Roll the ball

Materials: Different-sized soft balls, sheets of cardboard, large boxes (4 of each).
Preparation: If possible, take students outside. If not, make a large space in the classroom.
Directions: Have all the students sit on one side of the room. Give balls to four students and stand five meters away. Have stusdents roll the balls to you one by one.
Then have four students sit next to you. Give the four balls to different students. Repeat the procedure until all the students have had a turn.
Next, have students sit in a horseshoe shape. Lean one of the sheets of cardboard against a box in the moddle. Take one of the balls and allow it to roll down the slope of cardboard and across the floor. Stand in the spot where it rests. Invite some students to do the same.
Divide the class into four groups. Have groups set up their own slopes and tell students to take turns rolling.
Finally, have students sit in a circle and roll the balls to each other.

Review Ideas

Tic-Tac-Toe Review
Draw a tic-tac-toe grid on the board or overhead projector. Divide the students into two teams, One has X's, the other has O's. Prepare drill cards in advance-sight words, basic math facts, concentration, etc. Show a card to the first person on the first team. If his response is correct, he can place an X anywhere on the board for his team. An incorrect response results in a loss of turn.
Now the other team must answer correctly in order to place an O on the board. Play continues with teams taking turns until one team is able to get three in a row. Note: Prepare 30 to 40 drill cards so that more than one game can be played. Some other skills that can be reviewed are abbreviations, states and their capitals, equivalent fractions, synonyms, antonyms, homonyms, spelling words, letter or number sequence, Roman numerals, colors, shapes, compound words, and plurals.

Activities that Inspire Learning

What Should I Do Now? Mobile
Teachers often hear that famous question "What should I do now?" from students. It may bother some teachers who go through agonizing efforts to make centers, enrichment activities, games, etc., interesting. The students still do not know what to do when they rush through the assignment.
This mobile is a simple way to let the students know exactly what to do without having to come to the teacher. It frees teachers up to help those who need it, and most importantly, it gives the students a sense of independence.
At the top of the mobile, write the question, "What should I do now?" Hang below it all the different activities in which the teacher would like them to practice. The teacher can hang it from the ceiling and write an activity on both sides so it can be viewed from any perspective. Or, hang it against a wall and turn over only those activities the teacher feels are appropriate for that time of day. For example, the teacher may only want the computer game option showing when the computer is free.

Activities that Inspire Learning

READ-O
A fun way to encourage students to read various genres of books is to play READ-O. READ-O is similar to Bingo in that each child has a game board and needs to get five in a row to win. The squares on the READ-O board represent different genres: Mystery, nonfiction, science fiction, biography, and historical fiction. When a student finishes reading one of the READ-O genres, he or she fills out a book log and conferences with the teacher about the book. The conference is a brief discussion about the book to ensure the student understood what was read. After the conference, the student can put a sticker or stamp on one of the squares of the game board that corresponds to the genre he or she has completed. Once five stckers in a row have been placed on the READ-O board, the student receives a prize. The prize may vary. If the teacher does monthly book order from various book clubs, one suggestion is to allow the child to pick a free book from that month's book order. Another suggestion for prize might be extra time at the library. Tip: It is a good idea to keep the READ-O game going for at least two terms to allow enough time for students to do the reading. If time is limited and conferencing is not an option, simply filling out the book log will be sufficient. Hanging the READ-O boards in the classroom or hallways is an easy way to keep track of students' progress.

Vocabulary Activities

Vocabulary learning can be viewed as boring to some students. Try some of these activities to spice up and make learning vocabulary memorable.

Vocabulary Bingo

Play Vocabulary Bingo. Students randomly write down all the vocabulary words from that unit, one per square. (Note: The words can be written on the board so eveyone has the same words.)

Read the definition of each word. Students then cover the matching word on the Bingo sheet with a small square of paper, dried beans, or other marker. Once they get a consecutive row, they yell "Bingo" or another word you chose. Pick a word that relates to the unit the class is studying.

Action Vocabulary

Give a set of partners one word from the unit or novel being read. They are to learn the definition and then come up with a simple charade-type action associated with the word. The action should be a clue to the meaning of the word. Once practiced, students share their word, definition, and the action with the class. Encourage students to keep the actions simple, only one or two movements. Too detailed or too lengthy actions will be forgotten. The class then repeats the action. After every two words, go back and review actions and definitions of the previously learned words. The action will help secure the meaning in their minds. If desired, students can also choose their own words to perform from the unit.

Review Ideas

Division Raceway
After learning any multi-step problem (long division, two-digit numbers times two-digit numebr, etc.), the class will be ready for a high-paced race and challenge. Follow the instructions below.

1. Split your class into teams of about five.
2. The first person on each team writes down the math problem the teacher says.
3. On the teacher's cue, he or she passes the paper to the next teammate who does the first step to the problem.
4. He or she then passes it to the next person who does the second step, and so on until the problem is completed. In most cases, students will receive the math problem more than once depending on the team size and the steps to the problem.
5. The  team that finishes first and has the correct answer wins the round.

It is very important that each person does only one step. The teacher will need to monitor by walking around and assisting where needed. If a child notices a mistake, he or she can fix it and then do his or her step.

The describing game

One of the best fluency games, this practices the vital language skills of defining and paraphrase when you don't know a word in English, e.g.
It's a place where...          It's an adjective...          It's a thing you use to...
You find it in the ...           It's an animal...              It's a person who...
You can use it to practice any vocabulary group or for general vocabulary revision.

• Put students into pairs, A and B. Students A turn round so they can't see the board. The Bs see the board.
• Write seven words on the board, e.g.

banana        Madonna        sugar        blue        twelve        a pilot       passport

• B has to describe the first word to A without using the word, and speaking only in English, e.g. It's a fruit. It's long and yellow. It comes from Africa. She's a singer. She's American. She's very rich and famous.
• A listens and guesses the word he/she thinks it is. If the guess is correct, B then defines the second word, B has to try to give a clearer definition.
• If they find it hard at first, teach them to give the first letter as a clue, e.g. It beggings with B.
• When all the pairs have finihed, the students swap roles. Write seven new words on the board and continue.

Run, run, run! ... Stop!

This is an excellent way to teach action verbs, adverbs and lexical sets, and to work on sound discrimination. You can use it for five minutes every day, right from the start, and develop it. Use it when a class needs livening up or as part of the class routine.
Playing the game
1. Basic procedure

• Take the children somewhere where they can have some space and simply give out orders which the children have to follow.
• Shout Run, run, run! to get them started.
• Do each action with them and use voice inflection.
• When they seem to recognise each oder (after a few lessons), only use voice inflection and finally, only give the order.
• At the beginning, say each verb three times; eventually, say it only once to train your pupils to listen and recognise the different verbs.
• After each new order, say Stop! and clap your hands (this is to save your voice). The children have to stop suddenly and stand completely still in whatever position they are in. Then give the next order. Walk, walk, walk!... Stop!... Jump, jump, jump!... Stop! etc.
• Useful verbs to teach: run, walk, jump, play (a sport), play (an instrument), ride a bike, watch TV, eat, swing, fight, shout, drink, throw a ball, catch a ball, kick, climb, dance, sing, swim, fly, skate, push.

Game: Ball dictation

Throw a ball to a student. The student with the ball dictates a word or short phrase to the rest of the class. Students write down the word or phrase in their notebooks.
The student with the ball throws it to another student, who dictates a new word or phrase. Continue until 10 students have participated.
Ask students to dictate the words or phrses back to you and write them on the board.
Students correct their work.