Middle School Teachers: Share the NON academic fun/unique things you do with your classes?

Question

In addition to the academic things I do with my students, I like to add in other things to keep things fun. It may be something I throw in during the last few minutes of class if they've worked hard and behaved, whatever - please share yours! Thanks.

Answer 1

1.  Share a silly Poem  (Jack Prelutsky, Jeffery Moss, Shel Silverstein.

2.  After weekends, i would ask students if they wanted to share anything that happened over the weekend.  I would take notes, and then after 8-10 kids shared, I would have the students get out a piece of paper, and ask them  questions about what they heard.... Who went horseback riding? Who got in a fight with their sister... and occassionally (not everytime) I would have a Hershey kiss or pencil or something for the person who got the most right.

3.  Scramble letters of student or teacher names and see if anyone can unscramble them.

4. just sit and listen to music  (I had approved music.. as in no swearing or inappropriate content)  

5.  20 questions  (i cheated and bought the game)

6.  Mad Gab  (again.. i cheated and bought the game for my family, and brought the cards in)

7. Mad-libs  (they will still give the answer underwear for a noun and giggle about it... )

8.  Charades

9.  word searches  (at the beginning of the year i always make one with student names at puzzlemaker.com)

10.  Heard any good jokes lately?  (must be classroom appropriate)  I usually did this on Friday, tried to be the same day every week if possible so the students could have time to look for "oldies but goodies"  They actually did research?? who knew?

11.  There is a great book put out by the "Games" magazine people.  I would copy them and make them available if students finished work.

12.  Ask survey questions--- Who is the best presidential candidate?  Would you want to go to a school where your mom was a teacher?  Read a newspaper article and ask an opinion question.  It is amazing what you can learn about your students. Just make sure they understand that everyone has an opinion and there are no right or wrong answers.

Really the best thing to do is find a way to get to know your students and incorporate their ideas, but don't be discouraged.  I had a student tell me that he was too old for the poetry, but by the end of the first couple months, he was bringing in stuff to share.

Answer 2

plain and simple but it works.....just do a raffle for a homework pass or candy....they love it ....write numbers on pieces of paper 1-20 then have each student take a guess

Answer 3

Believe it or not, they love the ancient game of "seven-up." It's perfect when you have come back from a school wide asembly and have ten or fifteen minute at the end of the day. I choose 7 ( or fewer in small classes) kids to go to the front of the room. Then I say "Heads down, thumbs up", The students put heads down ondesks, close their eyes, and make a fist with one thumb up. Each of the seven chosen ones  touch a thumb and go back to the front. If a student's thumb is touched, he/she has to put in down so as not to get chosen twice. When all 7 have chosen and returned to the front, I say "Heads up, stand up." Students who have been touched stand up and say the name of the person they think chose them. If they are right, the person sits down, and that student takes the place. I insist that those choosing choose a new person each time, and there can be no repeats until everyone in the class has been selected once, even if they don't guess right. This keeps cliques from taking over. Everyone -- from the quarterback to the poet-- likes this game. I have no idea why they love it. Caveats -- it really is non-academic, so I play it very seldom. BUT -- it is nearly silent, so it's a great way to let off steam quietly.

Answer 4

One thing that I used to do with my students that they L O V E D ! ! ! was to read to them from Chicken Soup for the Soul type books. They have versions of it for preteens (also look for Taste Berries- same idea!). It was an activity that we would do if there was a few minutes of time left in the class AND only if they had not given me any trouble. Sometimes I would read to them- sometimes a student would read it.Every year it was the same, after the first couple of times we did this activity, the students would get on each other about their behavior and say things like "Shut up or we won't get to read Chicken Soup!"

Answer 5

One thing I remember as I child, is we were able to design our homeroom yearbook page. This could be a fun addition to add to your school as a whole. Another fun thing was playing 7-Up, where several students go the front of the classroom, audience puts their heads down and thumbs up, people walk around, tap thumbs, people raise their heads and guess who picked them. Not much to it, but it was very fun at the time. How about playing Hang-Man on the board with items you learned/covered that day?? How about quizzing your students in groups with a prize for an incentive to participate?? Candy, no homework for a day, something creative.