Can't believe I haven't done this before. You have your normal noughts and crosses grid etc, but instead of just having one child from each team give an answer, everyone in the class writes the answer on a mini whiteboard. You then pick a name at random (lolly sticks are my favourite modus operandi here!), making sure it's someone from the right team and they show you and read out their answer. If they get it wrong, you pick out a name for the opposing team. Works well and its actually quite a good settler. Everyone is involved too, which means less heavy handed classroom management!
Showing posts with label whole class games and activities. Show all posts
Showing posts with label whole class games and activities. Show all posts
Monday, December 28, 2015
Tuesday, December 02, 2014
Games, competition and fun, fun, fun!
Hello all! In MFL we use all sorts of strategies to engage our learners; much of this is centred around games, competition and fun activities - all ways to 'con' our learners to learn! As an MFL teacher, I was trained to use these types of strategies most of the time, but today it was brought to my attention that perhaps colleagues in other areas might benefit from these types of activities and it doesn't do any harm to be reminded of them too, so below are some common strategies/games we use in MFL to keep the little darlings engaged!
TEAMPOINTS:
This underpins everything. Everything is about competition. Every game we play earns the winner teampoints. You pit one side of the room against the other. If you are brave enough, you pit the girls against the boys. You can go for 2 teams or more. (I like to keep it simple by having 2, but have been know with lower sets to have more due to there being fewer of them and it being easier to handle). I keep a tally of points on the whiteboard; just a simple cross with A and B at the top works, or you might want them to take ownership and choose their own team names - this could work well if you get them to choose something relevant to the subject they are learning. It is a brilliant classroom management tool; give points for working hard, being first to hand books out, best group work etc. Also you have the opportunity to take points away for poor behaviour etc. So what becomes of the points? I like to start by just letting the winning team from the lesson be the first to leave the room, singing 'Wir haben gewonnen/Nous avons gagné' because I use it as a linguistic opportunity. Later on, I like to develop a chart of some kind, where the 'wins' are accumulated and the winning team at the end of the half term wins sweets or merits or something. You can make it cultural, topical etc. In MFL, we might have the Eiffel Tower to 'climb' - first to the top wins. You could do anything, really! They really enjoy it and it makes learning fun.
NOUGHTS AND CROSSES:
Simple but effective, and great for AfL. Simply put pictures or questions, for example, in a traditional noughts and crosses grid; number the squares and the teams take it in turns to answer the question or say whatever is represented by the picture. Winning team gets 5 points.
BINGO:
Brilliant game. You can do a grid or a line. Put a selection of pictures or facts on the board and give each one a number. Pupils choose, say, 6 numbers and write them down. You call out something which links to one of the pictures or facts and if the pupils have the corresponding number, they cross it out. First to get a line or full house etc wins.
STRIP BINGO (!)
Don't worry, this is not what it sounds like! Same idea as above, but you give them a strip of paper, divided into six for example. Pupils write the numbers on in each segment. When you call out the information linking with something on the board, if the corresponding number is at either end of the paper, they fold it under itself, revealing a new number at the end, until they have folded over all their numbers and you have called out their last one.
BLOCKBUSTERS:
Like the game show, have a grid of hexagons; Click here for an interactive grid I uploaded onto TES. (there must be scope here for some SOLO hexagon work!). In each hexagon put a letter. Team A goes from top to bottom and Team B goes from left to right. When they give you a letter, you ask them a question. If they get it right, the hexagon is coloured in their team colour. If they get it wrong, the other team can answer, thus blocking them if they get it right. It can take quite a while at first and they can get quite competitive, but it is a good way of consolidating work at the end of a topic.
MINI WHITEBOARDS:
These have become invaluable in the MFL classroom.
We like telepathy, where the teacher 'thinks' of something from the topic and writes it down on a mini whiteboard. The rest of the class has to write down what the teacher is 'thinking' of. When the answers are revealed, the winners get teampoints! A great plenary. Another version of telepathy is where you write something down on the mini whiteboard and the pupils take it in turn to guess what you have written, thus recycling what they have learnt previously. For each wrong answer, you draw one of the components in a hangman gallows. They have to guess what you have written before you complete the gallows.
Write it once, say it x3: This is great for recapping and revising key terms, for example (or for MFL - vocab). In pairs, 1 person has to choose a word and start writing it in the mini whiteboard. His/her partner has to try and work out what is being written and say it 3 times before they finish writing it.
There are many more whiteboard activities - maybe I will blog about more another time.
The above activities can all be played in small groups too, which makes for smooth transitions and ... more fun! The main thing is, the pupils are enjoying themselves and are hell bent on winning. What they don't realise is that you have created these activities to con them into learning - what's not to like!
Please comment below, if you have done a variation of the activities above and you would like to share.
TEAMPOINTS:
This underpins everything. Everything is about competition. Every game we play earns the winner teampoints. You pit one side of the room against the other. If you are brave enough, you pit the girls against the boys. You can go for 2 teams or more. (I like to keep it simple by having 2, but have been know with lower sets to have more due to there being fewer of them and it being easier to handle). I keep a tally of points on the whiteboard; just a simple cross with A and B at the top works, or you might want them to take ownership and choose their own team names - this could work well if you get them to choose something relevant to the subject they are learning. It is a brilliant classroom management tool; give points for working hard, being first to hand books out, best group work etc. Also you have the opportunity to take points away for poor behaviour etc. So what becomes of the points? I like to start by just letting the winning team from the lesson be the first to leave the room, singing 'Wir haben gewonnen/Nous avons gagné' because I use it as a linguistic opportunity. Later on, I like to develop a chart of some kind, where the 'wins' are accumulated and the winning team at the end of the half term wins sweets or merits or something. You can make it cultural, topical etc. In MFL, we might have the Eiffel Tower to 'climb' - first to the top wins. You could do anything, really! They really enjoy it and it makes learning fun.
NOUGHTS AND CROSSES:
Simple but effective, and great for AfL. Simply put pictures or questions, for example, in a traditional noughts and crosses grid; number the squares and the teams take it in turns to answer the question or say whatever is represented by the picture. Winning team gets 5 points.
BINGO:
Brilliant game. You can do a grid or a line. Put a selection of pictures or facts on the board and give each one a number. Pupils choose, say, 6 numbers and write them down. You call out something which links to one of the pictures or facts and if the pupils have the corresponding number, they cross it out. First to get a line or full house etc wins.
STRIP BINGO (!)
Don't worry, this is not what it sounds like! Same idea as above, but you give them a strip of paper, divided into six for example. Pupils write the numbers on in each segment. When you call out the information linking with something on the board, if the corresponding number is at either end of the paper, they fold it under itself, revealing a new number at the end, until they have folded over all their numbers and you have called out their last one.
BLOCKBUSTERS:
Like the game show, have a grid of hexagons; Click here for an interactive grid I uploaded onto TES. (there must be scope here for some SOLO hexagon work!). In each hexagon put a letter. Team A goes from top to bottom and Team B goes from left to right. When they give you a letter, you ask them a question. If they get it right, the hexagon is coloured in their team colour. If they get it wrong, the other team can answer, thus blocking them if they get it right. It can take quite a while at first and they can get quite competitive, but it is a good way of consolidating work at the end of a topic.
MINI WHITEBOARDS:
These have become invaluable in the MFL classroom.
We like telepathy, where the teacher 'thinks' of something from the topic and writes it down on a mini whiteboard. The rest of the class has to write down what the teacher is 'thinking' of. When the answers are revealed, the winners get teampoints! A great plenary. Another version of telepathy is where you write something down on the mini whiteboard and the pupils take it in turn to guess what you have written, thus recycling what they have learnt previously. For each wrong answer, you draw one of the components in a hangman gallows. They have to guess what you have written before you complete the gallows.
Write it once, say it x3: This is great for recapping and revising key terms, for example (or for MFL - vocab). In pairs, 1 person has to choose a word and start writing it in the mini whiteboard. His/her partner has to try and work out what is being written and say it 3 times before they finish writing it.
There are many more whiteboard activities - maybe I will blog about more another time.
The above activities can all be played in small groups too, which makes for smooth transitions and ... more fun! The main thing is, the pupils are enjoying themselves and are hell bent on winning. What they don't realise is that you have created these activities to con them into learning - what's not to like!
Please comment below, if you have done a variation of the activities above and you would like to share.
Friday, September 26, 2014
Slappy hands gone sophisticated!
In MFL lessons in our school, we love playing what we call 'slappy hands'. Others may know it as 'splat'; you have several answers to questions on the board/wall. In MFL it works well for vocab, practising genders etc. You shout out a question and 2 volunteers have to slap the answer. For this we have fly swatters! First to slap correct answer wins. Also great in groups with answers on a big sheet of paper.
Here's the sophisticated bit. My colleague, Caroline Pattinson has adapted it to work with highlighters, where each group member has a different coloured highlighter and highlights the correct answer when the question is shouted out. it's still a competition, but you can see as a teacher who gets all the questions right.
Great for older classes.
Tuesday, September 16, 2014
Buzzer
Who needs high tech when you've got a mini whiteboard? This came from my colleague Karen Green, who tells me it's from teacher trainer extraordinaire Anna Bartrum! It's a way of answering quiz questions with a small class (or teams!). Get them to draw a buzzer (Circle) on their whiteboards and decide on a suitable noise, eg, honk! When you ask a question, they 'buzz in' to answer!!!
Monday, May 12, 2014
Plickers
Very exciting!!! Found some brilliant software online called Plickers. If you have a tablet or ipad (or smartphone etc), you can use this. You need the app on your device and you need to print out some barcode/QR code type cards from the website. On the website, set up your classes; create lists of names. The program will assign the cards that you printed out with people on your list (each card is numbered). You set some questions with multichoice answers and pupils hold their cards the right way up - They need to choose A,B,C or D and for each choice, they have to hold their card up a different way (sounds complex, but isn't). You then take a pic of them, whilst in the app and the program will calculate how many and who got it right and will also make little bar charts for each question. If you are interested, I thoroughly recommend you visit the website below. I did it with 8Y3 today and they were really impressed! Great for starters and plenaries, because everyone is involved. Can't wait to try another one!
Tuesday, May 06, 2014
Poker face!
Hi! It's been a while! I would like to thank Charline Baude for this idea of class poker. This is a game that you can easily play with the whole class, with little (or no) preparation. Divide the class into 2 teams. Shout out a piece of vocab, a question etc. If the pupils know what the 'answer' is, they should stand up. The team with the most pupils standing up wins a point. They can bluff, so they could stand up and not know the answer; however, they have got to be prepared for you picking someone at random and asking for the answer! This is great for revision, especially with older classes. You could adapt it and get them to play it in groups, but for this they need an odd number of players, so someone can be teacher and you may also need to provide them with the materials for asking the questions.
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
Padlet
This is nice if you want to do a quick ideas wall. It's an online pinboard where you can 'pin' an idea or thought instantly. Here's the link: http://padlet.com/
You can have a go at pinning ideas onto the 'quick ideas' page on this blog.
Have fun!
Have fun!
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Zondle
Thanks to Karen Green for passing this one on. I got very excited with this, because this program allows you to make games by simply entering information (questions and answers etc). You can also import information. It is designed for individual pupil work (so great for independent learning) and also for whole class and team activities. You can create competitions at the click of a mouse, you can set up a class and they can keep score and you can embed them into your blogs or websites. There are also some really helpful video tutorials if you get stuck. I've had a go and I LOVE IT!
Zondle
Zondle
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Blockbusters
Kate Stephen reminded me of this, when she attached one of my own resources to me (or something rather similar to something I posted on TES resources!!!) in an email! It's an interactive blockbusters grid. Use it instead of noughts and crosses, when you want to consolidate. 2 teams. 1 team is red, 1 is blue. Reds go from one red side to the other and blues go from blue to blue. Teams take turns to choose a letter. You ask them a question (Can correspond to letter, or be completely random). 1st team to get to the other side wins. Of course you can play tactically and block the other side too. It can take longer than you think, so beware!
Here is the link to the blockbusters grid on TES. If you want a copy and you aren't registered on TES, let me know and I'll email it to you.
BLOCKBUSTERS
On the grid, whichever team wins the hexagon, you click on their colour and the hexagon will fill with their colour. View it as a slideshow.
Here is the link to the blockbusters grid on TES. If you want a copy and you aren't registered on TES, let me know and I'll email it to you.
BLOCKBUSTERS
On the grid, whichever team wins the hexagon, you click on their colour and the hexagon will fill with their colour. View it as a slideshow.
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Lovely Google!
Whilst searching for some resources, I stumbled across this today online. Some really good ideas here for IT based lessons, especially if you have a blog set up (see CPD after half term!). Have fun experimenting!
Google forms
Google forms
Monday, October 08, 2012
The power of song!
OK, this isn't everybody's cup of tea, but it is effective, if you have time to do it! I love fitting vocab that we are learning to existing melodies. So far since we came back, my classes have had The Wombles of Wimbledon (Months in German), Here we go, here we go, here we go...(Months in French), Row Row Row your Boat (Days in French) and Frère Jaques (Numbers in French). It's not just me...the power of song has been used in Ian Turnbull's Learn to Learn lessons too, to illustrate assessment and success criteria! And I've heard Andrew Jones rapping too, with his crew from 8RWY doing Henry VIII facts! Go on, unleash that inner diva!
Conductor of the orchestra
This is great if you want the pupils to remember certain facts or in MFL's case, vocab. (I think this would probably work well in maths too, or science - what do I know!!??).
You have a list of things on the board, facts etc, and you send someone out of the room. Between you and the rest of the class, decide on someone, who is going to do a secret sign, like a head scratch or shuffling books etc. When the pupil comes back into the room, the whole class starts to repeat the things from your list, starting from the top, over and over again. Only when the secret sign has been done can you move onto the next one on the list. Keep going until the pupil who was sent out, figures out who was doing the secret sign. Who said parrot fashion was out of fashion!?
You have a list of things on the board, facts etc, and you send someone out of the room. Between you and the rest of the class, decide on someone, who is going to do a secret sign, like a head scratch or shuffling books etc. When the pupil comes back into the room, the whole class starts to repeat the things from your list, starting from the top, over and over again. Only when the secret sign has been done can you move onto the next one on the list. Keep going until the pupil who was sent out, figures out who was doing the secret sign. Who said parrot fashion was out of fashion!?
Friday, September 28, 2012
Bingo!
Bingo
Thanks to Kate Stephen for this. This is a website where you can print of your own bingo cards (Click on the red word 'bingo' at the top of the post). We use bingo in MFL all the time. It's not just used for learning numbers. We also use it to learn vocab or phrases. We have phrases or pictures symbolising the phrases up on the screen, which are all numbered. We then call out the phrase and the pupils cross off the corresponding number, if they have it. You can also do this in small groups, where one of the group takes on the job of the bingo caller. This would work well with new terms, questions and answers, sums and calculations, dates etc etc. We normally just get them to write the numbers down in the back of their books, but this is much more professional! Thanks Kate!
Thanks to Kate Stephen for this. This is a website where you can print of your own bingo cards (Click on the red word 'bingo' at the top of the post). We use bingo in MFL all the time. It's not just used for learning numbers. We also use it to learn vocab or phrases. We have phrases or pictures symbolising the phrases up on the screen, which are all numbered. We then call out the phrase and the pupils cross off the corresponding number, if they have it. You can also do this in small groups, where one of the group takes on the job of the bingo caller. This would work well with new terms, questions and answers, sums and calculations, dates etc etc. We normally just get them to write the numbers down in the back of their books, but this is much more professional! Thanks Kate!
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Quiz, quiz, trade
Not my idea - I got it from Elaine, who got it from someone else, so apologies to them! Make a grid with enough squares in for each member of your class, or do what we do and make enough for 1/2, then double up. In each square, a question at the top and the answer underneath. Chop them up and hand them out to everyone. Everyone must go round the class, asking people the question on their card. Then the other person asks their question. When both people have asked the question, swap cards and find someone else and repeat the process. Works really well. I also keep a copy of this NOT chopped up and make enough for pupils to do a quick teach and test pairwork.
Saturday, September 08, 2012
Zoo!
Divide your class into 2 teams of equal size. On your board/screen have enough answers to questions etc for half the class; each one numbered. Give each team a number, to correspond with each one on the board/screen. When you call out a question which matches one of the answers on your board/screen, the team members which have been allocated the number of the correct answer stand up. Give the fastest one a point. When you say 'zoo', the entire team must stand up. The point goes to the team with all its members standing up first. Got it? You can speed up and try to catch them out. It's all good fun!
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