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https://quickdraw.withgoogle.com/

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This is a game built with machine learning. You draw, and a neural network tries to guess what you're drawing. Of course, it doesn't always work. But the more you play with it, the more it will learn. So far we have trained it on a few hundred concepts, and we hope to add more over time. We made this as an example of how you can use machine learning in fun ways. Watch the video below to learn about how it works, and

Built by Jonas Jongejan, Henry Rowley, Takashi Kawashima, Jongmin Kim, Nick Fox-Gieg, with friends at Google Creative Lab and Data Arts Team.

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Can a neural network learn to recognize doodles? See how well it does with your drawings and help teach it, just by playing.

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4.5 / 5 (603,089 Votes)

Hangman Instructions

Guess letters one at a time to solve the word puzzle. Tap a letter to guess it. Each time you solve a word, the balloons you save are added to your score. Up for a challenge? Increase the difficulty and you'll have fewer balloons to hang on to!

HANGMAN TIPS & STRATEGIES

Use your vowels. Looking at vowels is a good way to start. Since there are only 5, you can fill in some blanks pretty quickly. They can even help you guess the answer straight away. For example, if you try the letter A and the word looks like this '_A_A_A', you might be able to guess straight away that the answer is BANANA just from one letter.

Etaoin shrdlu. "Etaoin shrdlu" is two words listing the most commonly used letters in the English language, in order of frequency. "E" is the most commonly used letter, "t" is second-most common, etc. After trying your vowels, try out a few letters from this list to see if they appear in the word!

Break down phrases. When trying to guess a phrase, break it up and look at each word rather than focus on the letters. If you can guess just one word then it may lead you to the other words in the saying. You can also use the tip at the top of the window for extra help.

Don't forget your Js and Zs. The letters J and Z always trip people up. They're both fairly rare and it's not always obvious when you need one to complete a word or phrase. Don't guess a Z or a J at the very beginning, but keep them in mind as you play.

It can be helpful to learn the most difficult and most common words used in Hangman. Get some helpful tips on how to further build your Hangman strategy.

WHAT YOU LEARN FROM PLAYING HANGMAN

Hangman teaches you spelling, vocabulary, and other related language skills. Hangman can also help expand your topical knowledge.

If you like word guessing games, try your skills playing some other fun and free games like Play Four or the Daily Crossword.

Guess the letters in the secret word to solve the puzzle. You can guess a letter by clicking it or typing it on your keyboard. You'll score points for each correct letter you guess, and if you solve the word, you score for how fast you get it and how many balloons you had left. Get the highest total score after 5 rounds to win the game and earn a trophy!

Choose quick play to jump right into a game, or create a private match to play with your friends. Press the copy button and send them the URL so they can join your room.

During the game, click on your avatar to pull up the customize menu.

HANGMAN TIPS & STRATEGIES

Use your vowels. Looking at vowels is a good way to start. Since there are only 5, you can fill in some blanks pretty quickly. They can even help you guess the answer straight away. For example, if you try the letter A and the word looks like this '_A_A_A', you might be able to guess straight away that the answer is BANANA just from one letter.

Etaoin shrdlu. "Etaoin shrdlu" is two words listing the most commonly used letters in the English language, in order of frequency. "E" is the most commonly used letter, "t" is second-most common, etc. After trying your vowels, try out a few letters from this list to see if they appear in the word!

Break down phrases. When trying to guess a phrase, break it up and look at each word rather than focus on the letters. If you can guess just one word then it may lead you to the other words in the saying. You can also use the tip at the top of the window for extra help.

Don't forget your Js and Zs. The letters J and Z always trip people up. They're both fairly rare and it's not always obvious when you need one to complete a word or phrase. Don't guess a Z or a J at the very beginning, but keep them in mind as you play.

It can be helpful to learn the most difficult and most common words used in Hangman. Get some helpful tips on how to further build your Hangman strategy.

What are some of the hardest Hangman words?

One of the hardest words in Hangman is Jazz. Jazz is great because it includes J and Z, two of the most uncommon letters in the alphabet. Along with this, it only has 3 letters in it, which makes it harder for players to guess.

Other great options are words that don't use the typical A, E, I, O, and U vowels. Some great examples are psych and synth. Both will be hard for opponents to guess due to their lack of vowels.

What do you learn from playing Hangman?

Hangman teaches you spelling, vocabulary, and other related language skills. Hangman can also help expand your topical knowledge.

If you like word guessing games, try your skills by playing some other fun and free games like Play Four or the Daily Crossword.

4.5 / 5 (603,089 Votes)

Hangman Instructions

Guess letters one at a time to solve the word puzzle. Tap a letter to guess it. Each time you solve a word, the balloons you save are added to your score. Up for a challenge? Increase the difficulty and you'll have fewer balloons to hang on to!

HANGMAN TIPS & STRATEGIES

Use your vowels. Looking at vowels is a good way to start. Since there are only 5, you can fill in some blanks pretty quickly. They can even help you guess the answer straight away. For example, if you try the letter A and the word looks like this '_A_A_A', you might be able to guess straight away that the answer is BANANA just from one letter.

Etaoin shrdlu. "Etaoin shrdlu" is two words listing the most commonly used letters in the English language, in order of frequency. "E" is the most commonly used letter, "t" is second-most common, etc. After trying your vowels, try out a few letters from this list to see if they appear in the word!

Break down phrases. When trying to guess a phrase, break it up and look at each word rather than focus on the letters. If you can guess just one word then it may lead you to the other words in the saying. You can also use the tip at the top of the window for extra help.

Don't forget your Js and Zs. The letters J and Z always trip people up. They're both fairly rare and it's not always obvious when you need one to complete a word or phrase. Don't guess a Z or a J at the very beginning, but keep them in mind as you play.

It can be helpful to learn the most difficult and most common words used in Hangman. Get some helpful tips on how to further build your Hangman strategy.

WHAT YOU LEARN FROM PLAYING HANGMAN

Hangman teaches you spelling, vocabulary, and other related language skills. Hangman can also help expand your topical knowledge.

If you like word guessing games, try your skills playing some other fun and free games like Play Four or the Daily Crossword.

What are some of the hardest Hangman words?

One of the hardest words in Hangman is Jazz. Jazz is great because it includes J and Z, two of the most uncommon letters in the alphabet. Along with this, it only has 3 letters in it, which makes it harder for players to guess.

Other great options are words that don't use the typical A, E, I, O, and U vowels. Some great examples are psych and synth. Both will be hard for opponents to guess due to their lack of vowels.

What do you learn from playing Hangman?

Hangman teaches you spelling, vocabulary, and other related language skills. Hangman can also help expand your topical knowledge.

If you like word guessing games, try your skills by playing some other fun and free games like Play Four or the Daily Crossword.

Guess the letters in the secret word to solve the puzzle. You can guess a letter by clicking it or typing it on your keyboard. You'll score points for each correct letter you guess, and if you solve the word, you score for how fast you get it and how many balloons you had left. Get the highest total score after 5 rounds to win the game and earn a trophy!

Choose quick play to jump right into a game, or create a private match to play with your friends. Press the copy button and send them the URL so they can join your room.

During the game, click on your avatar to pull up the customize menu.

HANGMAN TIPS & STRATEGIES

Use your vowels. Looking at vowels is a good way to start. Since there are only 5, you can fill in some blanks pretty quickly. They can even help you guess the answer straight away. For example, if you try the letter A and the word looks like this '_A_A_A', you might be able to guess straight away that the answer is BANANA just from one letter.

Etaoin shrdlu. "Etaoin shrdlu" is two words listing the most commonly used letters in the English language, in order of frequency. "E" is the most commonly used letter, "t" is second-most common, etc. After trying your vowels, try out a few letters from this list to see if they appear in the word!

Break down phrases. When trying to guess a phrase, break it up and look at each word rather than focus on the letters. If you can guess just one word then it may lead you to the other words in the saying. You can also use the tip at the top of the window for extra help.

Don't forget your Js and Zs. The letters J and Z always trip people up. They're both fairly rare and it's not always obvious when you need one to complete a word or phrase. Don't guess a Z or a J at the very beginning, but keep them in mind as you play.

It can be helpful to learn the most difficult and most common words used in Hangman. Get some helpful tips on how to further build your Hangman strategy.

4.5

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Hangman - Play the Word Game Online at Coolmath Games

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Play Hangman for free online and test your vocabulary by guessing letters one at a time to solve the word puzzle. Solving the puzzles keeps The Beast away.

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Would You Rather for Kids – 100 Questions
Here are all 100 Would You Rather Questions for Kids: 

1. Would you rather lick a dirty trash can or the bathroom floor?
2. Would you rather have a magic carpet that flies or your own personal robot?
3. Would you rather be the worst player on a team that always wins or the best player on a team that always loses?
4. Would you rather have one eye in the middle of your head or two noses?
5. Would you rather see a firework display or go to a concert?
6. Would you rather go water skiing or snow skiing?
7. Would you rather eat donuts or candy?
8. Would you rather fly a kite or ride on a scooter?
9. Would you rather have an extra finger or an extra toe?
10. Would you rather only be able to crawl on all fours or only be able to walk backwards?
11. Would you rather be able to create a new holiday or create a new language?
12. Would you rather be the funniest person alive or the smartest person alive?
13. Would you rather be a famous singer or a famous actor?
14. Would you rather be able to fly or be invisible?
15. Would you rather never have to shower again or never have to clip your toenails?
16. Would you rather have the chance to design a new toy or direct a movie?
17. Would you rather be ten years older or four years younger?
18. Would you rather be able to control the weather or have the ability to talk to animals?
19. Would you rather be a master at painting or an amazing dancer?
20. Would you rather live on the Moon or live on Mars?
21. Would you rather meet your favorite celebrity or be in a movie?
22. Would you rather only be able to whisper or have an incredibly loud voice?
23. Would you rather eat a raw potato or a whole lime?
24. Would you rather be invisible or be able to fly?
25. Would you rather speak every language or play every instrument?
26. Would you rather live without a TV or without a phone?
27. Would you rather be a bird or a horse?
28. Would you rather live in the desert or on a deserted island?
29. Would you rather go on a rollercoaster or go sky diving?
30. Would you rather live in the sky or under the sea?
31. Would you rather have a hand twice as big or half as small?
32. Would you rather have a pet dinosaur or a pet dragon?
33. Would you rather always have to enter rooms by announcing your name or always have to do cartwheels out?
34. Would you rather have butterfly wings or a horse tail?
35. Would you rather have wings but you can’t fly or have gills but you can’t swim underwater?
36. Would you rather be the smartest person in the world or the best athlete in the world?
37. Would you rather eat a beetle or get stung by a bee?
38. Would you rather be able to change the color of your hair whenever you want or be able to change the length of your hair whenever you want?
39. Would you rather live in a mansion in the city or on a farm with lots of animals?
40. Would you rather have 5 brothers or 5 sisters?
41. Would you rather be a unicorn or a pegasus?
42. Would you rather meet a superhero or a cartoon character?
43. Would you rather be an Olympic athlete or the President?
44. Would you rather drink sour milk or eat rotten eggs?
45. Would you rather eat a whole jar of mayonnaise or drink a cup of hot sauce?
46. Would you rather live without music or without movies?
47. Would you rather have a new cool shirt in your closet every morning or a new pair of shoes once a week?
48. Would you rather play in the snow in the mountains or in the sand at the beach?
49. Would you rather have a pet panda bear or a pet zebra?
50. Would you rather sweat honey or always smell like a skunk?
51. Would you rather kiss a frog or hug a snake?
52. Would you rather have lived in the 1870’s or in the 1970’s?
53. Would you rather shovel snow or rake leaves?
54. Would you rather play the guitar or the piano?
55. Would you rather not be allowed to watch T.V. for a year or not be allowed to eat any sweets for a year?
56. Would you rather have a car that can fly or go underwater?
57. Would you rather be the fastest person in the world or can freeze time?
58. Would you rather be trapped in a room with a friendly tiger or with 10 bumblebees?
59. Would you rather have a bucket stuck on your head or a cement block stuck on your foot?
60. Would you rather have a pool or a trampoline?
61. Would you rather be a doctor or a scientist?
62. Would you rather go to the zoo or an aquarium?
63. Would you rather be really fast or really strong?
64. Would you rather set the table before dinner or wash the dishes after dinner?
65. Would you rather jump into a pool of chocolate pudding or a pool of strawberry ice cream?
66. Would you rather have pizza or chips?
67. Would you rather have a pet hamster or a pet cat?
68. Would you rather have hamburgers or hot dogs?
69. Would you rather be an art teacher or a physical education teacher?
70. Would you rather eat a dead spider or a live worm?
71. Would you rather have really small hands or really big feet?
72. Would you rather read minds or be invisible?
73. Would you rather have french fries or chocolate cake?
74. Would you rather be a police officer or a doctor?
75. Would you rather play paint ball or laser tag?
76. Would you rather have a picnic in a park or on the beach?
77. Would you rather eat pizza for every meal or ice cream for every meal?
78. Would you rather have a purple nose or green ears?
79. Would you rather moo like a cow after every sentence or bark like a dog?
80. Would you rather live in the North Pole or the South Pole?
81. Would you rather have 3 legs or 3 arms?
82. Would you rather see a giant ant or a tiny giraffe?
83. Would you rather always be dressed up or always wear your pajamas?
84. Would you rather drive go for a drive in a convertible or a double decker bus?
85. Would you rather have to wear a clown wig or a clown nose for the rest of your life?
86. Would you rather only be able to wear your swimsuit for the rest of your life or only be able to wear pants and a winter coat?
87. Would you rather play soccer or baseball?
88. Would you rather be able to live 100 years in the past or 100 years in the future?
89. Would you rather go to the doctor or the dentist?
90. Would you rather fly a helicopter or a commercial plane?
91. Would you rather have breakfast on the Eiffel tower or dinner in a castle?
92. Would you rather give up eating sweets or give up eating fast food?
93. Would you rather live where it is always dark outside or always light outside?
94. Would you rather it be warm and raining or cold and snowing?
95. Would you rather discover a hidden treasure or discover a living dinosaur?
96. Would you rather go to the movies or go to a waterpark?
97. Would you rather be friends with superman or spiderman?
98. Would you rather go bungee jumping or go on the tallest roller coaster?
99. Would you rather go ice skating or tobogganing?
100. Would you rather constantly itch or always have a cough?

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Back in the day, my d.school friends Tania Anaissie and Taylor Cone created the " Stoke Deck "-a collection of activities to boost energy, nurture camaraderie, and encourage creativity among students in college design classes. Since then, I've religiously used these activities, and others like them, to help my students get into the right mindset for creative collaboration.

Students in Dartmouth's Senior Design Challenge class on "Silly Hat Day"

But activities like these were designed for physical, in-person interaction. Today, we teach and learn in a different world.

As my colleagues and I scrambled to shift our in-person design classes to an online format, I posed a question to the members of the Future of Design in Higher Education group:

As we aim to create engaging experiences for our students online,

What are all the Zoom-friendly warm-up/stoke activities that we can do with our students to kick off class sessions, or add moments of delight throughout?

Below is what we came up with.

Feel free to use these for your online classes, meetings, and webinars to infuse a little bit of extra joy into those experiences.

Name Tag

A very quick and simple way for everyone to acknowledge each other at the start of a meeting or class session.

Sound Ball

The premise is you're throwing around an invisible/imaginary ball.

Someone starts by forming their hands as if they're holding an invisible ball, and saying the name of the person they're about to "throw" the invisible ball to.

The thrower has to make a specific sound with their mouth when throwing (it can be anything... "whee," "boing," "poof," "blah," "shayayayaya", whatever).

The catcher must make the same sound that the thrower made. Then, the catcher names a new person they're about to throw to, and throws it to them with a new made-up sound.

Keep going until everyone has had the ball once.

Tip: have everyone put their hands up to the camera if they haven't had the ball yet, so that as the game continues, the remaining throwers know who to throw to (if the objective is to include everyone).

Classic "Sound Ball" game, except can be done on Zoom with one variation.

Shazoom*

The facilitator needs to share audio only (in Zoom's "Advanced" screen sharing options).

The facilitator plays a song (using Spotify or whatever other source you'd like)

Participants race to identify the song in the chat. The first one to guess correctly gets a point.

The points can be simply pride points, or can be redeemable for prizes of the facilitator's choosing. Someone can "win" by being the first to get, e.g. 3 points, or you can just go for a few minutes until it's time to move on.

This one is super simple and gets people in a joyful mood quickly. It can take less than a minute, or as long as 5 or even 10 minutes if you'd like to keep it going.

Variation: you can divide participants into teams (have everyone change their display name to start with the team number/name, so you can keep track), and the teams can compete against each other for added (e.g. first team to 5 points wins).

Tip: vary the genres of the songs to keep it fun (e.g. play something from a Broadway musical, followed by a current Billboard hit, followed by an oldie, etc.)

*Portmanteau of Shazam and Zoom. Credit for the name goes to Espy Thomson, the Human-Centered Design Fellow at Dartmouth College.

Pass The Love

Ask everyone to set their Zoom screen to the "Gallery view" setting which allows you to see everyone as a set of tiled video screens.

Ask everyone (with video on) to stand up, and out-stretch their arms side to side. Then back up until their arms are touching the edges of their video frame (imagining you're in a box bounded by the webcam).

Each person should think of something lovely/kind to share with another person and hold that idea in their hands like a ball.

Then everyone will "pass" that Love to a person in the frame to Left, Right, Top or Bottom of their frame...And as someone passes something to you then you will "receive" it by reaching to that side of that side of video frame, and "pass" it along to another side of the video frame.

So you are "receiving" and "passing" Love around the video group. Everyone is moving, and passing (and also reaching, stretching, etc).

The goal is to get everyone standing and moving around to re-energize and re-engage.

Remember When...

This usually results in some delightful hilarity, and is a great example of collaborative creativity.

Fun with Virtual Backgrounds

The place you wish you could be right now

Your favorite scent

A still from a movie or cartoon you love

Your favorite food/dessert

A childhood photo of yourself

Something that makes you happy

Your favorite city

Etc... you can even crowdsource ideas from the group

Have everyone set their Zoom "virtual background" to something fun, funny, or delightful, such as:

Then you can go around and have everyone talk for a few seconds about what they chose and why.

One-Word-at-a-Time Proverb

Pre-assign the order in which people will speak (typing out everyone's names in order in the chat works well).

The first person starts by saying the first word of a (non-existent) proverb.

Continue around the group with each person adding one word (e.g.: He... who... slices... radishes... loudly... must... always... etc.);

Once the group feels that the natural end of the sentence has been reached, everyone nods and says "yes, yes, yes, yes, yes."

You can go around the group several times and come up with several proverbs.

This is a classic improv game that survives the transition to Zoom very well.

Yes, Let's!

Another "oldie but a goodie" that works really well online.

Where Are We?

Set up a Google Spreadsheet like this one. (You need to have automatically-averaging formula for latitude and longitude, and you need to make sure everyone can edit this shared spreadsheet.)

Have everyone go to latlong.net and look up their latitude and longitude.

Have everyone go to the spreadsheet and enter their name and location.

Once you have the averages, facilitator does a reverse-lookup by going to latlong.net/Show-Latitude-Longitude.html and enters the averages, to see the place name.

Facilitator enters the resulting place name into the spreadsheet.

The summary is: you average out the coordinates of everyone's current location (latitude + longitude), to determine the geographical "center of mass" of the group.

Bonus points if you then look up something about the place where you landed. When I tried this, the class's average was in Shelton, CT. Turns out it's the birthplace of the original Wiffle Ball!

Story Spine

Once upon a time...

Every day...

Until one day...

And because of that...

And because of that...

And because of that... n*

Until finally...

And ever since that day...

Everyone comes up with a story together, one sentence at a time. Start by pre-assigning the order in which people will speak (typing out everyone's names in order in the chat works well), and post the text of the bullet points below on the screen. Then, have everyone go around and build the story, with these phrases starting each subsequent sentence:

* You can have as many of these as you need to, given the size of the group.

Gift-Giving

Start by "handing" one person an invisible/imaginary gift. (It's helpful if you have a TA or confederate for this first step, so they can demonstrate the proper response). Be as expressive as possible with your body language to indicate something about the size / weight / potential contents of the gift. As you hand it over, the only thing you're allowed to say is "Here, [person's name], I got you a gift."

The person to whom you handed it has to receive the gift and name it, responding to the body language. ("Wow, thanks for this... bicycle! It's such a pretty hot pink color!")

And then they give a gift to the next person, and so on, until everyone has gone.

This is another classic improv game.

This can work well in a session in which you're teaching interviewing and empathy-building because the "receiver" is like the interviewer and has to respond to what the giver/interviewee puts out there.

Jamboard Playground

Open a Jamboard and share the link with everyone that is on your video call.

Choose someone to share one thing that they are obsessed with that week or day.

When that one thing has been chosen (ex: watching Netflix, sending mail, dinosaurs), that becomes the inspiration for your communal art piece.

On Jamboard, the tools on the left hand side give everyone the markers, adding images, etc. to help create a single image inspired by that "obsession".

It helps to have a time limit (like 5 minutes) and everyone is encouraged to participate. The best part, the image at the end is a hodgepodge of interpretations that have been built off each other.

Students in Swarthmore's Center for Innovation and Leadership create collaborative art on Jamboard

Randomly assign people to breakout rooms and ask them to determine a short list of design principles or class concepts (or anything else!).

Bring the groups back and with mute on. Have one person act out the concept while the other team guesses.

Google has an extension called " Jamboard," which is basically like a shared whiteboard.

Breakout Room Charades

The facilitator asks each participant to submit the title of their favorite song, or the name of their favorite artist. This can be done ahead of time (via email or Google Forms), or in real-time via Zoom private chat. The important thing is not to let other participants know what each person said.

The facilitator plays ~30sec of each person's favorite song (looking it up on Spotify or YouTube Music, etc.), and everyone has to guess which person picked which song.

(For a fun/silly bonus, throw in 30 seconds of random/weird/strange song that no one listed, just to add a note of delightful unpredictability).

Musical Guess-Who

This works best with small groups (less than 10).

Rapid Fire Teams

Have everyone turn on "Gallery view."

Air-high-five your neighbors.

Air-high-five your diagonal neighbors.

A great way to quickly build intimacy and community, by giving pairs of people something unique to bond over.

High Five

You can share your audio and play a song for everyone (and you can choose whether to allow people to turn off their cameras to do the whole "dance like nobody's watching" thing, or leave everyone's cameras on and enjoy each other's silliness together).

You can encourage everyone to play their own song and dance to it, while keeping their microphones on mute - so you're simulating a "silent disco" situation.

30-Second Dance Party

There are two variations of this one:

Person 1 starts by doing a movement, such as shrugging their shoulders.

Person 2 jumps in and asks "Hey [insert name]! What are you doing?"

Person 1 responds "I'm krumping!"

Person 2 responds: "That's not krumping. This is krumping." Person 2 now does a new movement and Person 1 mimics.

Person 3 jumps in and asks Person 2 "Hey [insert name]! What are you doing?" etc. starting a new movement so all three people are doing a new movement.

This continues until everyone on the video call is doing one similar movement, one person at a time, with the movement changing with each person.

That's Not Krumping

A game to get everyone on a video call to do a synchronized movement from the waist up.

First, ask everyone to notice their current mood. Notice how you feel.

Second, get up and move around your space touching lots of objects in your space. Notice how they make you feel when you touch them. Pick one that feels like it matches your mood today. If it is small enough, bring it back to your Zoom.

Third, share. Depending on group size, everyone can share or can do breakout rooms in small groups.

Getting in Touch with Touch

The goal of this exercise is to get everyone out of the cognitive for a few minutes and in touch with tactile and sensory experience.

When on a video call, have everyone grab something that is within arm's reach.

Take turns telling a story about that item: Where/when did you get it? Is it meaningful?

If you're on multiple calls with similar people and choose this activity, make sure to grab something new to share each time.

Instruction and note to give to your group: "If you are an accomplished cognitive thinker, it will be easy for you to pick any random object and make up a reasonable-sounding story ( narrative) of how that object matches your mood. Try not to do this, but instead really notice how you feel and then how objects make you feel when you touch them."

Grab and Share / Show and Tell

Bonus variation: you can also have participants tell completely fantastical, made-up stories about the objects, for extra delight and creativity.

Scene Change

Everyone moves out of the frame (but keeps their cameras on). The facilitator instructs everyone to come back to the shot as though they _______ (insert mood / situation / facial expression here). You can do several of these back-to-back. Some fun prompts include:

Come back as though you...

Shape Shift

This is a quick and easy game that is sure to bring smiles to faces.

What was the last thing you had to drink?

What city are you in now?

What type of animal was your first pet?

Zoom Bingo

Ask participants a question that can be answered in one word or a short phrase. Each participant writes their response and holds it up to the camera. Anyone whose screen has a row, column, or diagonal with all the same responses wins. Simple questions work best, like...

Here's what it might look like:

Each guest takes turns telling one fact about the student who brought them, and it can be a true or false fact (e.g. "One time Ahmed ate 15 muffins in one sitting," "When she was little, Serena really wanted to be a pirate," etc.)

Everyone else tries to guess whether they think the fact was false. (You can use Zoom polls for this, and just set up a one-question poll with the options "TRUE" and "FALSE" and re-launch the poll each time.)

The person who said the fact reveals whether the group was right, and expands just a little on the backstory behind the fact.

For extra fun, cue up a sound effect for "correct" (ding) and "incorrect" (buzzer) to play after the reveal has been made.

The student who was just the subject of a true/false fact nominates the next person to go.

Keep going around until everyone has gone.

True or False (with Friends and Family)

Ask each student to bring a friend or family member to class. Go around and have each guest introduce themselves. Then, to play the "True or False?" game:

Pajama day

Ugly sweater day

Funny/favorite hat day (photo at the beginning of this article)

Superhero day

Plaid day

Bring a pet to class day

Halloween costume day

Bring a sibling to class day

Primary colors day

Dress as someone else (your prof or a famous person) day

Black tie day

Crazy hair day

Funny shirt day

Dessert/snack day

Bring a stuffed animal (or other childhood toy/memorabilia) day

Time travel day

Fun/funny socks day

Tell a joke day

Bad hair day

Bring something you made day

Etc.

Theme Days

Come up with a list of themes (like high school spirit days) - have students join you in brainstorming, or choose from the list below, and each day decide on a theme. You can use polls in Zoom to have students vote at the end of each day for the following day's theme (from, say, 5 options each time).

For each theme day, devote a few minutes at the start of class to going around and having everyone talk for a few seconds about the thing they chose/brought.

A whole bunch of great ideas from Abby Sturges:

Mural-specific warm-up games:

Interested in exploring more fun with improv and related activities? Here are some gems to check out:

This list was a team effort, and I'm immensely grateful to the members of the Future of Design in Higher Education group who worked on this together, including:

Wendy Angst (Notre Dame), Kate Burch Canales(UT-Austin), Katie Clark (Swarthmore), Gray Garmon (UT-Austin), Kim Hoffmann (Northwestern), Tony Hu (MIT), Steve Krak (Denison), Fred Leichter (Claremont Colleges), Andrea Mecquel (Princeton), Jessica Leung (Princeton), Amy O'Keefe (Northwestern), Claudia Roeschmann (Texas State), Sarah Rottenberg (UPenn), Adam Royalty (Columbia), Rafe Steinhauer (Tulane), Carl Sveen (Swarthmore), and Scott Witthoft (UT-Austin).

And agreat many thanks to my brave and wonderful students in the Senior Design Challenge course for letting me test out many of these activities with them! ...and for contributing lots of great ideas, like options for our theme days and virtual backgrounds.

And, of course, for looking so fabulous in silly hats.

Tell us in the comments!

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A list of warmup and icebreaker activities to use in remote classrooms on Zoom and beyond, when in-person interaction isn't possible.

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Ask students to go find an object that fits a description, ie something fuzzy, something long, something you love, etc

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I use Zoom to offer up a different kind of office hour. Think something similar to what takes place in your classroom at lunch on a rainy day. Special guests? Fun activities? Rapport building.

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I use Zoom to offer up a different kind of office hour. Think something similar to what takes place in your classroom at lunch on a rainy day. Special guests? Fun activities? Rapport building.

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For Teachers Looking to Make Innovative Use of their Covid19 Office Hour
Nationally, high school teachers are required to offer up regularly scheduled office hours, yet students since school shutdown are staying away in droves. Certainly that's true of my students.

But I can't blame them. Test prep? Help with an assignment? During shutdown and at a prescribed time of the day? Who needs to attend a regularly scheduled office hour for something like that when a student can reach out to a teacher, via email, any time of the day. The concept of the traditional office hour just seems so outdated!

So what's a teacher to do? Just walk away from that which is required by contract? Call it a day and feel good about the fact that the state is paying a decent amount of money for the teacher to do little if anything of value in return?

In response to the above, I sent out yesterday to each of my 140 AP US History students an email consisting of the words appearing below. It's my attempt to make innovative and high-value use of my Office Hour.

_____

To my Period 1 through Period 5 APUSH students:
Did you know that every Friday, from10:00-11:30 AM I hold what the school calls "Office Hours?"

I'm guessing no. Certainly, none of you ever show up, but then I don't blame you. I wouldn't either, if I were in your shoes.

After all, the Office Hour concept, as originally designed, called for us teachers to provide you, the students, with either test prep and/or some other kind of tutoring service. Don't I offer up enough of that during our regularly scheduled classroom Google Meets and/or via email and Google Docs throughout the rest of the day?

So what's the point of this email?

Well, the fact is that I'm wondering if you would, despite the above, like to come to my next regularly scheduled Office Hour for some purpose other than test prep and/or tutoring?

Specifically, I'm wondering if you, during my next Office Hour, would like to:

Share a favorite stay at home coping strategy

Share a favorite song, painting, work of art, poem, etc.

Ask any/all questions they you may have about school (what it should or might look like after school reopens, whether teachers should require. work during the 4th quarter, what the grading system should look like, what to do about prom, etc.)

Share something you've baked or otherwise created.

Share a talent you possess.

Simply hang out.

My next "Office Hour" is schedule for next Friday from 10:00-11:30 and if it helps matters let's not call it my Office Hour but rather my Office Hour Mixer.

Also, if there is someone you would like me to invite to join us,let me know? One of your favorite teachers (whether it be elementary, middle school, or high school)? How about Mr. Gayl, Mr. Holcomb, or Mr. Quiggle? In the alternative, would you like me to invite one of the youtube content delivery celebrities you've come to know this year (Tom Richey, Adam Norris, Matthew Beat, and/or Timothy (APUSH parody guy) Betts.)?

Then agin, perhaps there's something I could do that would give you good reason to hang out for a while on Friday? Would you perhaps want me (and some of the other teachers at the school) to sing one or two songs karaoke style? Or would you want me to teach you how to cook my family's favorite lasagna? Or show you the family dog?

Whatever you offer up, just keep in mind that I'm planning to host this mixer using the same Google Meet link that you use for class, so please do not share that link with anyone outside of the class. I will immediately end the mixer if anyone enters who is not a student in one of my five APUSH classes.

Also, please keep in mind that what I'm offering here is no different than what I would be offering at lunch on a rainy day. In other words, this is not required, so you can come and go as you want, and there is only one major rule - all school rules apply.

In any event, I'm personally looking forward to seeing at least a few of you on Friday. Also looking forward to chatting with Tom Richey. Minutes ago he texted me to say he'll be there.

P
The above published with the permission and encouragement of the SMHS admins. A description of my first-ever Office Hour Mixer to be inserted below ASAP.

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Reimagining the Concept of 'Office Hours' During School Shutdown

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For Teachers Looking to Make Innovative Use of their Covid19 Office Hour Nationally, high school teachers are required to offer up regularly scheduled office hours, yet students since school shutdown are staying away in droves. Certainly that's true of my students. But I can't blame them. Test prep? Help with an assignment?

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Use a royalty free/ public domain sound effects and have students guess the sound (animal, household, classroom, nature sounds...).

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4.5 / 5 (603,089 Votes)

Hangman Instructions

Guess letters one at a time to solve the word puzzle. Tap a letter to guess it. Each time you solve a word, the balloons you save are added to your score. Up for a challenge? Increase the difficulty and you'll have fewer balloons to hang on to!

HANGMAN TIPS & STRATEGIES

Use your vowels. Looking at vowels is a good way to start. Since there are only 5, you can fill in some blanks pretty quickly. They can even help you guess the answer straight away. For example, if you try the letter A and the word looks like this '_A_A_A', you might be able to guess straight away that the answer is BANANA just from one letter.

Etaoin shrdlu. "Etaoin shrdlu" is two words listing the most commonly used letters in the English language, in order of frequency. "E" is the most commonly used letter, "t" is second-most common, etc. After trying your vowels, try out a few letters from this list to see if they appear in the word!

Break down phrases. When trying to guess a phrase, break it up and look at each word rather than focus on the letters. If you can guess just one word then it may lead you to the other words in the saying. You can also use the tip at the top of the window for extra help.

Don't forget your Js and Zs. The letters J and Z always trip people up. They're both fairly rare and it's not always obvious when you need one to complete a word or phrase. Don't guess a Z or a J at the very beginning, but keep them in mind as you play.

It can be helpful to learn the most difficult and most common words used in Hangman. Get some helpful tips on how to further build your Hangman strategy.

WHAT YOU LEARN FROM PLAYING HANGMAN

Hangman teaches you spelling, vocabulary, and other related language skills. Hangman can also help expand your topical knowledge.

If you like word guessing games, try your skills playing some other fun and free games like Play Four or the Daily Crossword.

Guess the letters in the secret word to solve the puzzle. You can guess a letter by clicking it or typing it on your keyboard. You'll score points for each correct letter you guess, and if you solve the word, you score for how fast you get it and how many balloons you had left. Get the highest total score after 5 rounds to win the game and earn a trophy!

Choose quick play to jump right into a game, or create a private match to play with your friends. Press the copy button and send them the URL so they can join your room.

During the game, click on your avatar to pull up the customize menu.

HANGMAN TIPS & STRATEGIES

Use your vowels. Looking at vowels is a good way to start. Since there are only 5, you can fill in some blanks pretty quickly. They can even help you guess the answer straight away. For example, if you try the letter A and the word looks like this '_A_A_A', you might be able to guess straight away that the answer is BANANA just from one letter.

Etaoin shrdlu. "Etaoin shrdlu" is two words listing the most commonly used letters in the English language, in order of frequency. "E" is the most commonly used letter, "t" is second-most common, etc. After trying your vowels, try out a few letters from this list to see if they appear in the word!

Break down phrases. When trying to guess a phrase, break it up and look at each word rather than focus on the letters. If you can guess just one word then it may lead you to the other words in the saying. You can also use the tip at the top of the window for extra help.

Don't forget your Js and Zs. The letters J and Z always trip people up. They're both fairly rare and it's not always obvious when you need one to complete a word or phrase. Don't guess a Z or a J at the very beginning, but keep them in mind as you play.

It can be helpful to learn the most difficult and most common words used in Hangman. Get some helpful tips on how to further build your Hangman strategy.

What are some of the hardest Hangman words?

One of the hardest words in Hangman is Jazz. Jazz is great because it includes J and Z, two of the most uncommon letters in the alphabet. Along with this, it only has 3 letters in it, which makes it harder for players to guess.

Other great options are words that don't use the typical A, E, I, O, and U vowels. Some great examples are psych and synth. Both will be hard for opponents to guess due to their lack of vowels.

What do you learn from playing Hangman?

Hangman teaches you spelling, vocabulary, and other related language skills. Hangman can also help expand your topical knowledge.

If you like word guessing games, try your skills by playing some other fun and free games like Play Four or the Daily Crossword.

4.5 / 5 (603,089 Votes)

Hangman Instructions

Guess letters one at a time to solve the word puzzle. Tap a letter to guess it. Each time you solve a word, the balloons you save are added to your score. Up for a challenge? Increase the difficulty and you'll have fewer balloons to hang on to!

HANGMAN TIPS & STRATEGIES

Use your vowels. Looking at vowels is a good way to start. Since there are only 5, you can fill in some blanks pretty quickly. They can even help you guess the answer straight away. For example, if you try the letter A and the word looks like this '_A_A_A', you might be able to guess straight away that the answer is BANANA just from one letter.

Etaoin shrdlu. "Etaoin shrdlu" is two words listing the most commonly used letters in the English language, in order of frequency. "E" is the most commonly used letter, "t" is second-most common, etc. After trying your vowels, try out a few letters from this list to see if they appear in the word!

Break down phrases. When trying to guess a phrase, break it up and look at each word rather than focus on the letters. If you can guess just one word then it may lead you to the other words in the saying. You can also use the tip at the top of the window for extra help.

Don't forget your Js and Zs. The letters J and Z always trip people up. They're both fairly rare and it's not always obvious when you need one to complete a word or phrase. Don't guess a Z or a J at the very beginning, but keep them in mind as you play.

It can be helpful to learn the most difficult and most common words used in Hangman. Get some helpful tips on how to further build your Hangman strategy.

WHAT YOU LEARN FROM PLAYING HANGMAN

Hangman teaches you spelling, vocabulary, and other related language skills. Hangman can also help expand your topical knowledge.

If you like word guessing games, try your skills playing some other fun and free games like Play Four or the Daily Crossword.

What are some of the hardest Hangman words?

One of the hardest words in Hangman is Jazz. Jazz is great because it includes J and Z, two of the most uncommon letters in the alphabet. Along with this, it only has 3 letters in it, which makes it harder for players to guess.

Other great options are words that don't use the typical A, E, I, O, and U vowels. Some great examples are psych and synth. Both will be hard for opponents to guess due to their lack of vowels.

What do you learn from playing Hangman?

Hangman teaches you spelling, vocabulary, and other related language skills. Hangman can also help expand your topical knowledge.

If you like word guessing games, try your skills by playing some other fun and free games like Play Four or the Daily Crossword.

Guess the letters in the secret word to solve the puzzle. You can guess a letter by clicking it or typing it on your keyboard. You'll score points for each correct letter you guess, and if you solve the word, you score for how fast you get it and how many balloons you had left. Get the highest total score after 5 rounds to win the game and earn a trophy!

Choose quick play to jump right into a game, or create a private match to play with your friends. Press the copy button and send them the URL so they can join your room.

During the game, click on your avatar to pull up the customize menu.

HANGMAN TIPS & STRATEGIES

Use your vowels. Looking at vowels is a good way to start. Since there are only 5, you can fill in some blanks pretty quickly. They can even help you guess the answer straight away. For example, if you try the letter A and the word looks like this '_A_A_A', you might be able to guess straight away that the answer is BANANA just from one letter.

Etaoin shrdlu. "Etaoin shrdlu" is two words listing the most commonly used letters in the English language, in order of frequency. "E" is the most commonly used letter, "t" is second-most common, etc. After trying your vowels, try out a few letters from this list to see if they appear in the word!

Break down phrases. When trying to guess a phrase, break it up and look at each word rather than focus on the letters. If you can guess just one word then it may lead you to the other words in the saying. You can also use the tip at the top of the window for extra help.

Don't forget your Js and Zs. The letters J and Z always trip people up. They're both fairly rare and it's not always obvious when you need one to complete a word or phrase. Don't guess a Z or a J at the very beginning, but keep them in mind as you play.

It can be helpful to learn the most difficult and most common words used in Hangman. Get some helpful tips on how to further build your Hangman strategy.

4.5

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Hangman - Play the Word Game Online at Coolmath Games

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Play Hangman for free online and test your vocabulary by guessing letters one at a time to solve the word puzzle. Solving the puzzles keeps The Beast away.

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This is a fun game that you can do with your students, you will give this tongue twister presentation

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This is a fun game that you can do with your students, you will give this tongue twister presentation

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Find the latest news from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, Disney+, and National Geographic, all in one place.

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https://www.coolmathgames.com/0-hangman

A bit more challenging, but no "hanging" men... balloons and monsters are way cuter

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Using the whiteboard with annotations feature on zoom, students can take turns making a drawing and having others guess (works best for small groups)

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Students make words from the letters to earn points in 3 mins

Share screen
Sts type the words in the chat
T types words on the game

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Play Wordshake and see how many points can you get in three minutes. Longer words score more points!

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Instructions are on the PDF

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Random questions

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If you've been searching for a way to get random questions, you've landed on the correct webpage. We created the Random Question Generator to ask you as many random questions as your heart desires. The process is straightforward. Indicate the number of random questions you want to see and then click on the "Generate Random Questions" button. You will instantly see a random assortment of questions corresponding to the number you indicated you wanted to see. There are a number of ways random questions can be useful.

Questions can be an excellent way for a writer to jumpstart their creativity. Much like a random sentence, producing a random question leaves the writer blind to what that question is going to be about. The writer can then use the question in a variety of different ways. One challenge would be to use the question as to the first sentence of a story. Another would be to insert the questions somewhere in the first few paragraphs of the story. A more difficult challenge would be to use the question as the end sentence of a story. By having to incorporate an unknown question into a story, the writer is sure to have their creativity challenged.

Getting a random question can also be a great way to fight writers' block. Since the question gives a prompt that has nothing to do with the current writing block, it can help get the writing flowing so that the block ultimately disappears. Many times all it takes is a simple question to be answered or used to destroy the block that was there.

Random questions can be a wonderful way to begin a writing session each day. Before doing anything else, generate a random question and then choose to incorporate it into a paragraph or write a paragraph answering the question. While this may have nothing to do with the actual writing topic of that day, simply starting to put words down on paper often helps all writing.

Using this free online tool can also be a fun and interesting game to play with friends. You can produce one random question after another with each person in the group required to answer the one that appears when it's their turn. Not only can this be a fun game, but you'll also likely learn new things about each other at the same time.

The tool can be a wonderful way to gather a number of quality questions for future conversations. It's always good to have some interesting questions that can be brought up in daily conversations to either keep the conversations going or to get more insight into the person you're having the conversation with. Searching through the hundreds of random questions in the database of this tool will help you find some of each.

It's always our goal to create the best and most useful generators possible. We take a lot of time putting them together and predicting how they will be used. This allows us to add to them in ways we think will benefit the user. That being said, there are times that these tools get used in ways we never anticipated. We, therefore, find it quite useful when we hear from people using this tool on how exactly they use it. That will help us so we can make improvements from what we learn on future updates. In addition, if you have a specific idea or suggestion on how this random question generator can be changed to make it better, we'd love to hear it.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are some random questions to ask?

Do you include common questions?

Can I use this for 21 questions?

Are these questions for girls or for boys?

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Random Questions - Generate random questions to ask

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The Random Questions Generator creates random questions so you have random question to ask.

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My 5th graders enjoyed playing charades. Send them their topic by private message and then the class guesses what they are acting out.

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There are many games, for any topics

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Guess the word or phrase letter-by-letter. Each time you get one wrong, another part is added to the gallows. Your task is to guess the word before the gallows are completed.

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Have each player partner up with another player. Give each person a piece of paper, a writing utensil, and a clipboard. Tell the players to sit back-to-back with their partners. Explain that one person (the Artist) will draw a picture using only simple shapes and lines. The other player (the Apprentice) cannot look while he is doing it. When the Artist is done, he must give the Apprentice verbal directions on how to draw his picture. The Artist may not look at the Apprentice’s work while he is drawing. When the Apprentice is finished, the two players compare their drawings. They can then switch roles and play again.

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Games are one fun way to give your child a chance to practice listening and speaking skills.

As I said in How to Improve Your Child's Listening Skills, your child's ability to listen well makes homeschooling easier and is important for speech development. Practicing this skill doesn't have to be boring. A fun game like The Draw My Picture Game which involves verbal instructions can make it a more enjoyable experience.

This game is beneficial for a wide variety of learners. Auditory learners will probably find it easy to do. For visual and kinesthetic learners, it is a good opportunity to practice their auditory skills in an entertaining way.

The Draw My Picture Game involves one person giving verbal directions about a picture to another. It is easy to play and requires no advanced preparation other than collecting a few household materials. While it is good for helping children of any age develop their skills in giving and receiving oral instructions, it can also be used to help preschoolers learn shapes and colors, or provide vocabulary practice for foreign language learners. You'll find tips on those two possibilities at the end of this post.

Note: This post may contain affiliate links which help support this site. Thank you.

The Draw My Picture Game
Materials:

Pencils or crayons

White paper

Clipboards

Ears (Available on the heads of most children though not always used)

Directions:
Have each player partner up with another player. Give each person a piece of paper, a writing utensil, and a clipboard. Tell the players to sit back-to-back with their partners. Explain that one person (the Artist) will draw a picture using only simple shapes and lines. The other player (the Apprentice) cannot look while he is doing it. When the Artist is done, he must give the Apprentice verbal directions on how to draw his picture. The Artist may not look at the Apprentice's work while he is drawing. When the Apprentice is finished, the two players compare their drawings. They can then switch roles and play again.

Example

Here's your chance to try The Draw My Picture Game. Grab a piece of paper and a pencil and follow the directions below.

First, your paper should be situated vertically on your desk.

Draw a medium-sized circle in the middle of your paper.

Draw a medium-sized square below the circle but have the top of it touch the bottom of the circle.

Draw a medium-sized heart in the square.

Draw two smaller rectangles, one on each side of the square. They should go the wide way not the tall way and they should touch the sides of the square. Also, the top of each rectangle should line up with the top of the square.

Draw a medium-sized triangle above the circle. The bottom of the triangle should touch the top of the circle.

Draw three small stars anywhere inside the triangle.

Draw a small triangle in the center of the medium-sized circle.

Draw an arc which curves up below the small triangle.

Draw two small circles above the small triangle, one slightly to the right and one slightly to the left.

Done.

Scroll down to see how the picture looks.

Keep scrolling.

Keep Scrolling.

Here it is.

Neat, huh?

Keep in mind that the shapes and lines that the players draw don't have to make a picture like mine did. They can make simple abstract art instead which is actually easier. The pictures can also be either much simpler or more complicated depending on the age and drawing abilities of the players.

Other Uses for the Draw My Picture Game
Improve Foreign Language Skills
I have used this game to teach both ESL students and teens in a high school Spanish class. It's perfect for practicing foreign language vocabulary. If your child has learned the names of shapes or direction words like "above" and "under" in a foreign language, he can use those words in this game. The verbal directions each player uses can either be partly or entirely in the foreign language, depending on skill level. Here are some examples of phrases that Spanish students of various levels might say:

"Draw un cuadrado grande in the middle of the paper."

"Draw un cuadrado grande en el medio del papel."

"Dibuja un cuadrado grande en el medio del papel."

You can see how this game could be played throughout the year as new vocabulary is learned.
Reinforce Preschool Concepts
If you have a preschooler who is learning concepts such as shapes, colors, and direction words, this game could be used to reinforce those concepts. You might want to have pre-drawn pictures ready for this age group. The drawings should be very simple using maybe only three shapes to start. Begin with simple direction words like "above" and "below," then progress to more difficult ones like "right" and "left."

The fun part of this whole activity is that you never know how the Apprentice's drawing is going to turn out. Like the game, Telephone, things can be misinterpreted or miscommunicated.

I hope that you and your family enjoy this game. You'll find more of my educational games and puzzles too at WarmHeartsPublishing.com.

Many blessings,

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Games are one fun way to give your child a chance to practice listening and speaking skills. As I said in How to Improve Your Child's Listening Skills, your child's ability to listen well makes homeschooling easier and is important for speech development. Practicing this skill doesn't have to be boring.

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The new normal is the remote learning until we enter our classrooms again. Online classrooms will also give us a chance to interact with our students, to participate the lessons actively. If we just follow a PowerPoint presentation or the lesson material, they will pretend that they are in the class but they will find something else to be busy with.
So I'd like to share an icebreaker activity for your new online classroom.

Create a new presentation.

Choose presentation task as 'word cloud' and ask questions to know your class personally such as 'What is favourite music?' 'Who is your favourite actor?' 'What is your favourite food?, etc.

Then give the code to your students, share your screen and if you have a small class, talk about the similarities, their likes, etc.

You can easily adapt the activity to your lesson and use Mentimeter or a similar tool for a warm up activity.

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A Fun Icebreaker For The Online Classroom

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The new normal is the remote learning until we enter our classrooms again. Online classrooms will also give us a chance to interact with our students, to participate the lessons actively. If we just follow a PowerPoint presentation or the lesson material, they will pretend that they are in the class but they will find something else to be busy with.

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Resources for cool ideas during pandemic. 

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Resources for cool ideas during pandemic. 

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Are you fed up with using the same old methods to introduce your lesson topic? Look no further! Here are 35 ways to kick off your lesson. How many have you tried?

Using an anecdote
Example topic: idioms
You know I play football, right? No? Well I love it. Anyway, I went into town to buy some new boots the other day. I'm in Sports Direct, and I see these Nike boots that I really like, they're the new model. The assistant comes over and is like

"can I help you?"

And I'm "yeah. Can you tell me how much these are?"

She says "They're £500"

And I said "£500???? That's an arm and a leg!"

Here's some example flashcards I made for teaching idioms. These could also be used for a 'dingbats' warmer (see number 22).

Cuisenaire Rods creation
Example topic: Tourist attractions
Give each pair of students a bunch of Cuisenaire rods.

"Work in pairs. Use the rods to create a model of a well-known tourist attraction in [town/city/country/continent]. You have 2 minutes"

Students then look at each model and guess the attraction.

Cuisenaire Rods model

Create your own model using rods. Elicit what it represents.
(Here is my example of the UK political parties and their share of the vote, for a recent lesson on politics)
Musical "Guess the topic"
Example topic: family and relationships
Think of 3 or 4 songs which in some way reference the theme/topic of your lesson
Avril Lavigne - Skater Boi ("he was a boy, she was a girl, can I make it any more obvious?")The Hollies - He ain't heavy (he's my brother)Baz Luhman - Everybody's free to wear sunscreen ("maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't...")Ozzy Ozbourne - Mama I'm coming home
Play students a relevant segment of the song (where something about the topic is referenced). Ask them to write notes on what they hear, compare notes, and guess the topic of the lesson.

Family fortunes (my favourite)
Example topic: British customs and culture / stereotypes
Create a fake family fortunes style question:

"We asked 100 people from England, Scotland and Wales - which things make you a typical Brit?"

Board the following

1 ________________ 2 ____________ 3_____________ 4____________ 5____________

Students work in groups to prepare answers. Make it a little game (they win points for each correct answer).
Five possible answers for the above: queuing, drinking tea, talking about the weather, eating fish and chips, having bad teeth.
Picture parts
Example topic: animals
Make some extreme close-up pictures of animals. Pass them around and get the students to guess what they are and hence the topic of the lesson

Picture association "Guess the topic"
Example topic: 'once in a lifetime'
Gather pictures of things that people MIGHT do only once in a lifetime.

Examples: drive a Ferrari, skydive, run a marathon, win the lottery(?), see a shooting star(?).

Board the pictures or pass them round, students discuss each one and guess the common theme.

Complete the sentence
Topic: Making apologies
Think of a relevant starter sentence and have students complete in their own words

"The most common time to say sorry is...."
Topic: 2nd conditionals
"If I looked like David Beckham, I would..."

Me/not me
Example topic: Food and drink
Get students to create a table with two categories

Read a list of different foods/drinks. Students write each word you dictate into their table in the correct category depending on their tastes. They then compare with their partner/group to see if they are similar or different.

What are they saying?

Display a picture of someone on the board. Give students a speech bubble in groups, or draw a speech bubble for each group on the board. Students write what the person is saying
Example topic: World Cup
You could also do a caption competition
Example topic: hobbies and interests
Me and my partner questions

Make a series of questions or statements related to the topic. Have students answer the questions themselves. Then, they ask their partner the questions and compare answers. They could do this with two different partners to add more speaking. They could even predict their partners answers first, and see if they were right.

Classic 'Find someone who...' mingle
Example topic: fears/phobias
Students walk around asking questions to classmates to find out information. Compare answers with their partner afterwards, and feedback as a class.

Slow reveal...

Start drawing a picture on the board, but only one line of it. Have students guess what it is

'A snake', 'a line', etc.
Example topic: Castles in Britain
Encourage creativity. Add the next line, encourages guesses, keep doing this until eventually a student guesses the picture/lesson topic
Example topic: hobbies and interests
Realia

Bring in 5 items that represent your own hobbies, can students guess pastimes?

Mine - Bit of wool (knitting), keyboard (blogging), crossword, binoculars (birdwatching), rubber chicken (making jokes)

what happens next?

Show a relevant video, pause it at a key point and have students predict what might happen.

Example topic: using modal verbs to express probability

Pause clip after 7 seconds. Students discuss what might happen. Give some process language (that player might... it might... maybe... the ball/the player/a fan will... etc). Or give them 3 options for what might happen. Play clip to see if prediction was correct (note: last 10 seconds of this video has some swearing).

Use authentic listening
Example topic: feelings/emotions
Play students a relevant short clip of a movie/TV. Only let them hear the sound. Create a listening task relevant to the topic.

Listen to the following clip. Write down any emotions you feel the speakers express.

Or

Listen to the clip. Circle all the emotions that speakers show

Excitement anger patience shock humour etc

Now let them watch the clip and write down any extra emotions they 'see'

Make your own audio
Example topic: giving advice
Create a short listening text as a topic lead in.

Matching quiz
Example topic: passives
This is a good way to introduce target language straight away. Teaching English Grammar (Scrivener) gives plenty of examples for how to present target language, I recommend taking a look
The light bulb was invented by... Alexander Graham Bell The telephone was invented by... Tim Berners-Lee The internet was invented by... Thomas Edison
Match the inventions to the inventor...

Etc...

Boggle guess the word
Example topic: Solar System - the planets
Use the letters from the lesson topic to make a little game

Moving true or false

Check what your students know about a topic with quick fire true or false questions. However, make it more exciting. All students, stand up. If they think the answer is true, they stand on the left of the classroom. False, on the right. If they get it wrong, they are out (they sit back down). Continue until one student remains. They are the winner, reward them with... a round of applause.

Moving agree/disagree

This just makes warm up discussion questions more fun and mixes up speakers. Make different corners of the room different opinions - e.g.

Stand near the door if you agree

Stand in the corner over there (point) if you strongly agree

Stand near Pedro's desk if you disagree

Etc

Read a statement, students move to the relevant corner, then give them 1 or 2 minutes to discuss the statement with whoever is in the corner. If there is only one person in a particular space then you could bounce a few ideas from each corner as a class discussion, or send a student with a different opinion over to debate it.

Dingbats

These are fun drawings that represent a word.

Example topic: technology.

Draw a few dingbats on the board. Students guess the words then guess what the theme of the lesson might be.

(smart phone)
Example topic: crime and punishment
Discussion questions

Q1: Do you agree with the death penalty?

Q2: 'life means life'. What does this refer to, and do you agree?

Etc.

Secret realia

Bring in objects in a 'santa's sack'. Put the sack on the table. Allows certain students to feel the objects through the sack. They work with a partner/team to guess the objects and the common theme between each object.

'Coffeepotting'
Example topic: television
This can be done in many ways, but a good one is by providing a short text where the target word is missing, and has been replaced with the word 'Coffeepot'. Students guess the correct word

Coffeepot was invented in the 1920s, but became popular after World War 2. At first, coffeepots were black and white, but then it changed to colour. Coffeepot is a form of entertainment. These days, almost every household has a coffeepot. (etc...)

Verbal 'coffeepotting'
Example topic: MacDonalds
Again the target word has been replaced by the word 'Coffeepot'. Students ask questions to help guess what word 'Coffeepot' actually is...

Student: is coffeepot a noun?

Teacher: yes...

Student: can coffeepot be a verb too?

Teacher: no

Student: is coffeepot an object?

Teacher: well, you can have a coffeepot, yes.

Student: is it a place?

Teacher: is what a place?

Student: sorry, is coffeepot a place?

Etc...

Complete the dialogue (similar to 'what are they saying'!)
Example topic: how and when to apologise
Put pictures on the board of random interactions between people. Have students create suitable dialogues. Choose pictures that will direct to the topic...

Man: _______________________________

Woman: ____________________________

Mnemonic race
Example topic: Feelings
If introducing a familiar topic, a way to activate prior knowledge might be for students to create a Mnemonic from the topic word, using associated words

F -antastic

E -xcellent

E - lated

L -azy

I - nsecure

N- auseous!

G- utted

S -tupid

Whiteboard race

Divide students into two teams, and divide the whiteboard down the middle. Students line up in two teams. The first person in each line has a pen. When you say the topic, they run to the board, write a word related to the topic, pass the pen to the next person then join the back of their line. The next person then writes another word and passes the pen on. Do this for 2 minutes as a race. If one team writes a word that the other team already have they get no points. Again, checks prior knowledge.

Categorising
Example topic: health and fitness
Display a set of familiar words related (or less so) to the topic. Ask students to divide the words into at least 3 different categories. Conduct class feedback/discussion and have students share their categories and explain why they chose them.

Smoking, running, drugs, red wine, football, movies, reading, clubbing, vitamins, snakes, vegetables, birdwatching
Things that benefit your health Things that damage your health unrelated words
Possible student created categories:

(playing) football clubbing (too much) snakes

Smoking (relieve stress) drugs

Reading (relaxation) etc

With this activity, you'll be surprised at some of the categories. Also, it leads to instant discussion:

'Snakes are not unrelated, they could seriously damage your health'

'Smoking is good for you?! No way!'

Etc

What does that mean?
Example topic: lookalikes
Board the lesson topic. Have learners write a short definition of it. I did this yesterday and this happened:

Definitions...

Group 1: like a look (?)

Group 2: to look like something or someone

Group 3: look and act like something

Group 4: be person not you famous (?)

Organise and discuss

Think of a statement related to the topic. Get lots of small slips of paper. Write one word of the statement on each slip. Jumble up the words. Hand one set of the words to each group. The group work together to put the statement in the correct order, then discuss their opinions on it.

If the topic is particularly familiar or the learners are high level, get them to think of the statement and create the organisation task (statement minimum 8 words or something).
For general discussion...
odd one out

Board 4 or 5 common words related to the topic. Have students decide which word is the odd one out and why. Example topic: jobs/ambitions

Fireman Doctor Teacher Nurse
For guessing the topic...
Student: the odd one out is the teacher as the others save lives
Example topic: Endangered animals
Same thing, but include one word that is not related at all, and see if students mention the topic when they share their opinion!

T-rex dodo rhino woolly mammoth

Student: rhino is the odd one out as the others are extinct

(leads into a discussion on things like threats rhinos might face and introducing term 'endangered'.

A conundrum
Topic: giving opinions
Pose a difficult question to the students which may be a topic of debate.

Recently, a teacher recommended the 'do or die' videos by National Geographic. You'll find plenty of these on youtube. Choose one relevant to your topic.. here's an example of one.

Hangman!

I really hope you've found 1 new idea here. Please comment and add your own ways to introduce a topic, let's get from 35 to 100!

Update: I've added some further ideas in this new post.

Categories: General, Lesson Ideas, lists, other

Tags: British Council, efl, elt, elt games, ESL, introduce a lesson, intros, lead in, lesson introduction, lesson list, lesson planning, tefl, warmers

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Are you fed up with using the same old methods to introduce your lesson topic? Look no further! Here are 35 ways to kick off your lesson. How many have you tried? Using an anecdote Example topic: idioms You know I play football, right? No? Well I love it.

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Students guess what the close up image is by raising their hand in Google Meet. Solutions on next slide

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Students can participate in these fun online teaching activities which can make their new virtual classroom a little less intimidating.

With schools utilizing virtual classroom meetings, webchats, and other distance learning tools, it can be difficult to get students to engage or participate in class. Students are often distracted or struggling to figure out what is going on in the meeting and they do not focus on the instructor or speaker.

While there are no magic words or online teaching games that will make them focus, a new or fun game can help capture their attention at least for a bit. We will look at games and activities that take preparation ahead of time and others that can be done spur of the moment.

No Preparation

These online teaching activities will take no preparation ahead of time. Students can participate whether they are on a mobile device or a computer and can make the new classroom a little less intimidating

1. What's Left?

Ask each person to hold up the nearest thing to the left of them that they can. Obviously, they cannot hold up a TV or couch, but students can hold up a remote, bag of chips, drink, or sock.

To make it even more fun, you can give a scenario such as a zombie apocalypse where students are going to fight the walking dead using only the object to their left!

For students without a camera, ask them to describe the item to their left.

2. Eye Spy

Play a game of eye spy with the people in the class to figure out whose background you are looking at. This might get fun for classes that have a mixture of virtual backgrounds and home backgrounds.

3. Storytime

Students will build a story one sentence at a time. The teacher begins by giving the opening line. Each student adds another line to the story. The rules are that the next line has to make sense. It can be silly or outrageous but should make sense. For example, you would not say, "We all went swimming. My truck was making a weird noise." However, it would be fine if one person said, "We all went swimming." Then the next student said, "since my truck was making a weird noise, so I didn't want to drive." When the class is finished creating the story, you could introduce topics such as the author's purpose, word choice, setting, and other writing or language arts related topics.

4. Two Truths and a Lie

This game is a popular ice breaker for many groups. Children old enough to understand the truth and lies can play. Adults even enjoy this game sometimes. Each person tells two true things and one that is a lie. Each thing either needs to be reasonably believable or all sound unbelievable. This game is easy to adapt to your classroom as well. You could make it two lies and a truth or three truths and two lies. Adapt this game to meet your time and classroom needs. The person with the most incorrect guesses is the winner. You might offer them extra points or a virtual high five for winning.

Some Preparation

5. Where in the world?

Have all of the students change their background to a location. Each student gets to write down their guesses as to where each place is. Some might be obvious like the Eiffel Tower, Great Wall, or San Francisco Bay Bridge, but others might be more difficult. They might be grandma's backyard, the Pacific Ocean, Australian Outback, or many other places. This is one of the online teaching activities that can be the introduction into a geography, context clues, social studies, or even art lesson if you choose.

6. Pet Day!

Have students bring their pets to the meeting. Any student without a pet can find a photo or bring a stuffed animal of a pet they think would be cool. Students should introduce their pets, tell a little about what they do all day, and what their diet is like. This way, you can sneak a little science into the lesson too!

7. Whose is this?

Have students take a picture of the oldest thing they still own and email it to you. Use your presentation to put a few of them up on the screen. The first person who virtually raises his or her hand guesses to whom the item belongs. For example, if Shannon wanted to guess, he would raise his hand and wait for you to unmute him, then. he would guess who owns the first object. If he gets it right, the next item would be shown. If he gets it wrong, someone else can guess. You could do a few each meeting if you were concerned about time.

8. Music Video Scavenger Hunt

On YouTube, find a music video where you can find 5 or more things related to the theme of your unit or lesson. The song lyrics is also a good place to find unit-related vocabulary. Before the class starts, watch the music video with the students and ask them to find series of items within the video or series of words in the lyrics!

9. Help Me!

Tell students the topic of the meeting/class. Have them email you one question that they have about the topic. Read a few at the beginning of the meeting, especially if there are several of the same kinds of questions. Ask if anyone already knows the answer or wants to take a guess. At the end of the session ask again. See if the students can now answer the question. Students will often want to listen for their questions and listen for the answer if they think they can be the one to talk after.

10. Teach us

Once a week or so, have an "extra credit" session where students can take turns teaching something. This can be a recipe, craft, or artistic task. It cannot just be a showcase of talent. Students who teach the lesson get extra credit. All students must attend. If a student attends and follows the instructions or lesson and emails you proof (a photo of the finished product), he or she may also get extra credit. Students will sign up for a week and can "work together" but should remain in their own spaces.

For example, one student might demonstrate from their home the first part of the dish, and the partner, having completed that part ahead of time can complete the second part. This works best with recipes that take longer cooking times. Materials lists can be sent ahead of time for what students need to have on hand to complete the recipe or activity. If the students need extra time to do the activity (a recipe that requires baking time) this should be noted in the materials list, so that students do not expect to do it in real-time. While this activity is better for older students, even young children can complete age-appropriate recipes and tasks.

11. Gamify Reviews

Take advantage of the many quiz apps and formative assessment tools already available online! Turn your review lessons into a fun online game! Luckily, most of these apps are playable remotely. You can also use quizzes made by other educators that are available on the platform. Why not try Kahoot, Gimkit, or Quizalize perhaps?

Closing thoughts

All of these online teaching activities can be adapted to meet your class's needs and abilities. Think outside the classroom walls to come up with fun activities. Plan virtual playtimes too. Students need to be able to decompress and destress too. The learning is sometimes secondary to the mental health improvement that comes from having a community of peers that understands their struggles, goals, and achievements. Anything, we as teachers, can do, to foster a love of the classroom, is a good thing.

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11 Online Teaching Activities to Warm Up the Class

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Students can participate in these fun online teaching activities which can make their new virtual classroom a little less intimidating. With schools utilizing virtual classroom meetings, webchats, and other distance learning tools, it can be difficult to get students to engage or participate in class.

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Sports and Games
Questions and Answers

Yourself
Name
Name
Follow up 
Questions:
Why? Etc…

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This was shared on a FB Tech page

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Rebus Puzzles (Pictogram Puzzles) > Games 13-16 of 100

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The answers to these four puzzles are on the next puzzle page.
Click here for the answers.

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Everybody loves a good riddle once in a while and solving hard word searches on a regular basis can even improve your problem-solving skills and logical thinking. It makes your brain cells go wild while trying to come with the answer and when you do solve it, the feeling of accomplishment is more than gratifying. This time, we have prepared some word searches for you - simple yet very satisfying hidden words puzzles for you to solve.

All you have to do is find the words in the pictures below. We don't want to torture you with the unknown, so we'll say that there are precisely six hidden words in pictures, and they do relate to the themes of the drawings.

And if these word puzzles are not enough for you, try our hidden panda picture challenge!

More info: highlights.com | Facebook

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Can You Find 6 Words Hidden In These Puzzles? (12 Pics)

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Panda got a little bored hiding and instructed us to get you new puzzles, so we obliged. This time we challenge you to find the words hiding in the drawings below!

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Hand puppets
Use hand puppets with young children. They can't see your arm, so makes it even more fun! My puppet Hobo lives in a bag, the children say " Wake up Bobo, it's time for English!" He appears slowly from the bottom of the screen. Try moving the puppet right up to the camera, the children love it! Hobo helps me during the lesson with songs, dialogues etc.

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A new character " Frieda" to help  children grasp the meaning of Earth Day Celebration.
Let's talk !

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Would You Rather for Kids – 100 Questions
Here are all 100 Would You Rather Questions for Kids: 

1. Would you rather lick a dirty trash can or the bathroom floor?
2. Would you rather have a magic carpet that flies or your own personal robot?
3. Would you rather be the worst player on a team that always wins or the best player on a team that always loses?
4. Would you rather have one eye in the middle of your head or two noses?
5. Would you rather see a firework display or go to a concert?
6. Would you rather go water skiing or snow skiing?
7. Would you rather eat donuts or candy?
8. Would you rather fly a kite or ride on a scooter?
9. Would you rather have an extra finger or an extra toe?
10. Would you rather only be able to crawl on all fours or only be able to walk backwards?
11. Would you rather be able to create a new holiday or create a new language?
12. Would you rather be the funniest person alive or the smartest person alive?
13. Would you rather be a famous singer or a famous actor?
14. Would you rather be able to fly or be invisible?
15. Would you rather never have to shower again or never have to clip your toenails?
16. Would you rather have the chance to design a new toy or direct a movie?
17. Would you rather be ten years older or four years younger?
18. Would you rather be able to control the weather or have the ability to talk to animals?
19. Would you rather be a master at painting or an amazing dancer?
20. Would you rather live on the Moon or live on Mars?
21. Would you rather meet your favorite celebrity or be in a movie?
22. Would you rather only be able to whisper or have an incredibly loud voice?
23. Would you rather eat a raw potato or a whole lime?
24. Would you rather be invisible or be able to fly?
25. Would you rather speak every language or play every instrument?
26. Would you rather live without a TV or without a phone?
27. Would you rather be a bird or a horse?
28. Would you rather live in the desert or on a deserted island?
29. Would you rather go on a rollercoaster or go sky diving?
30. Would you rather live in the sky or under the sea?
31. Would you rather have a hand twice as big or half as small?
32. Would you rather have a pet dinosaur or a pet dragon?
33. Would you rather always have to enter rooms by announcing your name or always have to do cartwheels out?
34. Would you rather have butterfly wings or a horse tail?
35. Would you rather have wings but you can’t fly or have gills but you can’t swim underwater?
36. Would you rather be the smartest person in the world or the best athlete in the world?
37. Would you rather eat a beetle or get stung by a bee?
38. Would you rather be able to change the color of your hair whenever you want or be able to change the length of your hair whenever you want?
39. Would you rather live in a mansion in the city or on a farm with lots of animals?
40. Would you rather have 5 brothers or 5 sisters?
41. Would you rather be a unicorn or a pegasus?
42. Would you rather meet a superhero or a cartoon character?
43. Would you rather be an Olympic athlete or the President?
44. Would you rather drink sour milk or eat rotten eggs?
45. Would you rather eat a whole jar of mayonnaise or drink a cup of hot sauce?
46. Would you rather live without music or without movies?
47. Would you rather have a new cool shirt in your closet every morning or a new pair of shoes once a week?
48. Would you rather play in the snow in the mountains or in the sand at the beach?
49. Would you rather have a pet panda bear or a pet zebra?
50. Would you rather sweat honey or always smell like a skunk?
51. Would you rather kiss a frog or hug a snake?
52. Would you rather have lived in the 1870’s or in the 1970’s?
53. Would you rather shovel snow or rake leaves?
54. Would you rather play the guitar or the piano?
55. Would you rather not be allowed to watch T.V. for a year or not be allowed to eat any sweets for a year?
56. Would you rather have a car that can fly or go underwater?
57. Would you rather be the fastest person in the world or can freeze time?
58. Would you rather be trapped in a room with a friendly tiger or with 10 bumblebees?
59. Would you rather have a bucket stuck on your head or a cement block stuck on your foot?
60. Would you rather have a pool or a trampoline?
61. Would you rather be a doctor or a scientist?
62. Would you rather go to the zoo or an aquarium?
63. Would you rather be really fast or really strong?
64. Would you rather set the table before dinner or wash the dishes after dinner?
65. Would you rather jump into a pool of chocolate pudding or a pool of strawberry ice cream?
66. Would you rather have pizza or chips?
67. Would you rather have a pet hamster or a pet cat?
68. Would you rather have hamburgers or hot dogs?
69. Would you rather be an art teacher or a physical education teacher?
70. Would you rather eat a dead spider or a live worm?
71. Would you rather have really small hands or really big feet?
72. Would you rather read minds or be invisible?
73. Would you rather have french fries or chocolate cake?
74. Would you rather be a police officer or a doctor?
75. Would you rather play paint ball or laser tag?
76. Would you rather have a picnic in a park or on the beach?
77. Would you rather eat pizza for every meal or ice cream for every meal?
78. Would you rather have a purple nose or green ears?
79. Would you rather moo like a cow after every sentence or bark like a dog?
80. Would you rather live in the North Pole or the South Pole?
81. Would you rather have 3 legs or 3 arms?
82. Would you rather see a giant ant or a tiny giraffe?
83. Would you rather always be dressed up or always wear your pajamas?
84. Would you rather drive go for a drive in a convertible or a double decker bus?
85. Would you rather have to wear a clown wig or a clown nose for the rest of your life?
86. Would you rather only be able to wear your swimsuit for the rest of your life or only be able to wear pants and a winter coat?
87. Would you rather play soccer or baseball?
88. Would you rather be able to live 100 years in the past or 100 years in the future?
89. Would you rather go to the doctor or the dentist?
90. Would you rather fly a helicopter or a commercial plane?
91. Would you rather have breakfast on the Eiffel tower or dinner in a castle?
92. Would you rather give up eating sweets or give up eating fast food?
93. Would you rather live where it is always dark outside or always light outside?
94. Would you rather it be warm and raining or cold and snowing?
95. Would you rather discover a hidden treasure or discover a living dinosaur?
96. Would you rather go to the movies or go to a waterpark?
97. Would you rather be friends with superman or spiderman?
98. Would you rather go bungee jumping or go on the tallest roller coaster?
99. Would you rather go ice skating or tobogganing?
100. Would you rather constantly itch or always have a cough?

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Bingo

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This is an activity we can use with a range of levels, but it works particularly better with kids.
The teacher goes closer to the camera and without producing any sound (turning of the mic can be an option) says one word (for lower levels) or a sentence. The students have to guess what is being said just by the shape of the teacher's lips. Then, you can ask them to produce their own sentences and be the silent speaker too!

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I've used the splats by steve wyborney
https://stevewyborney.com/2018/09/splat-for-google-slides-40-lessons/

I post the image of the splat with the total and then students have to come up with the different possibilities that could be under the splat.
They all think about it, then type the different ideas in the zoom chat but don't hit return until I ask them to. Then once everyone hits return we discuss and share our thinking!

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IM Talking Math Pictures by Illustrative Math

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IM Talking Math Pictures by Illustrative Math

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https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1R0ob2DEuh2QRYAGKECMzbTnoswr3bbM_B6Dp_AHkoNg/edit#slide=id.g71c4df7dde_0_346

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Random Acts of Kindness is a great place to find activities.

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Found a free template on TeachersPayTeachers. Shared the screen with them. There is a scattergories dice website that rolls letters. Students just need a pencil and a blank paper. It was fun!

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This word game starts with, “I am going to the island of noenoa and I am bringing a bucket.

The secret is in the name - anything you bring must not have an E or an A in it.

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The Kid Should See This: Educational videos for curious kids of all ages, a free resource for parents & teachers. Science, art, nature, animals, & more.

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Emotion Check-In using RULER's Mood Meter

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Emotion Check-In using RULER's Mood Meter

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http://moodmeterapp.com/ Screen Share on Zoom and have students annotate how they feel or try the app....I just haven't figured out how to share yet

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Works best with small numbers.
1, Divide your shared whiteboard up depending on how many players
2. Do a random squiggle in each section
3. Players have to turn their squiggle into a picture

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The leader says, “Silly Sally likes football, but doesn’t like to run.”  Then others try to guess other combinations of things Silly Sally likes and doesn’t like.  The secret to getting this right is that Silly Sally likes things that have double letters.

So Silly Sally likes bees but not honey.  She likes lettuce but not salad.  Etc.

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Fill out these questions to generate your own silly mad libs story instantly online! This mad lib only has nouns, verbs, and adjectives so it can be used with Kindergarten common core classes. (Hint: a Verb is an action. A noun is a person/place/thing. An adjective describes a person/place/thing.)

Fill out these questions to generate your own silly mad libs story instantly online! This mad lib only has nouns, verbs, and adjectives so it can be used with Kindergarten common core classes. (Hint: a Verb is an action. A noun is a person/place/thing. An adjective describes a person/place/thing.)

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Fill out these questions to generate your own silly mad libs story instantly online! This mad lib only has nouns, verbs, and adjectives so it can be used with Kindergarten common core classes. (Hint: a Verb is an action. A noun is a person/place/thing. An adjective describes a person/place/thing.)

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This is a version of "Heads or Tails":
Students make an antler with one hand or two antlers with two hands. Draw a card from a deck. If it is an even number, kids with two antlers are still in the game, those with one antler are out of the game. Those remaining choose one or two antlers and the game repeats until there is one person left.

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My kinders loved this game. I tell them to go and grab an item that...
Starts with /ch/
Is a sphere
Has 2 syllables
Rhymes with man, etc
Then they share using a complete sentence. The class gives a thumbs up if they think it meets the challenge. Could adapt for higher kids or grade levels.. find an item that starts with a vowel, a silent vowel, is a compound word, etc.

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The students come up with two true things about them and one that is not true. People have to guess which one is the lie.

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Students can take turns asking "Would you rather...?" questions. They can call on two other students to answer their question.

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We do show and tell every Friday for our morning meetings!

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*Scavenger hunt - share a list, give them a set amount of time to find everything then see what they come up with

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*Scavenger hunt - share a list, give them a set amount of time to find everything then see what they come up with

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*Share your baby photos
*Pet Show and Tell

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This is a great site full of materials that work very well on Zoom sessions. Engaging, fun and very simple to do, plus you get to work on important number sense skills.

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51 Esti-Mysteries - Steve Wyborney's Blog: I'm on a Learning Mission.

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This is another word game - this time the last letter of the previous word must be the first letter of the new word.  On zoom the host can choose who is next of the person giving the current word can challenge the next player.

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This is a collaborative way to tell a story.  Each person gets one sentence and if the previous storyteller began with fortunately, you must begin with unfortunately.  You just alternate back and forward while the story unravels in this way.

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Make sure everyone is unmuted.

This is a simple game where the first person starts by saying 1.  Then someone else has to say 2, another says 3 etc.  Until you reach 100.  The catch is that if two or more people say a number at the same time you must go back to one.

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Somebody chooses an object to hold without showing it. Each student asks a yes/no type of question to try to find out what the other is holding.

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This activity gets the kids up and moving. It involves a clapping and slapping sequence. I got it from aTed Talk by Dale Sidebottom. The explanation of the game is in the first 2 and a half minutes of the video.

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Narcissistic To Nice | Dale Sidebottom | TEDxDocklands

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Have students get up and move. Play music and freeze when the music stops. Then start dancing again when the music starts.

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Set aside a small block of time at the end of your class Zoom for the students to tell a joke or riddle to the class if they like. You can even include magic tricks. Announce it ahead of time so the students can prepare.

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Word association game. One person in the hot seat covers their eyes and chooses a number between 1 - 5. Everyone else writes down one word clue to give to help the person in the hot seat to guess their "special word". Same clues get cancelled out. Ten seconds countdown. Try to do better as a group each time you meet.

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A sitting-down screen-based version of a classroom classic. One kid is the 'corner picker' and puts their head down/turns around/moves the device so they can't see the screen. The other kids choose a corner for that round. Instead of physically moving to a corner (possible but hard to manage from a distance) the kids just commit and hold up their fingers to show which 'corner' they chose. The 'corner picker' chooses which corner to eliminate. Continue until you have a winner!

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One kid is the detective- they turn on their mic and put their head down/ turn around/move the device so they can't see the screen. Everyone else is muted. Whoever has their turn switches their mic on and says 'tomato ketchup' in a funny/disguised voice. The detective has to guess who it was- correct and they stay guessing, incorrect and you choose a new detective.

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w/ See/Think/Wonder

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Virtual field trips are a great way to expose kids to new places all from the comfort of home. In this age of technology, so many museums, zoos and aquariums have set up virtual tours and webcams of their facilities. Now more than ever, is it easier to visit destinations around the world from the comfort of your couch.

The last couple of years has shown us how much we take being able to visit places for granted. Even something as ordinary as a school field trip became rare. So, we came up with a list of places you could visit using technology for those times when you can't be there in person. Virtual field trips are a fun and educational way to visit places virtually and and "travel" without leaving home or school.

I've rounded up 20 virtual field trips that you can take with your kids. There are also lesson ideas, activities and book suggestions to extend the learning for each type of destination.

Art Museums

Visit some of the best art galleries in the world virtually. From Paris to New York to Amsterdam, kids can see priceless works of art from the world's most famous artists.

Activities and Resources

Choose a favorite painting or sculpture and create a copycat piece of art.

Research an artist. This is a great book about some amazing artists kids should know about https://amzn.to/38QWQGf (affiliate link).

Choose a piece of art to focus on. Describe it, tell why you chose it and how it makes you feel.

Choose 2 works of art to compare.

Zoos

Zoo webcams have allowed visitors to drop in on the habitats of some of the zoo's favorite animal exhibits. Here are some highlights. Want more? Here is our complete list of virtual zoo field trips.

Activities and Resources

Aquariums

Just like with zoos, aquariums have used webcams to let you visit their exhibits virtually. In addition, some aquariums have set up virtual tours led by their staff to give visitors a more in depth look at their facility.

Activities and Resources

Travel the World

In this day and age, it is easier than ever to travel the world without leaving home.

Activities and Resources

Plan a trip to a new destination. What would you do, see, eat?

Make a travel brochure for the destination you visited.

Write a postcard from that destination. Include details about the place and what you can see there.

More Stuff to Do at Home:

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20 Virtual Field Trips to Take with Your Kids - Adventures in Familyhood

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Virtual field trips are a great way to expose kids to new places all from the comfort of home. In this age of technology, so many museums, zoos and aquariums have set up virtual tours and webcams of their facilities. Now more than ever, is it easier to visit destinations around the world from the comfort of your couch.

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Play countdown - you screen share the selection and the kids solve on paper. Here is a site that will generate letters

If you don't know how to play, watch this to get an idea.

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Play countdown - you screen share the selection and the kids solve on paper. Here is a site that will generate numbers.

If you don't know how to play this game, watch this to get an idea.

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Karaoke session using Karaoke songs for kids on Youtube

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Screen share a Go Noodle Koo Koo Kangaroo song and dance together!

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Students take turns adding one word a time to a story. Challenging and fun!

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Using #zoom_us to create a collaborative story this morning ... once we had our order, can we work together to build a story one word a time? A myth about an earthquake that goes with our #unitofinquiry #howtheworldworks ? Even better! #AISGZ #onlinelearning #virtuallearning

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Using #zoom_us to create a collaborative story this morning ... once we had our order, can we work together to build a story one word a time? A myth about an earthquake that goes with our #unitofinquiry #howtheworldworks ? Even better! #AISGZ #onlinelearning #virtuallearning https://t.co/W4EvYnGK2B

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Using #zoom_us to create a collaborative story this morning ... once we had our order, can we work together to build a story one word a time? A myth about an earthquake that goes with our #unitofinquiry #howtheworldworks ? Even better! #AISGZ #onlinelearning #virtuallearning https://t.co/W4EvYnGK2B

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Using #zoom_us to create a collaborative story this morning ... once we had our order, can we work together to build a story one word a time? A myth about an earthquake that goes with our #unitofinquiry #howtheworldworks ? Even better! #AISGZ #onlinelearning #virtuallearning https://t.co/W4EvYnGK2B

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Using #zoom_us to create a collaborative story this morning ... once we had our order, can we work together to build a story one word a time? A myth about an earthquake that goes with our #unitofinquiry #howtheworldworks ? Even better! #AISGZ #onlinelearning #virtuallearning

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If you want to play Boggle with your students, here is a ready-to-use Boggle PDF with directions, an example, and then game boards used from Rachel Lynette's TPT Word-O-Rama Freebie.

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There are so many free noggle boards you can use. Same rules as Boggle with letters but students create number sentences. They can add the to a collective white board.

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Noggle FREEBIE - Math Boggle - Multiplication and Division

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This freebie includes one sample page of my multiplication and division Noggle boards. Full product description below.** It's NOGGLE time. This game is just like the classic, Boggle, except with numbers instead. The aim is for students to create as many number sentences as they can using the numb...

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In a private message, I send the student the image I want them to draw on their turn. On their shared white board, they draw the image and their friends try to guess.

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Post a list of things that students need to find in their house. Share a time limit and see what they can find.
Ideas: rubber band, something broken, Lego, something growing, with the school logo on it, with a number, soft, with only 3 colors, etc.

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- spot it (dobble)
- sworkit kids workout
- who's eye is this (slideshow with
close up photos)
- find the 10 mistakes in two pictures
- roll the dice and see who has the
highest number
- roll the dice and then everyone has
to do a certain move as many times
as the eyes on the dice
- I spy with screen share
-  Where is Waldo with screen share
-  play dough making animals
-  Ivy did various art project lessons
with paper and pencils
-  reading a book they know well but
read it with mistakes then they yell
if they hear the mistake

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How many words can you create in 2 minutes? Each word must contain the red letter. Letters can only be used once.

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Remember the memory game: 20 objects on a tray, covered with a tea towel, how many can you recall after seeing the objects for 30 seconds? Share an image on your screen for 30 seconds, stop sharing, then give students a minute to record as many as they can.

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You could open them in KeyNote, too. I haven't been through them but Megan Bartlett shared the link with me

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Kids have one minute to go and take a photo of something from a weird angle, or extreme close up. Then they take turns to show their photo and the rest have to try and guess what it is.

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Kids take turns saying 'Last week I..." and then say something that is either true or a lie. The rest of the class uses the react to show thumbs up if they thinkk it was true, or clap for a lie

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Kahoot doesn't work great on Zoom, so make a quiz on Keynote, share your screen and the kids can type in their answers in the chat. Here is an example/template. You can then let the kids make their own quizes and share them in your next Zoom