Activities That Worked This Past Year

I'd like to remember some activities for next year and share the love for the taking.

My review game that I am most proud of is my Angry Birds game.  Kids are still talking about playing Angry Birds on their phones and computer, and I was inspired by this from Pinterest and put my own spin on it.  I bought small clear Dixie cups and Angry Bird cat toys from Walmart.  I stacked the cups into various shapes of pyramids with different amounts of cups in stations around the room.  If you do this, be aware that flying Angry Birds can't hurt anything around it.  At each station was a set of questions, usually around 4 or 5.  Partners would go to stations with a paper in hand (these two students would be going against each other). They would record the answers to their questions on the paper, and when both are finished, I included the answers in an envelope.  They would check their answers and score appropriately.  For every correct answer, the student would get that many throws to try to knock down the pyramid of cups.  At the end of their turn, the number of cups knocked down turned into their points.  Then, the partner would go and count his points.  The pair would venture around the stations, reviewing and having fun.  When time was called, the partner with the most points "won."  The kids LOVED it and asked to do it for every review opportunity. It takes a bit of set-up, but you get to walk around while the students do all the work. :]
 

Spelling Battleship - One activity I use to review spelling words is Battleship.  I found a Battleship grid online - you can just Google it and many teachers have posted theirs.  Depending on how many words you have, you can adjust the amount of spaces.  I think mine was a 5x6 grid I made on Excel. We have 20 words a week, so I had the students pick 10 words and write one word in a square - just like in Battleship - in whatever squares they wanted.  The students would pick an opponent and place an "office" folder in between them.  If your opponent hit a square, they would have to spell the word correctly to get a point for it.  Half of the joy for them was just finding the word!  A smart way to keep from saving paper is to print off one set of Battleship grids and use sheet protectors or overhead paper with dry erase markers.  This way you can keep one set and use for all of your classes.  Here are some picture of my kiddos playing!

Medieval Legends - The last part of the 7th grade year I was at a loss of what to do.  I found some cool King Arthur stories in the textbook, so we studied the structure of legends and characteristics of heroes.  At the end of the unit, the students had to write their own legends, mixing history with fantasty, and creating a hero with all of the traditional characteristics.  I went to JoAnns craft store and found foam swords, shields, merlin hat/cape, and princess hats. The scripts they wrote were impressive, and many of the groups decided to add costumes of their own to present.  They had a ball!

8th Grade Gift - This past 8th grade was a very special class to me.  They were my first class when I student taught, and as a class, and school, we went through some tough times together.  I felt that I couldn't let them leave without SOMETHING.  I noticed that they didn't have any yearbook to pass around at the end of the year for signatures.  That was my favorite part about the last few days of school.  I could get the little notes from my friends and teachers, so I came up with an idea for them.  I bought each of them a notebook.  I typed their name on a label for the front.  On the inside front cover, I typed meaningful quotes from the novels we have read together - "Stay gold, Ponyboy, stay gold." etc. etc. On the back page, I made a sticker out of a picture of their homeroom from their 8th grade class trip and signed each of them with my own message. I was astounded by how much they appreciated it.  During the last few days, some of them stayed in from morning recess and were exchanging notebooks to sign.  Many of the teachers jokingly got on me because they were being asked to sign the kids' notebooks.  I loved making them, and I think they will remember our school and their class. :]

 





Yay for last year, and here's to looking towards the next! Please leave some love on these ideas, or let me know if you have any questions! :]
Loves,
Maria <3