘home’ or ‘animals’.

2. Hangman
A traditional but interactive game which improves students’
spelling and subject knowledge, but is also enjoyable.

Resources: whiteboard and pen or interactive whiteboard, plus

a list of subject-specific words to inspire your students.
Game: Divide your class into two teams then select a student to
stand at the front of the class and think of a word related to the
lesson (or you could give them a suitable word). The student
must then draw spaces on the whiteboard to represent each
letter in their word. The rest of the class then guesses the word,
one letter at a time (allow one student from each team to guess
alternately). Incorrect guesses result in a hangman being drawn
(one line at a time). The first team to guess the word wins,
unless the hangman is completed. The game then repeats with
another student thinking of a relevant word.
Alternative: If you feel a hangman would not be appropriate
then use a different image – either subject-specific or think
creatively e.g. a spaceman or snowman.

3. Scatter-gories
This fun game will encourage your students to think ‘outside-
the-box’ and draw on a range of subject knowledge.
Resources: pieces of paper, pens/pencils and a list of subject-
specific categories e.g. Earth and Space (topic): rocks,
landforms, weather, and solar system (categories).
Game: Split students into small groups and ask them to note
down the categories on their pieces of paper. Choose a letter
(A-Z) at random and give students 1-2 minutes (depending on
how many categories) to think of a word for each category,
beginning with that letter. Once the time is up, allocate points
for unique answers, i.e. if two teams write down the same word
for a category then neither get any points. Repeat the game
with different letters.
Example: Letter M – Topic: Earth and Space
Rocks: Metamorphic
Landforms: Mountain
Weather: Mist
Solar System: Mars

Alternative: If you class only has a small number of students

then they could fill in the categories individually, rather than
working in teams.

4. Bingo
A quick and simple game which never fails to motivate students
in their learning.

Resources: whiteboards and pen or paper and pen/pencils, plus

a list of subject-specific terms or concepts e.g. numbers,
phonics, key vocabulary, scientific formulae or historical
figures.
Game:Ask students to draw a 6 x 6 grid on their whiteboards or
pieces of paper then select 6 words or images from the given
list to draw/write in their grid. You must then randomly select a
word from the list to describe, and students must guess the
word in order to cross it off on their grid (if present). Continue
describing different words until one student successfully
completes their grid and shouts ‘bingo!’ (you can also award a
prize to the first student who gets 3 in a row).
Alternative: Students can insert their own subject-related
answers into the bingo grid, but this makes it more challenging
for you due to extensive word choice and ambiguity. Also, if you
have more time, then you could create your own bingo boards
with specific vocabulary or concepts you are covering in that
lesson (reusable).

5. Puzzles
This creative group game encourages students to work
together and visualize academic concepts in an abstract way.

Resources: images, words, calculations or concepts printed or

stuck on card/paper and cut into random shapes (puzzle pieces)
e.g. maths calculations, chemical equations, subject
vocabulary, historical figures etc.
Game: Separate your class into groups (or simply use table
groupings) then hand out a puzzle for each group to piece
together.
Alternative: Students can create their own puzzles on the
computer or drawn onto card/paper for their peers to complete.

6. Draw swords
This quick fire game tests students’ fine motor skills and
promotes quick thinking, as well as generating some healthy
competition.

Resources: Dictionary or textbook, plus list of key vocabulary.

Game: Split your class into small groups and choose a student
from each group to start. The nominated student then
places the dictionary or textbook under their arm. You then say
a word or image which the students must then race to find in
their book (like drawing a sword from under their arm!). The
first student to find the word/image is the winner. The game
continues with different words/images until every student has
had a turn.
Alternative: If you have enough textbooks or dictionaries for
every student then the whole class can compete against each
other.

7. Hot potato
This fun classroom game encourages students to think on their
feet and draw on a range of subject knowledge.
Resources: a soft toy, object or item for each group to pass
round e.g. bear or ball, plus a list of subject-specific themes e.g.
numbers – prime, composite, rational, fractions, decimals etc.
Game: Divide your class into small groups and hand out an
object/soft toy to each group. The person with the object in
each group will start. You name a title or theme, e.g. prime
numbers, and it is then a race against time for the student to
give 5 correct responses, e.g. 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, before the item/soft
toy has been passed round everyone in their small group and
returned to them.
Alternative: With small classes you could play in one large
group, however shy students may find this intimidating
because of the the pressure to give correct answers.

8. Pictionary
An old classic but also a great way for students to visualize
their understanding in a fun team game.

Resources: whiteboards and pens or pieces of paper and

pencils/pens, plus a list of subject-specific concepts.
Game: Students work in small groups. One student from each
group is chosen to start and they must draw the subject-related
concept you state, within a given time (30 seconds – 2
minutes). The rest of the group must then guess what he/she is
drawing. The first group to correctly guess the word wins. The
game repeats until every student has had a turn/there are no
more words on your list.
Alternative: Students could model concepts using playdough for
their peers to guess.

9. Quizalize
This fun and engaging quiz game allows you to test your
students’ knowledge, in any subject, using a motivating
classroom team activity.

Resources: interactive whiteboard, devices for your students or

an IT suite and a Quizalize quiz (create your own or choose
from thousands of quizzes created by teachers from around the
world).
Game: Once you’ve created or found a quiz on Quizalize, simply
assign it to your students and they can access it from any
device – no apps to install! Students visit zzi.sh, enter their
class code (shown on the ‘Launch Game View’ screen) followed
by their name and then they can play the quiz. Students’
results appear in real-time, so they can track their score while
they play (Click here to sign up and find out more).
Alternative: You can also set Quizalize quizzes as an interactive
homework.

10. Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down

Although this game isn’t academic, it is an excellent behaviour
management tool which endorses hard work amongst students.

Resources: n/a
Game: 3 – 4 students are chosen to stand at the front of the
room. The rest of the class then put their heads on the table
and hold their thumbs in the air. The 3 – 4 students at the front
then carefully tip-toe around the classroom and gently pinch
one thumb each, from the students with their heads down. The
3-4 students return to the front of the room, once they have
pinched a thumb, and the class raise their heads. The students
whose thumbs were pinched then stand and have to guess who
pinched them. If they guess correctly then they swap with the
student at the front, and the game continues.
Alternative: To make this academic you could ask subject-
related questions to select the students for each round.
Try out these exciting classroom games with your students and
encourage them to apply their knowledge in new ways. These
simple but effective group games are a great addition to any
lesson plan.
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RICHE
CREATIVITY

22 Simple Ideas for Harnessing Creativity in the Elementary Classroom

By Trisha Riche
December 14, 2011 Updated February 6, 2014

Here's an experiment you can conduct in many schools, maybe even the
school where you teach. Look through the door of one classroom and you
might see the students hunched over, not engaged, even frowning. The teacher
looks frazzled, tired and wishing he or she were somewhere else. You might
think, "Well, everyone has a bad day." But you might witness this scenario in
this teacher's classroom no matter what day you look through the door. For the
second part of the experiment, look through the door of another classroom, and
you might see a room full of lively students, eager, engaged and participating.
The teacher is full of energy and smiling. This happens no matter what day you
look through that door.

What is the second teacher doing that the first one isn't? He or she is using
creativity in that classroom. Creativity makes a huge difference. Creativity is
vital for a classroom to be successful. There is a common misconception that
the word "creative" has to do mostly with the arts. But being artistic is only a
small part of creativity. While any classroom environment would benefit from a
teacher blessed with the gift of artistic talent, creativity is many other things.

Creativity is innovation.
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting
different results. If something isn't working, then it's broken and needs to be
fixed. Come up with something else that will work for your students.

Creativity is thinking outside the box.

Everything doesn't always have to be black and white. Sometimes the oddball
activities are the ones that work.

Creativity is improvisation.
Things don't always turn out the way you planned. When I've realized that a
lesson wasn't working midway through, I literally tossed it out and started over.
I tried a different angle (in this case, incorporating a movie that my students
liked), and it worked.

Creativity is professional growth.

We don't always have all of the answers. If you can't figure out what to do, use
your coworkers as resources. You might find some really great ideas that make
sense for your students. Also, look at research and see what has worked for
other teachers around the world. Use resources
like KS2, hubbardscupboard.org, and starfall.com for some fun engaging
activities.

Creativity is being a risk taker or mold breaker.

I have had many crazy ideas for things to try in the classroom. Some have
worked and some haven't, but I found that trying was better than being stuck in
the same pattern that isn't working.

Creativity is passion.
Be passionate about what you are doing. You are there to inspire students to
become lifelong learners. If you want them to love learning, you have to love
what you are teaching.
 SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES: THE GAME OF LEARNING
For the first six activities, seat your students in a circle and introduce a ball or
something else they can pass easily between them.

1. "I know a word"

You can begin this skills game by saying, "I know a word that starts with the
same sound you hear at the beginning of butterfly." Students will raise their
hands, and you choose one to tell you a word the starts with "B." Once they tell
you the word, toss them the ball. They choose someone else to tell them
another word that begins with that letter, passing the ball to the student who
gets it right. As the game continues, change the letter every so often. Play until
everyone has had a turn. You can use this game for beginning sounds, ending
sounds, middle sounds etc.

2. Rhyme time
Say, "I need a word that rhymes with cat." Pass the ball to someone once they
give you a correct rhyming word. Keep changing the starting word and continue
the game until all kids have gone.

3. Practice counting
You can have your class practice counting by twos, fives and tens. Pass the
ball clockwise or counterclockwise, with the student who receives it saying the
number that comes next. For example, you say, "We are going to count by
fives. Five!" The person next to you says "ten," the next one says "fifteen," and
so on.

4. Spelling review
For older kids, you can pass the ball and go through your spelling words one
letter at a time. For example, you say, "We're going to spell the word t heir, as
in 'This is their ball.'" The first person says "T," the second person says "H,"
the third person says "E," and so on. If one says the wrong letter, the next
person says correct letter and fixes the mistake.
5. "I need a synonym"
This is a great vocabulary building exercise. You can use the ball or a pair of
flyswatters, depending on the age of your students. You say, "I need a
synonym for mad." Choose someone to give you another word that means the
same thing, such as angry, furious and enraged. For older kids, you can put a
list of synonyms on the board and divide the class into two teams. Have one
person from each team come up and compete. Whoever slaps the board with
the flyswatter and says the correct synonym wins a point for their team. In the
end all of your students win a better vocabulary.

6. Reinforce other skills

What other subjects are you teaching? You could adapt these games to fit
pretty much anything. "I need a name of an explorer." "I need you to name one
of the phases of matter." "I need to know one of the reasons for the Civil War."
Be creative!

7. Roll dice to have your students answer story questions.

"What is the plot of the story?" you might ask them. "What is the setting?" You
can introduce more reflective questions such as, "Why did this character do
what he or she did?" and "What was the author's purpose?" You can write
these questions on cards or purchase them from reallygoodstuff.com.

8. Sight Word Slap Game

Write your sight words on the board. Separate your class into two random
teams. Let one person from each team step forward and hold a fly swatter. Call
out one of the sight words. The first one to slap the correct sight word gets a
point for their team. Continue until everyone has gone. This is great for helping
sight word recognition.

SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES: THE ARTSY SIDE OF CREATIVE

9. Use different voices or accents when reading stories to the class.
10. Dress in costumes of storybook characters to leave a lasting impression, or
let students dress up as characters to retell stories.

11. Turn your room into the environment of what you are learning about. When
the class is learning about fairy tales, turn your classroom into a castle. When
you're learning about animals, turn your classroom into a jungle.

12. Create class songs about topics they need to know, or use the music of
singers like Hap Palmer and Jack Hartman. You might also borrow songs and
games from coworkers. Songs are catchy, and children learn quickly from
them.

CREATIVE SCIENCE
13. When teaching about the properties of friction , use KS2 for interactive
projects you can do in small groups or as a class using a smart board. You
might ask your students slide down the hallway first in their socks, then
barefoot, and have them journal about the different amounts of friction.

14. When teaching phases of matter, drop some food coloring into beakers of
cold and warm water and note the difference. Then pour the contents of one
beaker in a bag and put it in the freezer. The next day, compare the liquid bag
with the solid chunk of ice and note differences.

15. Use the ice from the above activity and talk about gravity . Stand on a chair
and discuss what will happen if you drop the ice, and if it matters which way
you drop it. Let your students predict the possible outcomes.

INCORPORATE YOUR STUDENTS' FAVORITE THINGS

16. Survey your students at the beginning of the year. Get to know them and
what they like. Then make a point of using their names, favorite foods, games,
books, etc. in word problems, writing exercises, shared reading and many other
activities. People do better and learn more when working with things they like.
As adults we know that we don't want to do something if it's not fun. The same
goes for kids.

CREATIVE TIME SAVERS

17. Have your students rely on each other as resources. For each table, pick a
team leader to try answering his or her classmates' questions before they come
to you for help.

18. Pair your higher achievers with lower achievers to study sight words, letters
or other skills.

19. Put them into literature circles to discuss books.

20. Have them read one another's writing to check for completion or suggest
ideas before they come see you.

21. Use the Leap Frog Reader system. You can plug it into the computer to get
student scores on activities, which will provide guidelines for what you need to
work on. This is a great way to collect data!

22. Have a "math problem of the day" journal to review skills in which your
students scored low on assessments. Put the problem on the board and have
them copy it into their journals at the beginning of the day. You can take a
minute or two after they have completed it to review the problem with the class.
Check notebooks later for understanding.

LIVE LIKE A TURTLE

For those of you trying to figure out how you'll find the time to integrate all this
into an already busy teaching day, here's some food for thought. It will take
longer to teach a lesson three times than it will to teach it once using a little
creativity. Make time for creativity. Most of the above creative activities take
only a few minutes to do. They also require very little prep time and cost very
little money, if any. So go ahead -- be a risk taker and try at least one of these
ideas this week. I'm sure you won't regret it.

As I said above, everyone has bad days, but overall my classroom is a happy
place to be. It's like this because I use creativity to make learning fun. I live by
these words that Dr. Ruth once said: "Live life every day like a turtle." To get
anywhere, a turtle has to stick its neck out and take a risk. So take risks every
day. It's the only way to truly live and make a difference in the world.

What are some of your favorite tips and tricks for bringing creativity into your
elementary students?
https://www.pinterest.ie/whelanef/classroom-activities-primary-school/

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 https://www.bookwidgets.com/blog/2018/06/20-interactive-teaching-activities-for-in-the-
interactive-classroom

20 interactive teaching
activities for in the interactive
classroom

by Ruben Knapen — Jun 13, 2018

Interactive teaching is all about instructing the students in a way they are actively
involved with their learning process. There are different ways to create an
involvement like this. Most of the time it’s through

 teacher-student interaction
 student-student interaction
 the use of audio, visuals, video
 hands-on demonstrations and exercises

You encourage your students to be active members of your class, thinking on

their own, using their brains, resulting in long-term memory retention. Not only
the students' knowledge will improve, but their interest, strength, knowledge,
team spirit and freedom of expression will increase as well.

In this blog post, I will talk about the use of interactive methods for teaching,
encouraging more dedication towards the lesson material. We will see some
interactive teaching tools, interactive teaching ideas, and interactive teaching
games.
Not only will I talk about the use of interactive methods of teaching, but I’ll also
give you some examples of methods used in the present classroom as well.

Ready? Here are some of the most effective ways to engage your pupils!
 3 Effective interactive teaching strategies
to encourage speech in your classroom
First, I want to put some activities in the spotlight. The following interactive
student activities are three of the most effective ways to encourage more speech
in your classroom.

1. Think, pair and share

Set a problem or a question around a certain topic, and pair up your

students. Give each pair of students enough time so they can reach a proper
conclusion, and permit the kids to share their conclusion in their voice. This way
your students will be engaged, communicating, and remember more of the class
than ever before.

2. Brainstorming

Interactive brainstorming is mostly performed in group sessions. The

process is useful for generating creative thoughts and ideas. Brainstorming helps
students learn to work together, and above all, learn from each other. You’ll be
surprised by all the great ideas they come up with! Check out these 8
fun brainstorming apps you can use in your classroom, or use BookWidgets'
Mindmap widget to structure thinking.

3. Buzz session

Participants come together in session groups that focus on a single

topic. Within each group, every student contributes thoughts and ideas.
Encourage discussion and collaboration among the students within each group.
Everyone should learn from each other’s input and experiences. As a teacher,
you could give your students some keywords to spark the conversation.
Of course, there are many other interactive teaching ideas as well. I split up the
activities in different categories:

 Individual student activities

 Student pair activities
 Student group activities
 Interactive game activities

Individual student activities

4. Exit slips

These are best used at the end of the class session. You’ll ask the
students to write for one minute on a specific question. It might be generalized
to “what was the most important thing you learned today”. Then, you can decide
if you are going to open up a conversation about it in your next class. You can
ask them if they still remember what they wrote down. Need a digital exit slip
template? Try this one from BookWidgets and learn more about the possibilities
of an exit slip.

5. Misconception check

Discover students' misconceptions. See if students can identify what is

the correct answer when given a false fact. It’s useful when going over a previous
lesson. It encourages students to think deeply and wager all the possibilities.

6. Circle the questions

Make a worksheet or a survey that has a list of questions (make them

specific) about your topic, and ask students to circle (or check) the ones they
don’t know the answers to. Then, let them turn in the paper.
Create corners concerning different questions that were circled. Let your
students work on the extra exercises and explanation in the corners, individually.
As your students will all have circled different questions, you have to give each
student a different and personalized order to visit the corners.

7. Ask the winner

Ask students to silently solve a problem on the board. After revealing

the answer, instruct those who got it right to raise their hands (and keep them
raised). Then, all other students have to talk to someone with a raised hand to
better understand the question and how to solve it next time.

Student pair activities

8. Pair-share-repeat

After a Think-pair-share experience, which I’ve written about in the first

interactive learning lesson idea, you can also ask students to find a new partner
and share the wisdom of the old partnership to this new partner.

9. Teacher and student

Let students brainstorm the main points of the last lesson. Then, pair
up your students and assign them 2 roles. One of them is the teacher, and the
other the student. The teacher’s job is to sketch the main points, while the
student’s job is to cross off points on his list as they are mentioned and come up
with 2 to 3 points that the teacher missed.
 10. Wisdom from another

After an individual brainstorm or creative activity, pair students to

share their results. Then, call for volunteers who found their partner’s work to be
interesting or exemplary. Students are often more willing to share the work of
fellow students publicly than their work. Of course, you can always encourage
sharing their objectives as well.

11. Forced debate

Let students debate in pairs. Students must defend the opposite side
of their personal opinion. It encourages them to step away from their own beliefs
and teaches them to look through a different colored glass once in a while.

Variation: one half of the class takes one position, the other half takes the other
position. Students line up and face each other. Each student may only speak
once so that all students on both sides can engage the issue.

12. Optimist/Pessimist

In pairs, students take opposite emotional sides of a case study,

statement, or topic. Encourage them to be empathic and truly “live” the case
study. You’ll discover some good solution proposals and your students will learn
some exceptional social skills.

13. Peer review writing task

To assist students with a writing assignment, encourage them to

exchange drafts with a partner. The partner reads the essay and writes a three-
paragraph response: the first paragraph outlines the strengths of the essay, the
second paragraph discusses the essay’s problems, and the third paragraph is a
description of what the partner would focus on in revision if it were her essay.
Students can learn a lot from each other and themselves as well! Here are 10
more creative self-assessment ideas.

Student group activities

14. Board rotation

This interactive learning strategy is even more interactive than others!

Divide your class into different groups of students and assign them to each of the
boards you’ve set up in the room. Assign one topic/question per board. After
each group writes an answer, they rotate to the next board. Here, they write their
answer below the first answer of the previous group. Let them go around the
room until all the groups have covered all the boards. Not that many boards in
your classroom? Try using tablets and BookWidgets' interactive whiteboard.

15. Pick the Winner

Divide the class into groups and let them work on the same
topic/problem. Let them record an answer/strategy on paper or digitally. Then,
ask the groups to switch with a nearby group and let them evaluate their answer.
After a few minutes, allow each set of groups to merge and ask them to select
the best answer from the two choices, which will be presented to the complete
class.

16. Movie Application

In groups, students discuss examples of movies that made use of a

concept or event discussed in class, trying to identify at least one way the movie
makers got it right, and one way they got it wrong. Think about movies showing
historical facts, geographical facts, biographies of famous people, …
 Interactive game activities
Create an interactive classroom full of interactive learning games. Games are so
much fun for students since it doesn’t feel like learning. With BookWidgets, you
can make interactive learning games like crossword puzzles, pair matching
games, bingo games, jigsaw puzzles, memory games, and many more in
minutes (and there’s a Google Classroom integration as well).

17. Crossword puzzle

The crossword game is perfect to use as repetition activity. Choose a

list of words and their description, and BookWidgets creates an interactive
crossword for you. The crossword game transforms these boring lessons into a
fun experience. Here you can read more about how to create them and for which
topics you can use them (not only for teaching languages)!

18. Scrabble

Use the chapter (or course) title as the pool of letters from which to
make words (e.g., mitochondrial DNA), and allow teams to brainstorm as many
words relevant to the topic as possible. You can also actually play scrabble and
ask students to form words from the newly learned vocabulary.

19. Who/what am I?

Tape a term or name on the back of each student. You can also tape it
on their forehead. Each student walks around the room, asking “yes or no”
questions to the other students in an effort to guess the term. Of course, the term
has something to do with your lesson topic.
 20. Bingo

Bingo is a fun game that can be used for all sorts of exercises:
language exercises, introductory games, math exercises, etc. Take a look at this
blog post with all the different bingo possibilities here. You’ll be surprised about
how many interactive lesson activities you can do with just one game.

Want to create a bingo game yourself? You can start for free right here:

Create a Bingo Game

Wrap up
That’s it! Like in any list, you could add many other interactive teaching ideas. I
could go on for quite a while myself. But what about you? Tell me about your
creative, interactive classroom ideas by adding them to this Padlet board below.
This way, we can build out this article with many more great ideas!

One more thing… Don’t forget to share! ;)