Having students create review board games is a favorite activity of mine and many other veteran teachers. Student get very engaged redesigning an old Monopoly or Candy Land board. I have even given my kids a blank book cover to create a gameboard from scratch. They get to review material as they create question cards and answer keys. They then get to enjoy playing each other’s games reviewing the material over and over again as they rotate through the different games.
This awesome old school strategy can be pulled off digitally and fantastically with Genially. There are a couple of templates but more importantly students can start with a blank canvas and create a fully interactive gameboard with imbedded multiple choice questions. I would suggest student use Canva to graphically design the game board then pull that into genially to add all of the interactive elements.
Here is a tool that spins the wheel and assigns a non-fiction writing prompt for your students. Post this in Google Classroom for quick ECR practice. These prompts ask students to explain a process, recall a time, make an argument for, analyze and decide, and more.
I learned about “Benchmark Fractions” this week and put together a mega activity to have your students practice their skills placing fractions among the benchmarks. I love this idea. It is how my brain automatically processes and thinks about fractions.
This activity has 40 different fractions for your students to drag and drop on to the number line in the correct place. The first 30 are graphic fractions in different denominations. The last 10 are number fractions. Play with it down below, follow the link above to save it for later.
Let’s log in to wewillwrite.com and explore how it uses fun and engaging writing prompts to suck students into writing challenges. It smashes creative writing together with the competition game feeling of Kahoot.
I stumbled across something absolutely amazing, Legos, the worlds favorite toy! Ok it’s knock off Legos but it’s free and fantastic. I am not to proud to play with off brand Legos. I definitely had more Tyco blocks than Legos as a kid. Do make sure your students sign up for an account and login before you start building, or you lose everything. Don’t ask me how I know, lol.
The block bucket contains unlimited amounts of every type of block you can imagine. All the minifigs, and accessories, Your students could construct almost anything. So how can we effectively use this tool in class? let’s brainstorm some ideas. Construct 3D shapes. Build an array. Make characters or accurately recreate scenes from a book or reading passage to demonstrate understanding. Visually represent fractions. Create patterns. How about making a molecule model. Create different types of landforms. Please reply with yours ideas so I can share them here.
I sure didn’t get any fancy matching Lego sets as a kid so I built my house as mismatched as it would have been IRL. Too bad I never had Batman roof tiles though. The blocks can be any color though so students can easily use a consistent theme to make things look better.
We are going to take it all the way back to n00b town and walk through how to make a Google Forms quiz, from scratch. If you have never done this or if it has been a while this is the video for you to learn from and follow along with.
This is an in depth walk through on how to make a Google Form. This one we create as a quiz with an answer key. This is a more up to date walkthrough than previous versions I have available. I did try to keep it as short as I could so it includes areas of sped up video where I am completing something I already explained. Don’t let that scare you (It happens).
Congratulations to the teachers who completed their Google Certification exams last Saturday. I appreciate you taking time out of your weekend to accomplish that. If you are one of the many people who joined me for this last year, can I make a door sign for your class as well? Let me know and I will get one for you too.
Have you had a chance to check out BrainPOP yet? I heard a couple elementary campuses have access to that. I’m not sure who but check with your principal if yo aren’t sure about your campus. Here is a quick run through what it offers.
BrainPop includes vocabulary flashcards. It also prompts students to use context clues and word analysis to discover the meaning of words.
Provides reading passages in different reading levels to differentiate for your students. Reading passages include embedded assessments.
BrainPOP also provides quizzes to assess students reading and comprehension levels. These quizzes use multiple interactive item types. Of course it also provides you with standards aligned student data based on all these activities.
For example, this lesson on voting, very topical, very timely, very mindful.
Inside “Create Assignment” There are up to six parts of this lesson that we can assign. Starting with the introductory movie for the topic. Vocabulary Activity, A Quiz, Leveled Reading activity as well as: Two projects to further practice their knowledge and skills by making a movie and creative coding.
Brain Pop has more than 1000 topics that have students practice skills while learning standards. Topics are cross curricular by using RLA standards attached to every unit even if the topics are history or science related.
The introduction video recommends using the Topic movie with it’s imbedded questions as a whole group activity. The Vocabulary as a small group activity. The leveled reading activity includes Immersive Reader tools.
Let us see if there is anything different about BrainPOP Jr, which is aimed at your K-3 students.
Activities can be explored by topic.
Which also break down into more specific subtopics.
Topics similarly include quizzes, word games, drawing, writing, and coding activities.
Get your classes going and assign some activities if you haven’t already.
