November 2016 – Energetic Education

Monthly Archives: November 2016

November 29, 2016

Jumping creates amazing energy

Jumping activities are a great way to start a lesson. The reason for this is that they are extremely engaging and a great way to get students active and focused in a short period of time. The following 5 education breaks are best used outside or in a gym where students have plenty of space. The following jumping activities have been chosen, as they are suitable to use with students of all ages. Hopefully you will enjoy these games and you will find that they are perfect education breaks to engage and empower your students.

Masai Warrior

Equipment: None

Description: This is a game discovered in Kenya when visiting the Masai Warriors. The class needs to find a space on their own. This is best played outside. The aim of the game is to jump as high as you can on the spot for as long as you can. The winner or winners are the people who can do this for the longest. This shows strength and courage for the Masai Warriors.

Log Jumping

Equipment: None

Description: This game can be played inside or outside. Students lay on their stomachs in a circle with their heads facing inwards. Make sure there is a body width between each student before you start. The teacher stands in the middle and yells one student’s name. This student gets up and jumps clockwise over every student successively until they get back to their starting place where they lie back down. This game is like a Mexican wave, so once the lead student jumps over the first student they get up and follow the lead student and so on, until each student has followed the previous student back to their original place. When the last student lies down, the ‘turn’ stops. To challenge the students the teacher can time students to see how long it takes for everyone to have a go and get back to their starting position. This is a fun, challenging game the class can play together to try and beat the clock.

In The Water, Out of The Water

Equipment: Cones to make a 20m straight line

Description: Start the game with the class lining up in a straight line on one side of the line of cones. If you are playing the game inside and have lines on the ground you can use one of these instead. The game is simple; the class all starts on one side of the cones, which is called ‘out of the water’. On the other side of the cones is called ‘in the water’. The teacher then starts by saying one or the other. If the teacher says “In the water”, the class jumps over the cones. If the teacher says “Out of the water”, the class jumps back out of the water.

The game gets tricky when the teacher starts saying both instructions quite fast. Students are eliminated and become judges if they do the wrong movement, or if they are too slow to react to the instruction from the teacher. The last student left is the winner. This is a great game for students of all ages; it is a fun, fast-paced warm-up activity.

Jacob’s Ladder

Equipment: None

Description: Pair students up and have them sit down facing each other, legs straight and feet just touching. This line will form a ‘ladder’. Number the pairs in order and when their number is called, the two students must jump up, run over the legs of the other pairs in one direction, then run outside the ladder to the opposite end and then continue to run over the legs of the other pairs until they get back to their starting position. The first student back in the pair is awarded one point for their team. At the end of the game, the teams with the most points are the winners.

Fly

Equipment: Three large rulers

Description: This game is great for teaching your students long jump or just to practice jumping in a competitive situation. The teacher sets the three rulers up in a straight line 30cm apart. The students take one step between each ruler, trying a large jump on the last one. The student at the end of the line is the ‘fly’; they move the last ruler to where they landed. This increases the size of the jump for the next go. This continues until only one student is left at the end. The rulers get further and further apart, meaning the run-ups and jumps of the students increase. Students are out if they touch a ruler with their foot, or if they take two steps between each ruler.

November 21, 2016

Dice make the best activities

Over the past few years I have used dice in a number of different ways in my classes. Dice games and activities are great tools to foster collaborative work between students. They also help students communicate through talking, listening and taking turns during these activities. Choosing the top five for today’s post has been quite difficult, the reason being that dice are involved in so many fun games. I have tried to give you a good mix of different games and activities that can be used with students of all ages. Some of the games might need to be slightly modified depending upon the age and ability of your students.

I have found that dice games are fantastic homework tasks for students. The students are given a dice and the rules of a game and their homework is to take this home with them and teach the game to their family. Not only does this make the student feel important as they have to explain and demonstrate an activity that they have learnt at school, but it also moves the learning from the classroom to the student’s home. By introducing a fun and educational game, parents automatically have a great activity that they can play as a family. Basically I see this as a win: win to everyone.

Here are my top 5 dice education breaks, I hope you enjoy.

Four Corners

Equipment: 1 dice, paper and pen

Description: Number each corner of the room 1 to 4. Pick one student to be the Master. The Master closes their eyes and counts aloud from ten to zero. Meanwhile, each student tiptoes silently to any one of the four corners of the room. Everyone must be in a corner by the time the Master says “zero” and then calls out a number of a corner. Students in that corner are out and must return to their seats. The other students continue in the game. The game finishes when you have one winner and they become the Master for the next game.

Pig

Equipment: 1 dice and scoring sheet per pair

Description: Students play ‘Pig’ in pairs. The first student rolls the dice as many times as they like, adding up the total as they go. If the student throws a 1; all their score for that round is lost. The student rolling may stop at any time and put their score in the bank the banked score cannot be lost. When a score has been banked the dice is passed to the other student who has their turn. The winner is the first student to reach 50 or more. If you want to challenge the student’s increase the total bank score to 100.

Beat That

Equipment: 2 dice (up to 7 dice for older players)  Paper and pencil

Description: This game can be played in pairs, threes or fours. Students take it in turns to roll the dice and put them in order to make the highest number possible. For example, if a student rolls a 4 and 6, their best answer would be 64. Students using 3 dice, a roll of 3, 5 and 2 should give them 532, and so on. Students need to write down their answer, pass the dice and challenge the next student to “Beat That”. Play in rounds and assign a winner to each round. For a change try making the smallest number possible! This is a great game for reinforcing the concept of place value. If you are playing with younger students explain your reasoning aloud and encourage them to do the same.

The Big Cross

Equipment: Pen, paper and two dice

Description: This game is played in pairs. Each student writes the numbers 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12 on a piece of paper. Students take turns to roll two regular dice, add both numbers rolled together and cross out the total on their piece of paper. The first player to cross out all the numbers is the winner.

The Final Count Down

Equipment: Pen, paper and dice

Description: This game can be played in pairs, threes or fours. Each student begins with 100 points. Students take it in turns to roll a dice and subtract the number from their 100 points. The first player to reach zero is the winner. To make the game more challenging change the number of points the students begin with. The students may roll two regular dice and either add or multiply the numbers together before subtracting from the total.

Jumping creates amazing energy

Dice make the best activities

Subscribe

Recent Episodes

Recent Posts

Recent Posts

Recent Comments

Archives

Categories

Meta