February 5, 2013

Quick No Fluff Fillers

Classroom games are a great way to build rapport and classroom culture. They also are something students can earn for cleaning up quickly. This a fun game I play to calm the energy after an active class.

Here's the scenario.

Sit students in a circle. Choose one child to be the artist and they sit in the middle. She falls asleep leaving her paintbrush in front of her.

When the teacher gives the signal the artist wakes up to find someone has taken her paintbrush.

She has to find her paintbrush and gets three tries. (Student simply calls the name of the student who she thinks has it and they have to show their hands.) On the third try the person who has it hold up the paintbrush.

Meanwhile, all the kids participate by pretending they have the paintbrush. The person with the paintbrush passes it behind their back to another person so they won't get "caught" with it. The rest "bluff" having the paintbrush.

It is a really quiet game and a lot of fun. We (me especially) get a kick out of "circling up" and playing games. It is a much needed change of pace every now and then.

Sometimes we play the same game but call it dog and the dog has to find his "bone."

Do you have any games you play that are big successes?

2 comments:

Mrs. Impey said...

I actually do around the world with my kinders and 1st graders using flash cards that we build upon as we go through the year. When we start out the year with primary and secondary colors, I get paint samples to rotate through. When we start adding in horizontal and vertical lines, I'll draw a line on some paint samples and throw them in the mix. This is usually for the end of class when we have finished a little earlier than expected, and it acts as a sort of closure/review/assessment.

Katie Morris said...

I love that idea. Sounds like fun!