Indoor Recess Ideas to Build Literacy

 

Brrr! The playground is iced over and temperatures are too low for students to go outside. Many of us in cold areas are looking at many days of indoor recess. This means many days of game pieces strewn about the room and chaotic recess sessions.

   But indoor recess can be a cheerful, productive time. Here are some ideas for indoor recess that build literacy while also providing fun leisure time.

Student organized plays
   "Mrs. Kissner, can we make a play?"
   The process of writing a script, assigning parts, practicing, and (most fun!) making props can span several weeks. It's interesting to see how students try to engage with this process. Often they try to start by assigning parts. I remind them to start with a script instead. Once a script is written, they either have sign-ups or auditions. I make copies of the scripts for students and they schedule practices for indoor recess time. Kids really enjoy the process--and sometimes revel in that overwhelmed feeling that one gets while undertaking a really big project. "Oh, Mrs. Kissner, this is so stressful!" one student said to me, with a tone approaching glee. As the big performance approaches, kids go at the construction paper to make every possible prop that might be needed for their play. It's lots of fun and a good way to cope with indoor time.

Playmobil
    Playmobil creates small toys that don't take up a lot of room. In my classroom, these toys attract lots of attention. I keep them put away most of the time to keep them "special", getting them out for cold spells and other times when we need a boost. I have a set with knights (weapons removed, of course!), a kitchen set, and several fairy tale sets.
    Interesting groups of students gather around the toys. Over the years I've seen lots of little dramas unfold. Kids act out joint custody situations, camping adventures, and mixed-up fairytales. What's so neat is that these little toys naturally get kids to talk and share.

Mancala Tournaments
    Mancala is a great game for the classroom--widely available, easy to play, and quick. Generally, I give the tournament-organizing job to the kids who miss outdoor play the most. I guide them through the process of gathering sign-ups and making brackets. In some years, we run a beginner and an expert tournament; in other years, we just run one tournament. It depends on the skill level of the class.
    Once students sign up and the brackets are made, it becomes a great background activity. Mancala sets are borrowed from surrounding classrooms so that tournament play can go more quickly. The kids who are in charge generally supervise the games and fill in the brackets. Excitement builds as the semi-finals and finals approach! As with Playmobil, this activity draws together interesting groups of students who like to talk strategy and give each other tips.

Drawing Contests
    Recently a student wrote a story, and wanted a dragon picture to illustrate it. Instead of letting him just grab a picture from the web, though, I suggested a drawing contest. A prize of 20 coupons (our classroom currency) is at stake, with posters advertising the contest and the criteria for the illustration. Not only is this building interest in the story, but it is also giving students a chance to see multiple sides to the publication process.

    Now imagine all of these things going on at once--with a few other activities tossed in! Long days inside can be tiresome, but the right activities help to make it more bearable. What do you like to do to make indoor recess interesting? (Or, if you are not familiar with the concept of "indoor recess", please tell us what it is like to live in such a marvelous place!) Tweet

Focus on Grammar: Grammar Games

We had a great morning talking about grammar and the Common Core! Looking for the language standards by strand and then lining them up in grade level order helped everyone to really read the standards carefully and think about how they progress through the grade levels.

Here is a playlist with some of the videos that we watched, as well as some others that work well for instruction:





Computer games can be another way to help students review and practice key grammar topics. However, there are so many games out there that sometime it is hard to find the ones that are really useful for elementary students. Here are some games that I have found (and tested) that work well for various concepts.

Punctuation Games
Learn about basic punctuation with Comma Chameleon.

In Alien Punctuation from BBC, students help aliens by correcting sentences to add correct capitalization and punctuation.

The game Complex Sentence Camp helps students to learn how to punctuate complex sentences.

Along the Sentence Trail, students decide on the kind of sentence and add correct end punctuation.

Parts of Speech
This simple Noun Explorer game helps students to learn about nouns.

The Adjective Adventure game helps students to identify adjectives.

With the game Verbs in Space, students look for verbs. Multiple tenses are used.

Other Resources
When we worked with sentence combining, I mentioned that Bruce Saddler had a book that includes more detail about sentence combining. The title is Teacher's Guide to Effective Sentence Writing. If you get it, drop a line and let me know what you think!

Additional resources about sentence composing can be found at the Sentence Composing page hosted by Don and Jenny Killgallon.

Games in the Classroom

Here's a blog post that I wrote for Teaching Tolerance:

http://www.tolerance.org/blog/indoor-recess-time-unifying-games

As we get to the first week of school, I think about games a great deal. Games are a wonderful way to start the year. When games help us to build community and give kids a taste of what is to come in the classroom, they become powerful teaching tools. I like to choose about 5 each year that the class will play frequently. I change things up each year to keep things interesting!

Last year at around this time, I wrote about games that we'd be playing in the first week of school. Here's the link:

http://emilykissner.blogspot.com/2010/08/games-for-start-of-school.html

This lovely link from a school that uses the Responsive Classrooms techniques has more lists of great games, as well as greetings in different languages. 

...and still more games, this time from a blog post from 2009:

http://emilykissner.blogspot.com/2009/08/first-week-games.html

What other games do you love to play?

Games for the Start of School

One of the issues with August vacations is that I'm already starting to make the switch from my summer self to my teaching self. In some ways, this can be a bad thing--my teacher radar informs me of every misbehavior in a 100 ft radius, and I have to bite my tongue to keep from explaining to random children why it is not a good idea to walk on the dunes at the beach.

But the good part is that I often discover some great teaching ideas while on vacation. This year, I found a neat version of an old game. I found little bags called "Think-ets" while I was browsing in a bookstore. The bags include tiny little objects like miniature animals, shells, dollhouse items, and charms. Small enough to fit in my purse, the bag also had directions for several different games.

I quickly recognized one game--the "What's Missing?" game that saved my life back when I was substituting. I'd put seven different objects on the overhead projector, reveal them to students, and then take one away. The students would have to figure out what was missing. When I used to play this, I'd gather any objects that I could find, like paperclips, marker lids, and even my jewelry. The items in the Think-ets bag are much more appealing. What kid can resist a tiny horse or a miniature copper cup?

While we were waiting at restaurants, we played the "What's Missing?" game several times. Both of my sons enjoyed it! We also tried a game in which one player gathers 5 items, shows them to the other player for about 10 seconds, and then hides them. The other player has to try to guess all 5 items. Well, my five-year old son was very frustrated with this at first. But once I showed him how to make a story out of the items, as explained in the directions, he became very successful very fast.

I realized that this is perfect for the first few days of school! I'm planning to use the set that I purchased to play the games with the whole class, using the document camera to project the items on the screen for everyone to see. These games will help to communicate some very important lessons for the first few days of school:

1. It's important to observe and notice small details
2. The more we observe, the better we are at it
3. Using strategies (like making a story) can help us to improve with remembering

These big lessons will help us to establish a culture of observing, improving, and telling stories. What more could I ask for those first few August days?

First week games

This time last week, I was at Disney World with my family. This time next week, I'll be in the middle of my third day with students. What a change!

I've been trying to shake off my vacation drift and focus on what those first three days will look like. Doing this helps me to avoid the blind panic of what is ahead of me (I went on VACATION a week before school starts? Am I insane?)

The poems and cut out words are ready for Found Poetry. But now I have to figure out how the rest of the day will look. To do this, I'm thinking back to the best preparation for teaching I ever had--my days as a camp counselor.

Because, for the first days of school, I need to think like a camp counselor. The emotional and social lives of my students will be foremost as we come together. This means getting myself prepared to do some things that teachers don't usually do--eating lunch with the students, planning extra recesses to practice routines, playing lots of games. But the time spent in all of these extras will have big payouts later in the year.

Here are some of my favorite games for the first few days of school. They all have some common characteristics--they are quick to explain and easy to play. The more complex, longer games I save for a few more weeks.

Train Wreck: Seat students in chairs in a circle. Have enough chairs for all of the participants except one. That person is in the center, and is the caller. The caller will make a statement, and everyone who fits that statement will have to find a new seat at least two seats away. (Examples: Everyone with long hair, everyone wearing shorts, everyone who has a sister.) The caller, of course, tries to take a seat, and the person who is left standing is the new caller. For the first day of school, I try to set it up so that students use descriptors that will teach us about the other students. And, of course, I explain that all descriptors must be positive! At "Train Wreck", everyone must find a new seat. It's fun, it's some movement, but it's not too crazy.

The Blanket Game: This is a game made for rainy Sunday afternoons. I first learned it as a camper myself. It sounds simple, and it is! You will need two volunteers to hold a blanket, or tablecloth, or whatever you have, making a screen between two equal teams. At your signal, each team sends someone up to right beside the blanket. The holders lower the blanket, and the two contestants try to say the other's name as quickly as possible. The first one to correctly name the other is the winner, and the other student has to go join the other team. It's fun as the size of the teams goes back and forth, and students have a real reason for learning names.

Zoom: This is from The First Six Weeks. You will need a timer. Students stand in a circle. Choose a student to be the start. At your signal, this student will turn to the right and say, "Zoom". The next student will pass the word to the right, and so on, going around and around the circle. The goal is to get the word back to the start as quickly as possible. This is great for team-building, because all members of the class are working on a common goal. Keep a poster with times to show progress! Once the class has gotten super fast (below 5 seconds is definitely possible), switch it up. What if they go to the left? Would the score be faster or slower? Why? This game is fun to play all through the first few months.

Distraction: I made up this game as I was writing The Forest and the Trees, and it's described in the third chapter. It's based on a segment on the HBO show Crashbox, and is a great way to explain to kids that they are in charge of their attention. Choose a student to read a paragraph from an informational book. (For the first week of school, the school handbook is a great choice!) While the student does this, zoom around the classroom doing crazy things--making faces, jumping on a chair, whatever you can think of that will get the students' attention. Then, when the reader is finished, stop being silly and ask five questions based on the reading. The point is for the students to try to ignore your silly behaviors and focus on what is being read. After the first round, brainstorm strategies for paying attention, and try it again. Kids can improve quickly at this. Keep the list of strategies for paying attention and refer back to it when you start teaching meaningful lessons.

My least favorite game: The one where you have to go around the circle, say your name, and an adjective that describes you, and then recite everyone who came before you. Played with twenty kids or more, this is an exercise in torture. Only one person is actually participating at a time, which leaves lots of down time for mischief. Too many Sunday afternoons of this game have led to my dislike for it!

Any other favorite first week games? Share them!