Five minute games are a teacher's best friend -that and the dollar store! Five minute games are pretty much when a teacher has taught a lesson, the students are done their work and there are five minutes left before the bell rings. What is a teacher to do? Five minute games can also be used when the kids are getting antsy and they have to get up and move. According to Papanastasiou (2017) games in class are able to keep both elementary and high school students with attention, and developmental delays engaged in classroom. Brain break is a term used mostly by educators to get the kids up and moving. I would use brain breaks often in class and multiple times per day. I would use them when I saw that the kids had been sitting for a little too long and getting restless. Sometimes, it would consist simply of a few stretches, other times, it turned into a 5 minute game. Here are a list of my favourite 5 minute games: Game #1: Rock, paper, scissors, squat! I bet you have never heard of the squat part before! That's an added twist to this timeless classic. You know the rule: Scissors cut paper, rock crushes scissors and paper eats rock. Now, here's the twist: Every time you lose, you have to squat a little. If you keep losing, you keep squatting until you're all the way down on the floor. And of course, everytime you win, you get to stand back up a little. It gets the kids to move a little, lasts five minutes and everyone participates. According to Bobe (2014), these quick games are effective in increasing physical activity amongst elementary students. Game #2: Review challenge Divide the class into 4 or 5 groups, depending on the number of students in your class. You want approximately 3-4 students in each group. Quiz them on anything you have covered in class (if you teach history, ask them a history question, if you teach math, ask them something about the math topic you covered that week). It takes 5 minutes, it's a great review and the kids get to discuss the answers in small groups. I would recommend giving one white board to each group so that the kids don't shout out the answers. Instead, one representative from each group writes the answer on the white board. Game #3: Charades Ah! Who doesn't like a classic game of charades? Divide your class into groups of approximately 4 students. Let's call these groups: A, B, C, and D. Have a student from group A come to the front of the classroom. Give this student a topic to act out, perhaps from a popular kids book. Only members from group A can call out the answer. Groups B, C, and D have to wait their turn. This is a great method to keep the class from getting too rowdy. There are only 4 students, on the same team, calling out at once. If a student is too shy to participate, do not force them to act. They generally enjoy being one of the ones to guess. Other jobs for students who don't like to participate are: Time keeper, score keeper and teacher's helper. 5 minutes means every group gets a chance to participate once. It will keep the kids asking for more charades on following days -which is a great way to build a relationship with a student who may not necessarily enjoy attending school. Perhaps a little game like charades is the highlight of their day. According to Demaray (2005), it is important for educators to support shy students, as kids develop positive attitudes toward school. Game #4: Math train I learned this game during my fourth year stage in a grade 2 class. It works for students at any age in elementary. Have two students stand next to each other and ask them to solve a math question (something quick like an addition or multiplication). Students 1 & 2 stand next to each other and you call out something like: 4 X 6. Student 2 answers "24" right away. Student 1 sits down and student 2 walks up to the next student. The teacher asks another question. The kids get very excited when they go around the room, especially when the same student is on a winning streak. The teacher should make sure to ask easier questions for students who struggle with math. This way, everyone gets a fair chance! Game #5: Bop, Beep Have the students stand in a circle and tell them that you will begin counting from 1 to 100. Every time, they get to a multiple of 5, they have to say Bop instead. For example, 1, 2, 3, 4, BOP, 6, 7, 8, 9, BOP...Sounds easy, but someone inadvertently always makes a mistake! Stop at 100 and start over. Add another rule, this time, students have to replace all multiples of 5 with BOP and all multiples of 3 with BEEP. Here's what it looks like: 1, 2, BEEP, 4, BOP, BEEP, 7, 8, BEEP, BOP. That definitely gets more challenging! Five minutes is all you need. If it goes longer than that, the students might get frustrated. For students who have difficulty with math, consider writing the numbers 1 to 100 on the board. Point to the numbers as the kids go around the circle. This will help keep them focused on the number that they have to call out. According to Shellard (2004), teachers need to use different strategies in the classroom so that students can connect to math. She goes on to say that teachers need to encourage positive attitudes. I found that math games was a way of introducing math to the kids in a fun way! Game #6: A Figure of Speech My sister sent me this image recently. I was confused at first and then I started looking carefully at all the different figure of speeches. How fun! My husband and I played it together and excitedly started saying them out loudly: 1) Kicking the bucket 2) Born with a sliver spoon in your mouth 3) From rags to riches 4) Having cold feet...I could keep going but I don't want to ruin in for my readers in case they want to try it out. We were able to find 25! We weren't sure about the halved walnut or the red fish...let me know if you figure it out! I immediately posted in on FB for my friends to try. I also recommended that they share it with their students. Some of my friends found 4 or 5, some got to 20. I was thrilled when I found out that some of my friends shared it with their students! The kids loved it! They definitely knew a few expressions while they had never heard of some other ones. It turned out to great learning opportunity as the teachers were able to explain some of the expressions to the kids. #win Game #7: Fortunately, unfortunately I actually just played this game this morning with a grade 2 class that I visited! This was a game that my dear daddy taught my sisters and I when we were young. Have the students sit in a circle. The teacher starts by telling a story. For example, I woke up late for school this morning and missed my bus. The first student continues the story with FORTUNATELY, and adds a piece to the story. The next student continues with UNFORTUNATELY, and so on and so forth. I used that beginning with my students today. It went something like this: I woke up late for school this morning and missed my bus. FORTUNATELY, it was nice outside and I rode my bike. UNFORTUNATELY, when I got to school, the principal got mad at me for being late and started yelling at me (at this, the kids laughed and laughed), FORTUNATELY I was able to go to class. UNFORTUNATELY, I forgot my school bag at home, FORTUNATELY, my mom was able to drive it to school (funny how the mom couldn't drive her child to school), UNFORTUNATELY, my mom got a flat tire, FORTUNATELY, her grandmother called the tow truck...and then the bell rang. That's not part of the story. The bell really rang so we will never know how that story ends. I told the teacher in the class that I always start this game with the whole class and then I separate them into groups of three and have the students play with their classmates. Very popular game! Here's a funny example that I often share with my older students. I remember my dad sharing it with me when I was very young. A man fell out of a plane. FORTUNATELY, he was wearing a parachute. UNFORTUNATELY, there was a hole in the parachute. FORTUNATELY, there was a hay stack on the ground. UNFORTUNATELY, there was a pitchfork sticking out of the haystack. FORTUNATELY he missed the pitchfork. UNFORTUNATELY, he missed the hay! Game #8: The word game I am not sure if that's the actual name but nevertheless, the kids love it! Have two students face each other. Give them a topic, such as: Objects that you find in the kitchen. One at a time, they have to take turns naming objects. For example: Student 1 says: a fork, Student 2 says: a cutting board, student 1 says fridge, student 2 says: a microwave and so on and so forth. Sounds easy? It's really not. After about five or six words, the kids have a hard time thinking of other words. Note that there's a 3 second time limit and if you say a word that has already been said, you forfeit the game. This is a fun game to play on road trips too! Game #9: Hot potato with a twist This is not your everyday regular game of hot potato. Have the students sit or stand in a circle. Play music. Start with one ball and pass it around the circle, add and a second and third ball too. At one point, stop the music, this means that everyone FREEZES! The three students holding the ball do a little movement (wave of the hands, bending their knees, a little dance...and the game continues). If students are too shy to do a movement on their own, do one for them and have the whole class repeat. Students might have more confidence once they see everyone acting a little silly. Do not force kids out of their comfort zones. Game #10: C like Charlie I definitely made this name up! I came up with it for my students who were always finished their work early. I remember one of my grade 4 students, Ella, asking me what she could do when she had finished her work. I asked her if she knew the 50 states, to which she replied "no". I told her to print out a sheet of the states and to memorize them. She was up for the challenge and it became a fun game for all students once they were finished their work. Ella loved the game! She told me a story of when she had gone to her sister's piano recital, bored out of her mind, asked her mom for a paper and pen, and began to jot down all the states. Her parents thought it was amusing. This popular in-class game got me thinking of other similar games, namely C like Charlie. I asked the kids to memorize the military alphabet (alpha, beta, charlie, delta, echo...). The kids love it! I told them that it's helpful when they're on the phone with someone and they're trying to spell out a word. Games and brain breaks are so important for children at any age. There is a website called www.gonoodle.com/ It is designed for students to get up and move in class. So, for a teacher who is not comfortable playing games with the students, this website will take care of that! You don't need much space either. The students can stand behind their desks and follow along. There are options for stretching, dancing, running and jumping on the spot. I highly recommend it for indoor recess (when it's raining and the kids don't have a chance to move around). According to the Canadian Physical Activities Guidelines, Children should do some form of exercise for at least 60 minutes per day. What if they are not getting the recommended minutes of physical activity per day at home and are sitting at their desks all day at school? Teachers and educators need to do their part and have the children get up and move a little each day. References and recommended readings
Baron, Ella. A figure of speech cartoon retrieved at: https://www.ellabaron.com/ Bobe, G., Perera, T., Frei, S., & Frei, B. (July 01, 2014). Brain Breaks: Physical Activity in the Classroom for Elementary School Children. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior: Supplement, 46, 4.) Canadian Physical Activity Guidelines, retrieved at: http://csep.ca/CMFiles/Guidelines/CSEP_PAGuidelines_0-65plus_en.pdf Demaray, M. K., Malecki, C. K., Davidson, L. M., Hodgson, K. K. & Rebus, P. J. (2005). The relationship between social support and student adjustment: A longitudinal analysis. Psychology in the Schools, 42, 691–706. Korem, A., & Korem, A. (January 01, 2018). Supporting Shy Students in the Classroom: A Review. European Psychologist. Papanastasiou, G., Drigas, A., Skianis, C., & Lytras, M. D. (November 07, 2017). Serious games in K-12 education. Program, 51, 4, 424-440. Shellard, E. G. (November 01, 2004). Helping Students Struggling with Math: Teachers Need to Employ a Wide Variety of Strategies to Develop Understanding of Math Concepts and Encourage Positive Attitudes. Principal, 84, 2, 40-43.
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