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Head-shoulders-color game for quick thinking and fun! #diy #mom #toddleractivities #shorts

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A tweak on Blind Retell...but with individual sentences.

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Reading Reverse Charades (or Pictionary)

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Reverse Charades is a fabulous game! I learned about it from La Maestra Loca and she has a great post about it here . It’s a game we’ve played and loved…and last week it occurred …

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donna@comprhensibleclassroom.com

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Ready to step up your teaching game? This week, I'm sharing five games that are just plain awesome because they'll keep your students hooked while they get to hear tons of understandable and interesting stuff.

Now, why are these games so cool? It's simple - they make sure every student has a fair shot at winning. Yep, that's the magic ingredient that keeps them engaged and excited.

But wait, there's more! I'm not just talking about games; we're also getting into this fantastic AI tool that can whip up custom games for your favorite platforms like Kahoot, Gimkit, Blooket, Quizziz, and more, all with just a few clicks.

I'm sharing the highlights of episode 55 of Growing with Proficiency The Podcast here, but to listen to all of the details, listen to episode 55 above, on your favorite podcast player, or here.

When we're tired and our students are tired and we feel like we are really pushing our students without seeing that result, these low prep games are super handy.

Game of Mentira and Verdad

For this game, you need 10 to 20 personalized questions. If you have used Star Student Interviews, you can use any of those questions. I usually have a set each month. Each month I create 20 questions with general information and more questions related to this specific system. I have them in my TPT store if you 'd like to check them out.

Next, put with the word mentira or verdad on the back of the cards. First, you are going to mode the play of the game:

Display the question

Draw a card. If the card says mentira, then you have to answer the question with a lie. If the card says verdad, then you have to answer the question with a verdad.

Students will have to guess if it's verdad or mentira. If they are correct, then they get a point. If they are incorrect, then you, the teacher, gets a point.

Your students can also play in small groups or pairs. I give a variation of this game with a dice in episode 55 of the podcast.

Who Has The Question Game

Here's another great world language class game that uses those questions from the first game. Create as many sets of questions as the number of student groups you will have. I like small groups; 4 students and no more than 5 students per group. Next, give each set to the group, but divide the questions into the number of students so that each student will be responsible for at least 3 questions. So, if your group has 4 students, you would need 12 questions.

Now comes the playing part. Have students read their questions and make sure they understand. Now, you will say an answer to one of the questions. The student who has the question has to fast walk towards you. The group who gives you the question first wins the point. If you have two students who get to you at the same time, then they play rock-paper-scissors to untie.

This can be pretty chaotic if you don't set some rules and model. First rule, no one can move until you say the magic word. Second, I situate myself in the middle and all the groups are in a circle around me. No running, only fast walking. This is a perfect game to play outside.

Trashquetbol

You might already know about this game, but I learned it from La Maestra Loca. The only thing you need is a trash can. Next, use tape to mark three different distances from the trashcan. So, one is going to be the closest distance probably like one or two feet, and then you're going to mark that three points, the next one is going to be five points, and the fourth will be 10 points.

Then, you're going to ask questions about a topic that you have discussed in class, or it can be a Star Student Interview or Calendar Talk. You're going to divide your class into groups of three to five. I like to keep them small, but sometimes we're going to have to go with five. Each group should have a whiteboard and a marker.

You ask the questions and the students or groups answer the question, and then they show you the answer. Whoever, or whatever group, got it right, they have the chance to throw the ball. They get to also choose the distance. Super important, have very specific rules. My students are not going to show me the whiteboard until I tell them the magic word. Why? Because I want to be able to repeat the question. I want to level the field.

Game of Boom

This was inspired by a game that Anna Marie Chase shared in her blog. Her original name is sit down. I read it, and I made it my own by making some changes.

My version of this world language class game is to first have students work with a partner and face each other. You will be in the front of the class. Next, you say a statement based on the story or content you have reviewed. Again, it can be any content, but students must be very familiar with the content.

To start, I put my arms up and ask a question about the topic. Then, I pause and scan the room. I want to make sure all my students understand my question. I repeat the question and keep my arms up which means that nobody can answer the question just yet. If I see that a student has the look of I don't know, I ask the class what a certain word means and I repeat it. This game is so fast paced that nobody really keeps up with the points, but it's super fun!

Group Bingo

For this game, groups of three students have to illustrate the story or key words for content that you have just reviewed. Beforehand, create 9 box grids on paper. Cut the grid allowing students to get a strip with 3 boxes. Next, they will physically move so that they are one behind the other holding the strip with the 3 boxes in a way that if they put it together, it will be the entire grid.

Then, you retell the story or you describe the word. The student who has that word or story marks the box. You continue until a group has 3 in a row.

The tip here is that students can't change the order of their strips, only you can. You can say, "Row 1, move to the center" etc. to make the students move. The idea is that each student has to be responsible for listening so that they help their team/group.

AI in the World Language Class

Here's the AI tool that I mentioned at the beginning of this post. We all like to make games for our favorite platforms like Kahoot, Gimkit, Blooket, Quizziz, and more, but typing all the questions and options is time consuming. This is where Questionwell.org comes to help!

You just write the topic and subject, and you can also add grade level. Then add the language you want the questions to be written in, and add in the reading. You can just copy and paste your story, but you can also paste a link to a Youtube video or webpage. Then, it has an outcomes section, so you can add outcomes like main idea, important details, infer specific vocabulary words, audience, etc. or just leave it blank.

Finally, hit generate set, and it will create the questions for you. Then, you can edit the questions you want and click export. After that, you can import those questions to all of those platforms. Isn't that wonderful?

More Resources

I hope you found these games helpful because I know there are many moments during the year that we just need a game to help us bring up the energy, laugh a little bit, and add joy to our classes. Don't forget to listen to episode 55 to hear a bonus game and more details on how I play these games with my students.

If you need ideas for the questions and content, you can head to my TPT store where I have many stories, Start Student Interviews, and Calendar Talk, plus many more authentic resources. Find them here. For a free resource, go to Las leyendas and get 5 leyendas!

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Games and AI in the World Language Class! - Growing with Proficiency

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These five games are just plain awesome because they'll keep your students hooked while they get to hear tons of interesting stuff.

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Edutopia on a Responsive classroom school

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Edutopia on a Responsive classroom school

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The Responsive Classroom: “Why Is Everyone So Nice Here?”

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Through Responsive Classroom practices such as Social Thinking, Symonds Elementary teaches its students daily that who they learn with is as important as what they learn.

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Students stand behind their chairs. In turn, each student says his or her name accompanied by a special movement. For example a student might say, “Kayla!” while dramatically dropping to one knee and doing Jazz Hands. After the student does his or her move, the rest of the class says the student’s name in unison and imitates the move. Then it is the next student’s turn.

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Either/or bingo: students create their boards.

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Either/or bingo: students create their boards.

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Draw either/or pictures for each square. "Draw either a rat or a puppy."
Draw either a mom or a dad.
... so students have one picture or the other of two in each square. This means the teacher needs a list of double the number of squares s/he will use.
Go around the room, commenting as they draw. "Oh, you drew a ___."
Then ask questions: what does Brandon want? (a puppy)
This person thinks that Brandon peed on the floor, so she called the doctor (the mom).
Students put a small check in the squares that get used so that students can play the game several times. Then...pass the drawings...do it again!

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Grab the marker if the statement is false. One person from a team can correct the statement for two extra points.

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Te lo tiro
Para ti. Para mi? Para ti.

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This should be under Special Person – it's a video by Erica Burges about choices in the classroom to discuss...could combine with Sea/Land...She suggests googling "What if questions to ask children" if you need ideas.

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Voces Spring Conference 2023 - Erica Peplinski-Burge - The Power of Community

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Annabelle's Trashquetball version of Andrea's version 

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Annabelle's Trashquetball version of Andrea's version 

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HAPPY HOLIDAYS y'all!

In my family, we celebrate Christmas and what a joyous Christmas it was this year! I loved every minute of it! It was GO GO GO though so on the 25th at 11PM I woke up with a HIGH fever and chills and was in bed 90% of the day on the 26th! (That's what I get for never resting I suppose)

I am SO excited to blog about TRASHQUETBOL or TRASHKETBALL! It was one of my greatest takeaways from ACTFL this year! I didn't get to attend many sessions but my favorite that I did see was by Andrea Schweitzer! Her presentation was about how we can "communicatify" and "vehiclize" traditional games to make them better suited for our proficiency based classrooms where communication and contextualized comprehensible input is the focus....

Her definitions of these two brilliant words were:

Communicatify: Make changes to shift the overall purpose of the game to that of communication as the means to achieve the overall goal of the game

Vehiclize: use the game as a vehicle for creating contextualized communication with your students (sort of like picture talk or movie talk etc.

Now, Trashketball is something she learned from Bryce Hedstrom. However, in the last few years she has transformed it into a game that provides more meaningful input while still keeping the elements of the game that makes it so appealing to students!

Here is a great video of Andrea playing with her students in the way that she explained to us in her presentation.

I took all of Andrea's ideas and then tweaked them to fit my style and my students. These variations are explained below.

I split the class into three teams
Since my class is set up in a horseshoe I just split the horseshoe into three parts and named each one a country name from last year
Panama, Peru and Paraguay

I called the question out and took the first hand I saw go up after I FINISHED asking the question
I didn't call on hands that went up before I was done asking the question

If the person answered the question correctly I gave them the option of playing or passing (asking them in the TL "do you want to play or do you want to pass")

This was important because many of the students wanted to answer questions but not all of them wanted to shoot the ball (people like me with little hand eye coordination would NEVER raise their hand if it meant they HAD to shoot and potentially (probably) let their team down)

If they chose to "pass", my next question in the TL was "who do you want pass to?"

I made a 3 point 5 point and 10 point line

I had a BIG ball, medium sized ball, and "fuzzy" tiny ball as options to play with

If they shot with the big ball they would get 1x the points

If they shot with the medium ball they would get 2x the points (from the line they shot from)

If they shot with the tiny fuzzy they would get 3x the points

Of course kids asked if they could "bounce" the ball in... I allowed this but...

If bouncing they could only do it from the 5 point line with the big ball

IF they made it in they received 50 bonus points
In the 10 times I played this with classes from Thanksgiving to Christmas break, two kids made it.... and there were

I displayed the sentence stem "Voy por" along with the question "tú vas por ___?"
Since these were not something they'd heard much before I wanted to make sure it was clear

I am going for ______ points

How many points are you going for?

I taught them the expression "suerte" or good luck!
As with ALL my classroom games I encouraged praise and positivity for their teammates as well as their competition.
When I heard them encouraging each other or yelling positive remarks in the TL afterwards ("Good job" "excellent" "yay" "super" etc.) I gave each team bonus points
I always encourage OBNOXIOUS positivity 🙂

The next time we played trashquetbol, I gave each team 4 minutes to write as many questions as possible on sticky notes. If they came up with questions in English that I used (I would translate them to Spanish) I gave that team a bonus point. If I used a question that their team wrote in Spanish I gave them two points

They love love love this game. I had never played it the way that Bryce originally wrote it but I would imagine kids who have played it that way would love this novelty as well.

Here is a video of the first time I introduced the game... the day after thanksgiving... energy is low, English is high, but at least you can see how I set it up...

Here is another 3 minutes of gameplay:

I am super duper grateful to Andrea for all of the things I learned in her presentation. I often feel frustrated when I attend conferences and spend the whole time presenting because I feel like I'll forever be the "same Annabelle" and never learn anything new for my students, so it is SO refreshing when I get to attend sessions like hers which give me ideas I can implement immediately!

I hope you're enjoying your break!

Until next time,

HAPPY RESTING!

Love,

La Maestra Loca

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HAPPY HOLIDAYS y'all! In my family, we celebrate Christmas and what a joyous Christmas it was this year! I loved every minute of it!

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I can see mixing this up with sets of words that your students know (#s 1-10, days of the week, a set # of colors, months, seasons, classroom objects, first-person verbs, third-person verbs, movement verbs, clothing, foods, and so on. It's not a beginning game. Students could help come up with the lists.

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Everyone loves a good review game, and this is one of my students' favorites! I call this fast-paced verb trading game "El Toro". It's based off of a card game some friends introduced me to awhile ago and once I played it I knew I had to try it with my students. I often describe it to my students as "Go Fish, but everyone fishes at once". There's no sitting and waiting in this game! It's the perfect review game for Spanish class.

Watch the Video

It is very similar to Spoons or Cucharas in the set up. You need a set of cards with all the verb forms (yo, tú, usted, etc) you want to review, and one verb for each person playing (ser, tener, etc). Shuffle the cards and deal them out until all of the cards are gone (6 cards/player).

The goal of the game is to collect all of the forms of one verb- for example, "hablo, hablas, habla, hablamos, habláis, hablan". The dealer starts the round by calling "¡Vamos!". Players trade matching verbs by calling out the number they are willing to trade ("dos, dos") and swapping when hey find another player willing to trade. Players can ONLY trade forms of the same verb. So they could trade "hablo" and "habla", but not "hablo" and "bailo" because those are different verbs.

The round ends when someone has collected all the forms of the verbs, stands up, and says "¡El Toro!". They then have to prove it to the other players by reading off all the forms of their collected verb. This step is important!! Sometimes they get so caught up in trading that they miss one or misread something. It also reinforces the verb forms you want them to review. This ends the round. I usually tell my students the winner is the first student to win a certain number of rounds, but they often get so into it it doesn't even matter. As soon as a round ends, they shuffle up, and go again!

I hope I explained that clearly! Let me know if you have any questions. I like to teach my students both Cucharas and El Toro early in the year, and then let them choose which game to play during review times.

I have several sets of cards with the instructions and materials required for both games available here!

Click here to pin this post for later!

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Review Game for Spanish Class: El Toro - Srta Spanish

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Check out this quick and easy review game for your Spanish class! The set up is simple and the rounds are fast so you can get a lot of practice in no time! Click to see instructions how to use this game in your middle or high school Spanish classroom.

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Directions are at the beginning. It's possibly a better brain break than a community-building activity because of the advanced language needed to explain and the lack of language needed to continue. BUT...it looks like a lot of fun.

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Stand in a circle. "Close your eyes." "Open your eyes." Look at someone.

If you are looking at someone who is looking at you, both sit down.

A Responsive Classroom game.

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Higher or Lower

One student comes to the front of the room.

The teacher writes a 3 digit number on the
board behind the student so he/she cannot see it.

The student calls out a number while marching in place. The remainder of the class marches in place until the number is called out.

If the number is too high, the class squats
(guess lower). If the number is too low, the
class jumps up and down (guess higher).

When the correct number is identified, select a different student to come to the front and repeat.

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You can use any vocabulary you want. If you play with young children, either give each one an object to avoid tears, or let children decide whether or not to have a friendly competition.

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4T playing a very serious game of Boom Clap Snatch! | By Southbury Elementary School | Facebook

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1.5K views, 6 likes, 5 loves, 0 comments, 3 shares, Facebook Watch Videos from Southbury Elementary School: 4T playing a very serious game of Boom Clap Snatch!

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One person is out of the circle of students. The group chooses a leader who starts a motion. The student returns and stands in the middle of the circle. The leader switches the action, trying not to be caught. The student in the middle asks students who are suspected of being the leader their names. If asked, the leader answers "Hachi Pachi." Otherwise, they use their real name. The class responds, "Too bad/how sad!"

See Annabelle Williamson's video of this game.

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Each person makes a long connected squiggle with a pen/pencil on a sheet of paper. Pass to the next person. That person takes a heavier marker and outlines a shape visible in the squiggle. It might be an animal, an object, or a body part. The teacher can gather the drawings and talk about them/make stories, etc.

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Rather like a game of 20 questions...teacher can offer novice-level pictures of five people. One student can pick, and others are supported as they ask.

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One one side of hexagons are questions for each part directed by the teacher: What month were you born? What's your favorite color/movie/type of music? Students put their name or picture in the middle (self-portrait?) and the class uses to create a connected bulletin board or to discuss.

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Students mingle to music. When the music stops, they stand back-to-back in pairs and listen for a question. They turn face-to-face and answer the question, talking until the teacher starts music or rings a bell, at which point they start to mingle again. This gives a group a chance to hold some of the conversations they just need to hold, but limits the time.

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After the class knows several songs, a group or a student offers charades to help the class guess which song they have chosen. (Teacher could assign specific songs.)

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Donna explains the game Seven on her blog

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At the start of the 2021-2022 school year, I did a community-building experiment that rocked my world and had a huge impact on my teaching. During my experiment, I learned so many new tips & tricks for engaging language learners while simultaneously building community and making all of my students comfortable. Check out my 3- blog post to learn about my experiment.

One of the many activities I learned from the incredible Michele Whaley is called 7. She tells me she learned it when she started teaching at a Responsive Classroom School (RCS). For more info about RCS, click .

At its core, this elimination game lends itself to some light-hearted fun in any classroom & is absolutely zero prep. The hardest part is learning the rules! And once you figure out how to explain the game in the target language, you are golden!

What you need: Not a darn thing except a good attitude & a willingness to have some fun! A link to a video of students playing the game in French & Russian is below to help you understand what you need to know to be successful. Explaining the rules is not as easy as one might expect.
Set Up & Play

1. The class stands in a circle. Break large classes into 2 or 3 groups.

2. The group will count to 7, one at a time. Play always starts clockwise.

3. The first person says '1' and touches their chest - over their heart - with their right hand.

4. The student to the immediate left of this person says '2" as they touch their chest with their right hand.

5. Play continues in this fashion until the number 7.

6. This is where things will change! This person will put their hand above their head instead of on their chest when they say "7".

The hand that the students use determines the direction of play. For instance, when someone uses their right hand on their turn, play goes to the left because the hand is pointing in that direction. Consequently, when someone uses their left hand on their turn, play goes to the right because their hand is pointing in that direction. This is the case for all numbers 1-7. Some students will learn to trick the next players by looking in one direction and pointing in the other.

The next person will start over with number 1. However, this person can choose to use their right or left hand. Remember, the direction the hand is pointing determines the direction of play.
How students may be eliminated:

When they do not honor the direction of 'play' established.

When they hesitate too long before taking their turn. I wait until my novice language learners are super comfortable with the numbers 1-7 before instituting this rule.

When they put their hand on their chest when the number is 7.

When they put their hand above their head on any number except 7.

When they count beyond 7.

Helpful Hints

Teachers can participate as well! It's fun and allows us to model what being a good sport looks like when eliminated.

Initially, I do not eliminate players. Before I do eliminations in any game, I make sure I am confident about the following items:

There is a strong sense of community in the class! One that is supportive of all & where we can laugh with each other instead of at one another.

Everyone is comfortable with counting from 1-7. With novice learners, I post the numbers on the board at the front of the room during the game.

Everyone knows & understands the rules of the game.

With younger children, consider dropping eliminations altogether. Playfully tell them to know they messed up, and have someone restart the game.

If you are going to eliminate players, keep it light & cute. No shaming! In my class, we all wave and say something like, " C'est dommage. Au revoir, Khaleel ! " (That's too bad. Bye, Khaleel!)

It may become necessary to make a rule that there can be no more than two direction changes in a row by the same people.

When the group is learning, start by going in only one direction. After everyone understands when and how to mark "7" with their hands above their heads, add the concept of changing the direction.

Now that you have read the rules you can watch a video below of my students playing 7 in French & Michele Whaley's elementary students playing in Russian!

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At the start of the 2021-2022 school year, I did a community-building experiment that rocked my world and had a huge impact on my teaching. During my experiment, I learned so many new tips & tricks for engaging language learners while simultaneously building community and making all of my students comfortable.

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Translate sentences as fast as possible.

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This activity is a lot more innocent than the title states. The Latin word for "six" is sex - yep, Latin students love this fact. It is actually based on a Spanish activity called Seis (one of my Latin colleagues calles it Surrender on Six), and I learned it both from a Spanish teacher at my school and from Miriam Patrick, who is a fellow CI Latin teacher in my district. It is a high activity game involving rolling of dice.
Let me give you the basic directions of the game and then my CI twist on it:

1. Make a list of vocabulary words. Around 75 words is good.

2. Divide the class into groups of 4. Groups of 3 work well too, but groups of 5 can get a bit big.

3. Students will need to arrange their desks so that there is one common workspace, with all desks touching with no spaces in between them.

4. Every student will receive a list of vocabulary words.

5. Every group will receive one writing utensil and one die.

6. At the beginning, each group will place the one writing utensil in the middle of its workspace.

7. Have students establish an order of rolling the die.

8. Each student will take a turn rolling the die. The goal is to roll a six. If a student does not roll a six, then the die passes to the next person.

9. The first student who rolls a six does two things: yells SEX (indicating "I rolled a six!"), grabs the writing utensil, and starts to write as many English definitions as he/she can. It is not required to go in order of the list; students can begin anywhere on the list.

10. Meanwhile, the rest of the group continues to roll the die until someone rolls a six.

11. At this point, that student will yell SEX, grab the writing utensil from the person who has it, and will now start writing as many English definitions as he/she can.

12. The activity ends when someone has completed the page or after a set amount of time.

13. Tell students to switch papers and to count up the number of correct answers. Only complete words count - if a word is halfway written, it does not count.

14. There are two winners: the individual with the most number of correct answers, and the group with the biggest overall total.

1. Although this is a fun vocabulary review game, vocabulary itself is not isolated in language and does not exist outside of a context. As a result, I use this as a post-reading activity. Instead of vocabulary words, I have sentences from the story which we have been going over.

2. When a student rolls a six and yells SEX, then he/she begins to translate the sentence into English. Again, it is not required for students to start at the beginning.

3. At the end when going over the sentences, students receive one point for every correctly translated word.

1. This is a very HIGH energy and loud game! Students LOVE yelling out SEX when they roll a six - when I told the Spanish teacher from whom I learned this activity that the Latin word for six was sex, she said, "Oh, even better!"

2. Because students are translating sentences from the story which we have been going over, it is another way for them to see and to review comprehensible messages and to get in more repetitions of forms/vocabulary.

3. Because of their familiarity with the sentences, it is quite easy for them to translate the sentences into English.

4. This is a great student-centered, teacher-faciliator activity, as all you do as the teacher is walk around and monitor what is going on.

5. The student who wins is not necessarily the fastest processor but the one who had the most time to write while the rest of the group tries to roll a six.

6. It is so much fun hearing students yell SEX and then grab the writing utensil from the student who has it and who probably is mid-word when it is taken.

7. I love it when I hear teachers afterwards asking me what we were doing since all they hear is the word SEX being yelled out.

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This activity is a lot more innocent than the title states. The Latin word for "six" is sex - yep, Latin students love this fact. It is actually based on a Spanish activity called Seis (one of my Latin colleagues calles it Surrender on Six), and I learned it both from a Spanish teacher at my school and from Miriam Patrick, who is a fellow CI Latin teacher in my district.

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Love this! It's a way to differentiate without students knowing that you did so.

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Loading up my little darlings with Comprehensible Input

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Pop Up is my favorite game of all time! Zero prep! 100% Engagement! Differentiation! Wait time! And the teacher sits down to play...great when the teacher is exhausted. It can last 10 minutes to 45 minutes.... a perfect last activity to fill in no matter how much time is left in class. And the best part....it's all COMPREHENSIBLE INPUT! Without further ado... POP UP!

To set up: Grab a vocabulary list, print out this form and number your students. Divide the class into two groups (just draw an imaginary line down the center of the classroom) and number the students so that on each side of the room, there is a number 1, number 2, number 3 and so on. (So two students are assigned number 1, and they are on opposite sides of the classroom). In a classroom of 30 students, you will have 1-15 on one side of the room and 1-15 on the other side of the room. They do not need to sit in order, they just need to remember their number. If you have an odd number of students, just assign 2 numbers to one student on one side.

Pro Tip: The easiest way to assign numbers is to have everyone stand up, and as you point and say a number, they sit down. ALSO....ever so slyly, be intentional as you match up students of like abilities. This game works best when your highest students have the same number and your lowest students have the same number, because they will compete against each other. Once everyone has their numbers, run through the line up and have students raise their hand on their numbers, just to be sure everyone remembers their number and so the teacher can jot down on the score sheet which numbers are the high flyers and which students need a bit more support. I just write a L or a H above their number on the score card, which only the teacher sees.
Visual Learners, here's what it looks like!
To play: Teacher says a statement in Spanish, repeats the statement several times (giving everyone a chance to think about it's meaning) then calls a number. Both students who are assigned that number stand up (really, POP UP, hence the name!) and translate it out loud in English. The fastest one earns the point for their team. The teacher makes a mark on the score sheet indicating which student was called (so all students get called the same number of times) and records the point on the score card. Then the teacher says a different statement (slowly, several times!) calls a different number and those students race to translate the statement. Since I can tell which numbers are high flyers and which ones struggle (because I jotted down H or L on my score card) I adapt my statement to the number I will call. Of course, at the then of class, the team with them most points wins and they bring me their stamp sheet for a stamp.

Using the Score Card: You can play POP UP twice, with 2 difference classes on one sheet of paper. To just play once with one class, just use the top numbers and one square. You can see my Hs and Ls above specific numbers to remind me if I should say a more challenging statement or one with lots of cognates 🙂 First cross off the numbers that do not have a student. In this example, I only used numbers 1-11 because there were only 22 students present today. As the teacher calls a number, mark the number called. (I do a forward slash, the first time through) Once all the numbers have that mark, do a different mark to indicate it's the second time the number has been called. (I do a backslash the second time.) Once all numbers have been called a second time, make a different mark. In this example, I started underlining, but we did not have enough time to finish, so only a few numbers are underlined. Of course the team with most points is the winner at the end, and in my class, that means they bring me their stamp sheet.
Pro Tip:

1. Before you begin, remind students There is ONLY ONE Judge, the only person who went to college for this. I HATE it when students argue with me, especially in this game. He was faster! No, she didn't say it right! ONLY ONE JUDGE, people!

2. Sometimes it's too close to call, in which case, Rock, Paper Scissors

Variations: Of course you could play this with a single word. I also like to play it with questions. In my Spanish 4 class, I like to ask questions about Gran Hotel (the wildly dramatic Telenovela that we're watching and discussing) and they answer in Spanish. ¿Cómo se llama el sinvergüenza de la familia que se mete en muchos líos?

Did I totally over-complicate a simple game?! It's just because POP UP is so great that I really really really hope you love it too! Let me know if you have questions!

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Pop Up is my favorite game of all time! Zero prep! 100% Engagement! Differentiation! Wait time! And the teacher sits down to play...great when the teacher is exhausted. It can last 10 minutes to 45 minutes.... a perfect last activity to fill in no matter how much time is left in class.

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michelejwhaley@gmail.com

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The I Can Play the Pen Game requires a pen and creative thinking This is a group puzzle or riddle game and goal is for each person in the circle to figure out the puzzle. Take the pen and start by saying the phrase, "Okay, I can play the pen game, can you play the pen game?" While doing this, ...

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25+ Awesome Circle Games for Kids and Adults - Page 2 of 4 - Ultimate Camp Resource

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The I Can Play the Pen Game requires a pen and creative thinking This is a group puzzle or riddle game and goal is for each person in the circle to figure out the puzzle. Take the pen and start by saying the phrase, "Okay, I can play the pen game, can you play the pen game?"

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Grudge Ball is a no-prep game that can be used in any class. This game gets kids moving and encourages friendly competition between teams.

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In an acquisition-driven classroom, everything we teach should be purposeful. But when teaching something like numbers, it can feel daunting & unnatural. That is where light-hearted games come in, as they can give us a purpose.

The Secret Number -also called the Magic Number or More or Less - goes a long way to helping my students learn numbers in a way that feels both natural and purposeful. This little- to no-prep activity helps get numbers in my students' heads in a manageable & lighthearted way.

While this great idea may have originated from some fantastic teacher I do not know, I learned it from my dear friend Leslie Davison , an incredible Spanish teacher in Colorado.

What you need: A poster or slide with the targeted numbers.
Set Up & Play:

1. The teacher writes down the secret number.

2. The teacher tells the students that the secret number is between 2 numbers - zero & 11, for instance. It is a good idea to write the number range on the board.

3. The students guess the secret number one at a time.

4. If the student's guess is incorrect, the teacher changes the range allowing the students to narrow down their guesses.

5. Once a student has guessed the secret number, play again or move on to another activity.

For first-year students, the secret number is between 0 & 11 for a week or so. Then it will be between 10 & 21 and so on.

In my high-level classes, the secret number might be between zero & 28, 20& 64 or 53 & 80, for example.

I clarify each student's guess in the target language. This essential step allows the teacher to model correct language that may be slightly extended (see below) and give students valuable processing time.

The game might go like this in French 1 when the secret number is 7:

Teacher: " Le numéro secret est entre 0 et 11. " (The secret number is between 1 and 11.)

Teacher: " Ellie, tu crois que le numéro secret est 3 ? " (Ellie, you believe that the secret number is 3?)

Student: " Oui. " (Yes)

Teacher: " Le numéro secret n'est pas 3. Le numéro secret est entre 3 et 11. " (The secret number is not 3. The secret number is between 3 and 11.)

Tyler: " Le numéro secret est 5 ? " (The secret number is 5?)

Teacher: " Tyler, tu crois que le numéro secret est 5 ? " (Tyler, you believe that the secret number is 5?)

Tyler: " Oui "

Teacher: " Non, the numéro secret n'est pas 5. Le numéro secret est entre 5 et 11. " (Non, the secret number is not 5. The secret number is between 5 and 11.‚

Something to consider:

Whenever I say the word IS in French I, I point to my verb poster to keep the language understandable. If you do not have verb posters, write the word on the board in the target language and the language your students understand.

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In an acquisition-driven classroom, everything we teach should be purposeful. But when teaching something like numbers, it can feel daunting & unnatural. That is where light-hearted games come in, as they can give us a purpose.

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Group sits in circle. One student holds the chicken until ready. That student passes off the chicken, which group tries to circulate all the way around before the student can name five (words from yesterday, ideas, plot points, etc).

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Students feel safe, included, and necessary if their voice is valued through patient and active listening. As we work toward cultivating a classroom community that validates students' needs for belonging and significance, we must not only teach expectations and skills for listening and speaking, but we must also structure our instructional time to reflect our belief that students' voices and ideas are necessary.

After recently reading Matthew Kay's Not Light, But Fire: How to Lead Meaningful Race Conversations in the Classroom , I adopted some new discussion habits in my weekly classroom routine. As teachers, one way we communicate what we value to students is by how we allot time-the most foundational element of classroom management. Unfortunately, given the demands of mandated academic standards and schoolwide expectations, students' personal lives rarely feel like a priority. Here are three activities that I've seen help build trust and community so that conversations in our classroom space are open and students feel invited to share their personal interests and values.
Five Good Minutes
Content subject matter is clearly the focus of my academic block - it would be negligent for it not to be. However, I will always set aside at least five good minutes at some point in our daily gathering to engage with young folks as humans, not just as students. Most days, these five minutes typically fit logically at the beginning of class, but, depending on the day's objective and lesson plan, this could happen at the middle or end of class.

During these five good minutes, I intentionally engage with students around their personal interests as they stream into class. This could be celebrating a local sports team's win (or commiserating a loss), asking opinions about a popular television series from the night prior, or inquiring about recent school social events. Once I notice most folks have entered and completed our typical entrance routine, I will pivot and bring the rest of the class into that informal chat.

The idea here is to acknowledge that students are humans with interesting ideas and opinions outside the scope of the content curriculum, and to show that I am, too. We are all vibrant humans worthy of being heard.
Good News
Zac Chase, the coauthor of Building School 2.0: How to Create the Schools We Need , developed a weekly activity he calls Good News: on a day that is conducive to taking a five-minute break from content instruction (my class typically does this on Fridays), everyone spends time sharing positive happenings in their lives. Students volunteer to share any event (no minimum threshold in terms of how "big" or "small" the good news is), and their peers listen patiently and actively. After each share, students are invited to connect with classmates about what they shared and celebrate the good news in each other's lives.

Spending five to ten minutes per week doing the Good News activity means an investment of only one hour per month. This hour goes a long way toward building a classroom community that celebrates the best of each other's lives and cultures.
Content Connection
At least once a month (more if possible) our math department tries to tweak our provided curriculum to address the same standards through problems we've adapted to reflect our students' current interests.

Their interests could show up in a variety of ways. For example, when calculating percentages with sixth graders, I have used stills from YouTube videos or paused popular songs on Spotify midplay; then students calculate the percentage of the video or song yet to be played. I have also discussed local or national news stories relevant to students' lives with them-such as graphs related to school funding or the data for the amount of time teenagers spend on a given phone app. There's a wealth of mathematical discourse available in these current events, but there is also a great opportunity for students to share their personal opinions and ideas, too. These small tweaks to the curriculum add a personalization that enhances students' engagement in math but also communicates my belief that their interests are important and worthwhile.
- is the director of Teaching and Learning at New City Charter school in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

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Three Activities That Bring Students' Lives and Interests Into the Classroom

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Students feel safe, included, and necessary if their voice is valued through patient and active listening. As we work toward cultivating a classroom community that validates students' needs for belonging and significance, we must not only teach expectations and skills for listening and speaking, but we must also structure our instructional time to reflect our belief that students' voices and ideas are necessary.

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Vocabulary strategies that could be adapted to become brain breaks/activities

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Vocabulary strategies that could be adapted to become brain breaks/activities

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When several of Megan Kelly's sixth-grade social studies students kept stumbling over vocabulary words she assumed they already knew, she discovered a blind spot in her teaching practice. "Why should they know these words if I'm not being intentional about teaching them?" Kelly asks in an article for MiddleWeb. Aware that regular exposure to rich, varied vocabulary would bolster her students' long-term academic success, she set out to find smart strategies "to incorporate vocabulary into small pockets of time in class."

Traditional vocabulary instruction can be a passive exercise, says literacy specialist Rebecca Alber, an instructor at UCLA's Graduate School of Education-but "copying definitions from a dictionary," isn't ultimately an effective strategy, Alber argues. Instead, students need "multiple and various exposures to a word before they fully understand that word and can apply it," research shows, and in order to be truly memorable, vocabulary needs to be learned in context, she adds, not as "standalone lists that come and go each week." Kids also need opportunities to revisit words they've learned throughout the year: "Keep an ongoing list displayed in the classroom of all the words you have 'owned' as a class," Alber suggests. "Periodically revisit and challenge students to use them, for example, in a one-minute essay or a quick write."

Meanwhile, given the constraints of time and curriculum sequencing, vocabulary instruction often gets short shrift, observes veteran teacher and education consultant Marilee Sprenger in another MiddleWeb post. But dedicating entire lesson blocks to vocabulary isn't necessary because even "brief encounters with words"-Sprenger says 10 minutes or even as little as 2 minutes-can be surprisingly effective, as long as they're woven into lessons regularly. "If we explicitly teach about 300 words per year to our students, it can make a big difference in their vocabularies," Sprenger writes. "Some students will learn about 3,000 or 4,000 words per year due to the literacy that surrounds them, while others have limited access and will only learn 1,000. Imagine how much you will be helping those students who have limited outside access to greater vocabulary."

Here are six quick, engaging classroom strategies-sourced from Kelly and Sprenger and from our Edutopia archives-for weaving vocabulary into your curriculum without disrupting your regular classroom flow.

Sing or rhyme it: Ask students to create a short song or poem that includes a chosen vocabulary word and its definition, suggests Sprenger. Students can work in pairs to develop the song or rhyme. "A jingle for the word clarify might be: 'clarify and shed some light, explain with details and say it right,' or 'clarify to avoid confusion, explain clearly for the right conclusion,'" Sprenger writes. Later, as kids transition to another activity, or line up, or get out of their seats to get new materials, ask them to sing or recite their jingle.

Let students choose their own words: "One of the biggest mistakes we teachers make in vocabulary instruction is selecting all the words for the students and not giving them a say in the matter," says Alber. Ask students to skim the first chapter or passage of a text you're reading together, for example, and select their own words, marking them as "know it," "sort of know it," or "don't know it at all." Then, before looking up the actual definition, ask them to propose a definition for the words they know and kind of know, and use this data as a gauge to guide your vocabulary work.

Pick three: Choose three words to focus on that day, and post the words and their definitions prominently in class. "Ask students to set a goal with a partner for how many times they will use the words. Then, really ham it up with the word usage," says Kelly. As her students played a board game about creating a civilization, for example, Kelly used the day's words- thrive, surplus, and impact -as often as possible while giving directions, and then "made a big deal whenever I heard a student say one of our goal words," which in turn encouraged students to find ways to incorporate the words as much as possible as they played the board game.

Act it out: In small groups or pairs, have students briefly act out one of the week's vocabulary words, says Sprenger. Research shows that the body often remembers what the mind forgets: When researchers asked 8-year-olds to mimic the words they were learning in another language by using their hands and bodies to act out the word's meaning-spreading their arms and pretending to fly while they learned the German word for airplane, for example-the students were 73 percent more likely to recall them, even two months later.

Think of what it's not: Learning new words doesn't need to feel like work, says Rebecca Givens Rolland, an oral and written language specialist at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. In fact, "students can be more engaged when they're allowed and encouraged to play with language," which can deepen their understanding of new words, she writes.

One playful strategy is to challenge students to "Ask not just, 'What does this word look or function like?' but also, 'What does it not look or function like?'," says Givens Rolland. So when students are defining an acute angle, they might say "it looks sharp, but "it does not look curvy, or wavy, or square." For every word your class discusses, be sure that students are specific about the difference between the original word and the things it is not. "This process of description will help build their vocabularies and strengthen their abilities to make connections between one topic and the next," she explains.

Draw it: For a novel take on drawing to remember, provide each student with a whiteboard and marker and then "ask students to balance the whiteboard on their head and then draw the vocabulary word in a set amount of time (40-50 seconds keeps the game moving)," Kelly suggests. "Once finished, they should explain their drawing to a partner." Or, for a less giggle-inducing approach, have students draw the vocabulary words quickly-on paper on their desks-and explain their drawing to a partner. A 2018 study revealed that, even for fledgling or indifferent artists, drawing what they learned doubled retention rates, when compared to kids who wrote or read the same material.

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When several of Megan Kelly's sixth-grade social studies students kept stumbling over vocabulary words she assumed they already knew, she discovered a blind spot in her teaching practice. "Why should they know these words if I'm not being intentional about teaching them?" Kelly asks in an article for MiddleWeb .

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How a pedagogy of play can enliven the classroom, for students of all ages.

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We can do many of these exercises in our target languages.

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Combining simple exercises with math instruction can help ensure that elementary school students remember these lessons.

If you were to walk by my classroom at 9:01 a.m., you might see my math students out of their seats, moving their arms around and doing squats. It's not because I'm trading in math time for aerobics. My third-grade students are warming up for their hour of math instruction.

Each move has a purpose and is integrated with the content we're learning. Sometimes the movements act as a review; other times they're a preview of what's ahead. Regardless, the moves my students make are meant to help math concepts stick.

Why Movement?

In their book The Kinesthetic Classroom, Traci Lengel and Mike Kuczala cite studies that show us how learning certain concepts through movement is efficient and long-lasting.

Movement gives learning experiences something fresh and new, which the brain likes. This novelty helps keep the attention of the students, making their learning efficient. It's been my experience over years of using movement in math class that even those students who are timid and reluctant to participate at first are nevertheless paying attention and are interested in what's going on around them. Their brains are still activated.

Movement, although considered an art form, is an ideal example of hands-on learning. Generally, the teacher asks students to listen and look at math examples. By adding movement, students can involve themselves with the learning in a more concrete way. The brain likes that. The more active the body is in learning, according to The Kinesthetic Classroom, the more connections the brain can make with the content.

The brain also likes repetition and practice, which forms and strengthens neural pathways in the brain, which helps concepts move more quickly from short-term to long-term memory. The key to using movement in the classroom, regardless of the subject matter, is consistency. That's why my math students do the math moves every day.

Practice Math Vocabulary With Movement

So much of math instruction is learning and mastering vocabulary. Parallel lines, isosceles triangle, rotations, 180 degrees: Students can learn all of these terms and more through movement. Here's an example warm-up sequence we do to get ready for math class.

First, my students start with what we call "isosceles triangle," or "mountain" in yoga terminology: We spread our feet about two feet apart, firmly planted on the floor. Then, we take a moment to trace the three sides of the triangle with our hands. We start at the top point (our belly button) and move down one side, across the base, and up the third side.

Then it's time for some butterfly "symmetry" breaths. While we move our arms out and up, we notice what about our body makes us symmetrical. After the second deep breath in, we pause with our hands over our head and stretch to one side, becoming asymmetrical, and then to the other side before bringing our arms back down.

Next is a shoulder stretch. We move one arm straight out in front of us and across our body. Then, with our other arm we bend our elbow and make a perpendicular intersection with our forearms. I look around and see who needs a little adjustment, telling the students that paying attention to precision is an important part of math.

Then I ask, "What are some other ways to describe our arms?"

As this becomes routine day after day, the students recognize the terms and say them with me. We often add more movement, depending on what we're learning or what our bodies need.

If the kids are having a hard time with parallel versus perpendicular, we'll run through a series of arm movements to show the difference. If they have a little extra energy, we get it out with some 180 degree jumps (followed by a few more symmetry breaths to get back to calm).

Moving Past Vocabulary Into Content

Not only can you practice math vocabulary with movement, but also you can reinforce content learning. My favorite activity to practice with my third-grade students is skip counting as a way to prepare for multiplication.

Students come to my classroom knowing how to skip count by 2s, 5s, and 10s, but just as important and helpful is being able to skip count by other numbers as well. I love focusing on 4s and 6s.

For the 4s, we hold four fingers up in both hands and then do slow, controlled "high knees," bringing one knee at a time up to touch our four fingers: "4, 8, 12, 16 . . . ," all the way up to 48.

Then, it's time for the 6s squats. As we squat down, we count by 6: "6, 12, 18 . . . ," holding up fingers to show which multiple we are on, all the way to 72.

Giving students this additional, whole-body experience to practice these facts using movement and rhythm has truly helped the kids memorize them.

In addition, students learn how to correctly move with a simple dance sequence involving a side step and a jump, chanting, "Over, and up! Over, and up!"

And we ease any confusion between area and perimeter when we chant the two words in rhythm while moving our hands to show the space that area covers versus drawing the perimeter with our fingertips.

The Social and Emotional Connection

There's a huge social and emotional benefit to this five-minute whole-body math warm-up as well. With these math moves, students are able to wake up their minds, get their jitters out, and prepare their bodies for calm and focused work.

Also, teachers are always looking for ways to build community in the classroom, and movement can certainly do that. As students get up, move, and interact with the content, they're doing something together. Activity and interaction within the classroom creates a unique community.

Do all kids participate all the time? No. This is an important aspect to consider when teaching through the lens of social and emotional learning, or in this case, social-emotional artistic learning. Instead, the emphasis is on encouraging students to participate at their level of comfort and physical ability. Sometimes this means that students will remain sitting; other times they may just look on.

With consistency, all students find ways to participate in the movements, which brings a new sense of joy to the classroom. The smiles, the smirks, and the laughs all help the students' learning to stick and add a positive vibe to the classroom.

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Reinforcing Elementary Math Lessons With Movement

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Combining simple exercises with math instruction can help ensure that elementary school students remember these lessons.

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The purpose of a morning meeting greeting is to set the tone for the meeting and the day.  It teaches students how to politely interact and communicate with their peers.

During the greeting, emphasize that students should make eye contact and greet their peers by name.  If the specific greeting we chose did not specify who they should greet, you can encourage students to go out of their way and greet students they do not frequently talk to in class as a way to build their social skills and get to know their classmates better.

Some greetings are quick and short, while others can be more time consuming.

A quick and easy greeting can be something as simple as "Turn the people on either side of you and say good morning."

Other times, you can engage in a longer greeting such as the Spider-Web greeting. During this greeting, students roll or throw a ball of yarn to one another across a circle and greet each other when they receive the yarn.  As a bonus, you can have students reverse the order of the greeting and unwind the yarn.

The time you have dedicated to your morning meeting will play a factor as to which types of greetings might be appropriate for that day.

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Do you want to know my favorite part of the school day? You guessed it, morning meeting! A morning meeting is a chance for the whole class to come together and learn in so many different ways.

A daily morning meeting provides an opportunity to discuss important topics, improve teamwork and collaborative skills. It's also a time to encourage respectful learning and behaviors, support academic, social, and emotional learning, as well as an opportunity to have FUN together!

I didn't start implementing a daily morning meeting until a few years into my teaching career. I always had decent classroom management and tried to build strong bonds and relationships with my students. However, it wasn't until I consistently held a daily morning meeting in my classroom that I started to see a distinct difference in the way students interacted and bonded with one another and with me. Additionally, I believe that the mutual respect built and social skills gained from our morning meetings made a significant difference in managing daily behaviors.

Now that morning meeting is a part of my regular classroom routine, I wholeheartedly recommend that all elementary teachers set aside at least a few minutes per day to dedicate to a morning or classroom meeting time. One of my former students put it best when she said, " morning meeting helps turn a class into a family." I mean.. if this is not the #goals, I don't know what is!

After modeling how to run a morning meeting for a few weeks in the beginning of the year, I start allowing students to take over and become the morning meeting leaders. Students absolutely LOVE being in charge for those short 10-15 minutes. They take their responsibilities very seriously. Not only is it fun for them to take on the teacher role, but they also learn valuable skills such as patience and leadership. Having a student leader run morning meetings is a wonderful way to also build self confidence, classroom community, and student ownership.

So now that you understand WHY morning meeting is a beneficial part of the daily routine, you might be wondering what actually takes place during a morning meeting.

Allow me to explain.

I break up our daily morning meetings into five different parts:

Not each component to be included every single day, but I do find that it works best if the general schedule stays as consistent as possible each day. However, some days I dedicate more time to one of the parts of our morning meeting than others. I still usually go through each part of the meeting every day, but may not spend a lot of time on each one. For example, if I know we plan to have a long discussion on a particular day, I will plan to do a quick greeting and fast game that day. Likewise, if we plan to play a game that is more time consuming, we will select a fast greeting and not so heavy discussion topic.

1. Class Announcements

When students first gather for our meeting, I use the first few minutes, sometimes even only seconds, to make any important class announcements that we may need to discuss. It could be anything from changes to the daily schedule, to announcing a new monthly character trait focus, to simply selecting the student leader for the meeting.

2. Morning Meeting Greeting

Next, we go right into the class greeting. The purpose of a morning meeting greeting is to set the tone for the meeting and the day. It teaches students how to politely interact and communicate with their peers.

During the greeting, I emphasize that students should make eye contact and greet their peers by name. If the specific greeting we chose did not specify who they should greet, I often encourage students to go out of their way and greet students they do not frequently talk to in class as a way to build their social skills and get to know their classmates better.

Some greetings are quick and short, while others can be more time consuming.

A quick and easy greeting can be something as simple as turn the people on either side of you and say good morning.

Other times, you can engage in a longer greeting such as the Spider-Web greeting. During this greeting, students roll or throw a ball of yarn to one another across a circle and greet each other when they receive the yarn. As a bonus, you can have students reverse the order of the greeting and unwind the yarn.

The time you have dedicated to your morning meeting will play a factor as to which types of greetings might be appropriate for that day.

After a greeting, taking a few minutes for students to self-reflect is a powerful and beneficial exercise. I even do it myself, too! I ask the class to do the following:
Think about one thing you did well yesterday. Think about one thing you can do better today.
Sometimes we share our reflections, while other times we do not. Again, that depends on timing. However, I generally select up to 3 people to quickly share. When students are sharing, I encourage them to share their answers using complete sentences. I try to sneak in academic lessons and modeling into our morning meeting as often as possible! I find that the more students practice speaking properly and in complete sentences, the more it will become normalized and also translate to their writing.

4. Discussions & Share

After students take a moment to reflect and plan for the day, it's time for a class discussion.

I have monthly sets of discussion questions that I use for this portion of the morning meeting. I select one question from the month's set and display it on the smartboard.

These questions cover a range of topics. Some days they are silly or fun, while others they are more purposeful or serious. The discussion part of morning meetings is when I often teach or discuss character education, making smart choices, work habits, or sometimes even review academic content.

After students are presented with the daily discussion prompt , they turn and talk to discuss their responses. While students are talking, I walk around and listen and perhaps chime in, if appropriate or necessary.

After a few minutes, or when conversations start to die down, I select just a few students to share with the class if they choose. I find it important to have students turn and talk during the discussion so that even if they are not selected to share with the entire class, they still had an opportunity to share their thoughts with a partner.

Because this discussion time is a chance for growing and learning, some days it may need to be longer than others. If I know the discussion is going to be an important and long one, I select a greeting and activity that is on the faster side.

5. Morning Meetings Games and/or Activities

Last up is arguably one of the most anticipated parts of a morning meeting. Students love playing games. A lot of the morning meeting games and activities require students to work together with their peers. As a result, they are practicing important social skills. Additionally, playing a game in the morning gets students excited and often puts them in a good mood. Now, isn't that a great way to start off the day?

Again, just like the greetings and discussions, some games or activities are simpler, while others are more complex and time consuming than others.

Twenty-One is ALWAYS a class favorite every year.

How Much Time Should I Block Off for a Morning Meeting Every Day?

My district has dedicated ten minutes every morning to hold a morning meeting. However, I would say that on average, our meetings typically range anywhere from 10-20 minutes. We aim to keep it under 10, but sometimes life happens.

If you have the time to host a 20 minute morning meeting, I say do it! Your students will appreciate it and you certainly won't regret it. I find that the extra time spent building that classroom community is totally worth it in the long run. On the other hand, if you only have 5-10 spare minutes, I still encourage you to give it a try. Just rotate through the different components of the morning meeting on different days. Something is better than nothing!

If you're planning to implement morning meetings in your classroom and are looking for resources to get you started, check out my Morning Meeting Bundle . It contains a set of Morning Meeting Greetings , Games and Activities , Daily Discussion prompts organized by month, and even Morning Meeting Assignment Slides .

Comment below with any questions you might have!

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Pin this to your favorite Pinterest boards so you can refer back to these morning meeting ideas whenever you need them!

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The Morning Meeting Blueprint for Upper Elementary Teachers - The Collaborative Class

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Do you want to know my favorite part of the school day? You guessed it, morning meeting! A morning meeting is a chance for the whole class to come together and learn in so many different ways. A daily morning meeting provides an opportunity to discuss important topics, improve teamwork and collaborative skills.

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Keeping Morning Meeting Greetings Fresh and Fun

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After doing many Morning Meetings, teachers often wonder how to keep the sense of comfortable routine while also varying the meetings enough to keep students (and adults) interested and engaged. Greetings can be especially important because they set the tone for the whole meeting-and the whole day.

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It's not just for the littlest ones.

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Play is central to how children learn: the way they form and explore friendships; the way they shape and test hypotheses; the way they make sense of their world. Much is known about the importance of play in children’s development, yet little empirical research has explored what it might mean to put play at the center of formal schooling. Playful learning involves more than games and fun activities—it entails activating a mindset where experiences are framed as occasions to be curious and creative, and where teachers and learners can experience joy and agency.  Since 2015, the Pedagogy of Play project, a research collaboration between Project Zero and the LEGO Foundation, has been working to redefine play and reimagine learning in schools, exploring three core questions: What does it mean to have a pedagogy of play and why is it important? What does playful learning look and feel like in classrooms and schools? How do educators set up the conditions where playful learning thrives?

Together with teacher-researcher partners, we are mapping the terrain of learning through play in early childhood, primary, and middle school settings. We began our research with the International School of Billund (ISB), in Denmark.  A school where the vision and philosophy are designed around play, ISB was fertile ground for exploring early questions about playful learning in schools. Our research with ISB inspired a working set of playful learning principles, practices, and tools; pictures of practice (ideas in action); and, the beginnings of a pedagogy of play framework.

Because learning through play is contextually determined—what playful learning means and how to nurture it differs from community to community and from school to school—we expanded our investigations to include cultural contexts beyond ISB. Our subsequent research with school communities in South Africa, United States, and Colombia, therefore, further explores how playful learning is shaped by local cultural dimensions, in the process helping schools understand their own vision of learning through play while contributing to a broad understanding of what playful learning looks like in diverse school settings.

The Pedagogy of Play project is in the final years of research, building towards a playful teaching and learning framework; accompanying tools to help administrators, teachers, and teacher educators; and a guide for a new approach to teacher research called Playful Participatory Practice (PPR) that we developed with ISB. As we continue to explore playful learning in more contexts, we will continue to develop culturally specific models of learning through play as well as a meta-model and research guide for schools to develop their own cultures of playful pedagogy. We invite you to check out our blog at popatplay.org, where we present some of our emergent ideas, share pictures of playful practice, and invite our colleagues to share their experiences with and thoughts about learning through play.

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With the goal of supporting educators in bringing more playful learning into their classrooms and schools, the Pedagogy of Play USA project conducted research in six schools in the Boston area in the Northeastern United States (U.S.). Considering the specific challenges and affordances of the local educational context, we examined what playful learning looks and feels like.

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Sarah Breckley's Move game: students form groups to duplicate a picture.

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Sarah Breckley's Move game: students form groups to duplicate a picture.

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So many possibilities, including just gaining familiarity with art, plus adding favorite movie shots etc.

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I had a blast at the 2018 MITTEN CI Conference ! I could be vlogging all day for months from the bucket of bounty I scammed while in Ann Arbor if it weren't for my day job and unwavering student loans. #DonorsChoose?

The first item I'd like to share was jacked from an amazing comprehensible input workshop entitled 'A Picture Prompts a Thousand Words'. Justin Slocum Bailey of IndwellingLanguage.com had so much to offer, as always, and I think I might have walked away with my new favorite Get Your Butts Moving Activity! It's hard to commit, but sometimes you just gotta follow your heart.

For my best explanation, just watch the game and PictureTalk video. For the technical stuff, which is just my way and can be changed, here ya go:
Before the Activity

1. I searched for cultural pictures and art that contained people or other living things. The pictures can be related to your current benchmarks and curriculum, or just go crazy with untargeted input. I selected a variety of pictures from different Spanish speaking countries, time periods, and artistic styles. The first, however, was a screengrab from Fortnite Battle Royale. We've gotta meet them where they're at! Or, as Justin Slocum Bailey would say, "It's disingenuous for teachers to tell students that we need to get to know other cultures, and then not let them get to know the students right next to them."

2. I created a Keynote presentation that alternated between slides with numbers and slides with pictures. If a picture had 5 people in it, the slide before the picture had the number of people needed in each group to prepare the students.

3. I selected some reggaeton music that shouldn't ever be translated. Looking back, that was a mistake. I need to make healthier choices.

4. I prepared myself for the PictureTalk after the activity which would use the same images. You could also prepare a MovieTalk while keeping all other variables the same. Just create screengrabs of the movie ahead of time, and students will be recreating poses of the characters they will soon meet.

During the Activity

1. We cleared some space. Deskless classroom teachers be like, "Check!"

2. I explained the rules of the game. These might change if you're just using this for a Brain Break, if you don't feel the need to make it a competition, or if you simply have a better way than everyone else for everything. Whatever.

1. Dance or walk in a circle to the music.

2. Form groups when a number appears on the screen. It's okay to have one larger or one smaller group.

3. Watch for a picture to appear.

4. Recreate the picture with your bodies.

5. Freeze when the music stops and stay frozen until you have been evaluated.

6. Remember how many points you have.

3. I danced with them, ran the presentation, counted down, paused the sound, gave points, and repeated.

4. We ended this activity with a PictureTalk using the same images and presentation, or perhaps I should say that we prepared for a PictureTalk with this activity... You do you.

Reflections

The kids really loved this activity, and entertainment value ranks high on my personal teaching philosophy list.

I noticed an increase in participation during the PictureTalk when paired with this community building experience. #SafetyFirst

I really need to get a presentation remote to change the slides; preferably one like Carol Gaab's!

We need to dance more.

Talking about Fortnite is the key to buy-in. Well, at least this for this semester.

I don't always need to teach an in-depth cultural unit with all to transfer some knowledge and appreciation. Cultural pop-ups are invariably valuable.

If you want some similar slides, grab them from my downloads page!

Have fun, and stay-tuned.

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I had a blast at the 2018 MITTEN CI Conference ! I could be vlogging all day for months from the bucket of bounty I scammed while in Ann Arbor if it weren't for my day job and unwavering student loans. #DonorsChoose?

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Sarah Breckley's games and other downloads

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Sarah Breckley's games and other downloads

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Breckley's Downloads - TCI Class Diaries

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Community-Building Ideas (general, not all about play)

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Community-Building Ideas (general, not all about play)

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Teachers have long known that feeling safe and secure in school helps students focus their energy on learning. And the research bears that out: A 2018 study found that when teachers deliberately foster a sense of belonging by greeting each student at the door of the class, they see "significant improvements in academic engaged time and reductions in disruptive behavior."

Edutopia covered that study last year, and we've shared many other ideas from teachers for ensuring that every student in the classroom feels like they belong.

Some of the activities below take less than five minutes. They're divided up among the grades, but many can apply across all of the years from kindergarten to 12th grade.

Elementary School

Shout-Outs: This is a quick way for students to celebrate each other for doing a job well or for attempting something difficult. Shout-outs can be incorporated at any point in a class. First-grade teacher Valerie Gallagher of Providence, Rhode Island, rings a chime when she wants to get the class's attention to ask who has a shout-out.

"It's not just me as the teacher saying, 'You're doing well'-it's a way for them to interact with each other and celebrate positivity," says Gallagher.

Friendly Fridays: Elizabeth Peterson, a fourth-grade teacher in Amesbury, Massachusetts, uses Friendly Fridays as a simple way for students to lift each other and themselves up. Peterson has her students write a friendly, anonymous note to a classmate, practice using positive self-talk, or use storytelling to give a peer a pep talk.

Sharing Acts of Kindness: Fifth-grade teacher Marissa King, of Tulsa, Oklahoma, shares two activities that encourage kindness. In the first, the teacher gives students secret kindness instructions, such as writing an anonymous note to a peer who is struggling in one of their classes.

The second activity revolves around noticing others' acts of kindness: When a student sees a peer tidying up in the classroom, for example, they can post a thank you note on a shared digital "kindness wall." Both activities coach students to be kind to their peers in the hope that they'll begin to practice kindness unprompted.

Middle School

Paper Tweets: To build community in her seventh-grade classroom, Jill Fletcher of Kapolei Middle School in Kapolei, Hawaii, created a bulletin board modeled on Twitter. Students use a template to create a profile, and they enlist at least three followers-a friend, an acquaintance, and someone they don't interact with much.
Courtesy of Jill Fletcher
When the class does this activity-which takes about 45 minutes to set up the first time-Fletcher has them respond to prompts about their current mood or new things happening in their lives, and then their followers respond.

Class Norms: Bobby Shaddox, a seventh-grade social studies teacher at King Middle School in Portland, Maine, has his students develop a set of norms for themselves-adjectives that describe them as a community of learners. Having students come up with their own norms creates "a pathway toward belonging for every single student in that class," says Dr. Pamela Cantor, founder of Turnaround for Children.

"Instead of a top-down list of rules that a teacher gives a class, these are words that we generated together," says Shaddox. "It helps us own the behavior in the classroom."

Group Salutes: A moment shared between two or more students at the beginning or end of an activity, a Group Salute is a teacher-prompted interaction that is a quick, low-prep way to cultivate community. The shared gesture can be physical-like a high five-or social-a teacher could ask students to express gratitude to their group members.

There's some interesting data supporting this idea: Researchers found that NBA teams whose players touch the most early in the season-high fives, fist bumps, etc.-had the best records later for the season.

High School

Morning Meetings: Morning meetings have long been a staple of elementary classrooms, but they can help students in all grades transition into class. Riverside School, a pre-K to 12th-grade school in Ahmedabad, India, uses a version of morning meetings at every grade level as "a pure relationship-building time." Bonding exercises led by teachers or students include physical or social and emotional activities, or discussions of sensitive topics like bullying.

Appreciation, Apology, Aha: As a quick, daily closing activity, students gather in a circle and share an appreciation of one of their peers, an apology, or a light bulb moment. The teacher models the activity by sharing and then asks for volunteers to speak.

"Those types of appreciations and community recognitions can go a long way toward building bonds," explains Aukeem Ballard, an educator with Summit Public Schools in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Rose and Thorn: At the start of class, the teacher and students take turns sharing one rose (something positive) and one thorn (something negative) each. The process takes about five minutes.

"A low-stakes thorn might be 'I feel tired.' Yet many students choose to share more personal items, like 'My thorn is that my dog is sick and I'm really worried about her,'" writes Alex Shevrin Venet, a former school leader at a trauma-informed high school.

Snowball Toss: Students anonymously write down one of their stressors on a piece of paper, crumple it up, gather in a circle, and throw their paper balls in a mock snowball fight. When that's done, they pick up a snowball and read it aloud.

"The idea is that we're moving around. We're able to have fun, laugh, scream, be loud, and then have that discussion about stress," says Marcus Moore, an advisory leader at Urban Prep School in Chicago.

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Teachers have long known that feeling safe and secure in school helps students focus their energy on learning. And the research bears that out: A 2018 study found that when teachers deliberately foster a sense of belonging by greeting each student at the door of the class, they see "significant improvements in academic engaged time and reductions in disruptive behavior."

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Mostly younger students

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Welcome to the world Language game center

Someday the dream is to make this into a searchable database for games, but for now, a list will have to do.  Some of the games that take longer to describe are links to other pages. While I describe all the games in English, I give the games very simple titles (with high frequency words where possible).  This make them easier to teach the kids.  My district is in the process of deciding what teachers are able to share online, if possible, I'll post pictures of students playing these games eventually.  Enjoy, let me know if you have some favorites to add!

My first job was as a babysitter, then a camp counsellor, then a research preschool in college (and a few years of waiting tables and working at Borders in between); then a teacher in a wide variety of ages and subjects for the last 12 years.  My point is that  I have played a lot of kid games over the years, the games below are among my favorite, and some that I feel are very meaningful for students. Many of the games are very simple, but I often find simple to be a good thing with young kids.  I hope these games will help you too!

More or Less (aka Secret Number)

Start with a pre-defined set of numbers (i.e. 1-10)

One person is “it” and writes one of the numbers down on a white board (or if you want them to practice  specific numbers, the teacher chooses the number).

A student raises their hand to guess the number.

If the guesser picks a number that is too high, the person that is ‘it’ says less.  If a guesser picks a number that is too low, the person that is ‘it’ says more.

When the number is guessed correctly, the person that guessed it is now it.

Extensions:  Start with vocabulary for just  the numbers and more or less.  Add in vocabulary words like “is it”, “it is”, “correct”, “not correct”, and other rejoinders (cool, oh no, etc.)

Ball Toss

Teacher says first number and tosses the ball to any student.

Student says next number and tosses ball back

This goes on until all students have had a chance (or until you reach a set number).

Extensions: After a bit of practice time the ball toss.  Ask students to beat their best time OR have a school wide competition.

Face Off

Students face each other in two rows, with an object in the middle (a chair, bin, etc)

Teacher makes two sets of vocabulary words or grammar phrases (numbers, and letters work well too).

Pass out one set to one team of students, and one set to the other team of students.  Each student gets at least one card (fast processors and heritage speakers are often willing to take more than one card).

The teacher calls out the target word, phrase, or number.

The person on each team with the matching card needs to be the first to hit the object in the middle to score a point for their team.

Extensions:  Put all the numbers, phrases, or vocabulary in a big pile on desks on each teams side.  The whole team looks for the number and then has to pick a runner to run it to the designated spot across the room.

Grudge Ball:

A fun general review game from Martina Bex (for all ages, but especially older students) in which the goal is to take points from the other teams.

To read more, check out Martina's blog here.

Touch the color:

Each, quick and good for beginners.  Just ask where is something ______ (fill in the color) students have to find an object in the room and touch it.  They can call out the color or say ‘here’ when they find it.

I Spy

Students describe an object (start with color, can add size, number, quantity, descriptive words, etc).  Other students have to guess the object, the one that gets it right goes next.

Where is it?

Hide or place objects around the room.

Describe what you are looking for “Where is?”

Have the students shout “here” or “I found it” or whatever variation reinforces your vocabulary or grammar phrase.

Extensions: Split the class into two teams.  Have 2 ‘finders’ (one from each team) leave the room so they can’t see where the object is hidden (I always pick a ‘guard’ to make sure their is no peaking). Hide the object in front of the rest of the class. The finders come back into the room.  Their team can guide them to the hidden object or objects using direction words, saying the color of what it is near, or using the words hot and cold (changes based on level of your students).

Mano Nerviosa

See link below for a great explanation:

http://spanishmama.com/mano-nerviosa-best-ever-counting-game/

Go Fish

Same as basic version except, add vocabulary “Do you have”, “I have” and “Take it”.

Where is your??

All students sit in a circle.  One student leaves the room or is blindfolded.  The teacher passes out a small object(s) (a button, etc) that can fit in students hands.  The students all close their hands and put them behind their backs.

The students chant the name of the missing person and ask them where their object is in the TL (Example:  Santa, Santa, where is your hat?  Dog, dog, where is your bone? etc)

The student comes back in and asks 3 students if they ‘have their’ object.  The student says in the TL, yes I have it OR no I don’t have it.

If the person guesses correctly they win, if they don’t the ‘hiders’ win.  Pick a new person to go in the hall. :

Fly Swatter

Get two clean fly swatters and a set of vocab words (I like to use my word wall).  Divide the class into two (to up to 4 teams, a fly swatter is needed for each team).  Call out the word in the L1, or in L2.  Students need to be the first to ‘swat’ the correct word to win a point for their team.

4 Corners

My other favorite TPRS/CI game.  Can be used for all subjects and all levels of students.

http://www.profepeplinski.com/profes-blog/4-corners-the-ci-game-for-most-any-subject

Unicornio Malo

One of my favorite games of all time.  Lots of CI, adapted from Martina Bex’s Mafia for elementary.  See link below for full details details.

http://www.profepeplinski.com/unicornio-malobad-unicorn.html

Charades (Act)

One student has a list of target vocabulary (I like to use this and the next game to review high frequency words when we haven’t used them in a while, or when students finish early).

The student with the list picks a word and acts it out without saying. The other students have to guess the word correctly in the TL. The student that guesses correctly goes next.

Extensions: play as a class, in teams, or if students get really good, the person with the list has to describe the word in Spanish without saying it and the others have to guess it.

Pictionary (Draw)

Same as above game, except the person draws the target word and the other students guess.​

​Giant Ball

One giant ball needed. I got mine on Amazon for under $10 a few years ago, and it still is going strong, despite lots of use. This game is similar to volleyball.

In my room I divide the room with a row of desks for the net.  Class is divided in half.

One side serves.  The other side tries to return it.  Play continues until one team (Team A for example) hits the ball onto the other team’s side (Team B in this example).

Team A gets a chance to answer a question (vocab, PQA, Grammar, story based, etc).  If Team A gets it correct they win the point.  If not, the other team has a chance to answer and steal the point (I say they spiked the ball back).

Extensions: For upper level students they can’t hit the ball unless they say a # (I have my students count sometimes).  OR they have to say a word in the TL to hit the ball.

Run

This is a game to play outside or in a gym. Pre-write answers to questions (could be anything) on giant posterboard.  Divide class into teams (4 to 6 per team is best).  Set up signs with answers at the opposite end of a field.  Have students face the answers in lines with their teams.  Teacher says the question, first to run across the field and tag the correct answer wins a point for their team. Team mates can shout out answers or encouraging words in the  target language.

Soccer

Same basic concept as “Run” except you write answers or pictures on smaller signs and can play it in a classroom.  Clear the room and use two chair with a bit of space between them as a goal.  Tape a piece of masking tape from the top of one chair to the other to make a goal.  Hang a few ‘answer’ signs from the tape. Divide the class into teams (one soccer ball per team needed (I use NIke soft ones in class so stray kicks don’t do damage to anyone/thing).  Teacher says the question, one soccer player from each team must kick the ball under the goal with the correct answer.

Duck, Duck, Goose

Students sit in a circle, one person is it, they walk around and tap the students on the head, and say duck, duck, duck till they tap the person they want to be it, then they say, ‘goose’.  BEFORE the goose stands up, the duck must ask them whatever question you want them to practice ( How are you? What are you like?  Do you want Pepsi or Coke?  Do you have a phone? etc).  After answering both students run around the circle. The first back to the spot is safe, the student left standing is ‘it’ and has to start over.  Students that are sitting in the circle can yell out encouragement in the TL.

I like/I don’t like - I want/I don’t want.  (AKA Shark and Fish).

Use whichever of these high frequency  targets you want to practice.  Have students stand in a line facing across the field.  Mark a line on each side of the field (I use cones) showing where students have to cross to be ‘safe’. Choose one student to be the shark.  The rest are fish.

The teacher (or student if they have had enough practice) makes I like or I want statements.  They can also say the reverse I don’t like, or I don’t want).  If the ‘fish’ agree with the statement (i.e. The shark said “I like chocolate.” they then must run across the field and the shark says ‘eat, eat, eat’ (an extra chance to practice the word) and tries to tag them.  Anyone tagged is now a shark, and does as the other shark does (only the ‘head shark’ or the teacher gets to make statements OR the teacher could choose different students to make the statement.

This game encourages students to get good at ‘ don’t want/ don’t like’ and where to place the ‘no’ quickly as saying the ‘opposite’ of their first statement forces all the ‘fish’ across the field.​

I like/I don’t like - I want/I don’t want- Classroom Version- (stolen from Sr. Wooly).​​

One person (usually the teacher) stands up and says an ‘I like’ or ‘I don’t like’ statement.  For example:  Me gusta chocolate.

Students stand up if they agree, stay seated if they don’t agree, or shrug their shoulders and lift up their hands if they don’t know.

This game is a great way to involve the students in the language before they are ready to produce their own language, and is high interest.  Students can make their own statements, or make ‘I don’t like’ statements once they have acquired the terms.

Spanish Snowballs- This game came about because I knew I had to find a way to play with the fake snowballs I had found in class.  I have come up with a few fun ways to use the snow in class.

Whenever we do the weather, I throw a snowball at the first person that says "it's snowing" in the TL, if it's actually true.

When it is snowing in the story we are telling, gently tossing the snowballs into the air while softly saying "it's snowing" in the TL is a coveted job.

Throw and Stop.   This is an easy and quick way to use the snowballs.  Students can throw snowballs at each other as they go around the room.  They must say the word 'throw' whenever they throw a ball.  They are only allowed to carry one snowball at a time.  When the teacher rings the bell everyone must stop (and say/yell (because lets be honest everyone is a bit worked up at this point) stop in the TL.  The teacher asks a question for example "Do you want a Coke or a Pepsi" to practice whatever you want to practice (this is only with grammar/vocabulary the students are ready to produce).  The students must ask and answer the question 3 times before they can throw the snowballs again.  I circulate and help as needed.  My favorite thing about this game is the most important rule: the teacher gets to throw all the snowballs before the students can start throwing. ;)  My students ALWAYS want to play this game.

A variation of the above game is Spanish Snowball Monster Tag. I play this one outside at fun run as you need a bit of space and it is loud, it is a good game to play at the start of the year when you trying to get the kids back into the habit of saying please, thanks, and you're welcome in the TL.  Set up a defined area of play (so nobody runs too far).  One person is the "Monster" (the teacher helps the monster).  The monster and the teacher are the only ones that get the snowballs.  They run around saying "throw" and hitting everyone else. When you are hit you have to freeze.  The only way to be not frozen is to yell out "please" in the target language.  A friend grabs your hand, but that makes the friend "stick " to you.  In order to be "free" you have to say "thank you" and your friend has to say "you're welcome" in the TL.   Of course you could change the words to anything.  This continues until you want to switch monsters.  I usually end Monster Tag with at least a few minutes of the other version as everyone wants to "throw" the snowballs.

No snowballs?  Although it is not great for paper use another fun variation of this game can be used when doing Spanish nicknames or getting to know a class.  Everyone must write "My name is _________" and their name in the TL on a small half sheet of paper.  Students crumple these half sheets of paper up and throw them around the room like snowballs.  When the teacher rings the bell, the students must pick up a piece of paper and pretend to be whoever's piece of paper they opened.  For example, a girl named "Sarah" might open "Tom's paper" she then has to introduce herself as Tom.  Students go around the room asking each other what their name is, and saying the name of the paper in their hand.  Their goal is to recover their own name.  When they encounter their own name they switch papers and sit down.  The person they traded with has to continue with the new name.

I've seen a variation of this game done with no snowballs and just handshakes.  In this version you introduce yourself with someone, and trade names in the process.  In the above example, Sarah, might say "Hi my name is Sarah, to Tom, and he would say "Hi, my name is Tom." to Sarah when they shook hands, but when they moved onto the next set of students, Tom would pretend to be Sarah, and Sarah would pretend to be Tom.  You let this continue for several minutes so students can't keep track of where their name has "gone" then you let them find it by asking what each person's name is, and having them say nice to meet you.

​
Running Dictation-

This is the game I am most excited to play this year, it comes from Martina Bex, who describes it best here: https://martinabex.com/2011/06/29/reconstruction-relay-race/

Comecocos-Cootie Catcher- Plug in whatever questions or high frequency words you want your students to practice.  Give directions as to how to cut out and fold these in the target language, and then let your students practice and play!  An empty free template I found many years ago online is here. Hand-clapping Games- Hand-clapping games are a simple but fun way to get your students practicing high-frequency vocabulary, to give them a brain break, and to connect with another culture.  Check out a video to some great games our virtual pen pals sent us from Spain (lyrics listed below)!  If you aren't a Spanish teacher try searching for games in your target language!

CHOCOLATE
Es un juego de palmas en el que juegan dos o más personas y consiste en cantar la canción
CHOCOLATE:
choco-choco
la-la,
choco-choco
te-te,
cho-co-la cho-co-te,
cho-co-la-te.
​Por cada palmada que des con tu compañero/a vas cantando, dos palmadas para choco-choco, otras dos para la-la,a continuación, haces una repetición de palmadas con choco-choco,lo mismo pero en vez de con palmas con la mano cerrada en forma de puño con te-te, ahora tres palmadas para cho-co-la, otras tres para cho-co-te y por último, una palmada para cada sílaba cho-co-la y para la sílaba "te" la mano cerrada en forma de puño.
PIKACHU
Pikachu
Pica por arriba
Pica por abajo
Pica por el lado
Pica por el otro
PI-KA-CHU (Piedra, papel, tijera)

DON FEDERICO
Don Federico perdió su cartera,
para casarse con una costurera,
la costurera perdió su dedal,
para casarse con un general.
El general perdió su espada,
para casarse con una bella dama,
la bella dama perdió su abanico,
para casarse con Don Federico.
Don Federico le dijo que no

NARANJITA
Naranjita se pasea por el medio el comedor,
no la mates cuchillo,
matala con tenedor
o rosa
color de mariposa
o azul
color de avestruz
o verde
color de apeste
​cristal azul

LA CALLE 24
​En la calle-lle-lle…
veinticuatro-tro-tro…
ha habido-do-do …
un asesinato-to-to,
una vieja-ja-ja…
mató a un gato-to-to…
con la punta-ta-ta…
del zapato-to-to…
pobre vieja-ja-ja…
pobre gato-to-to…
pobre punta-ta-ta…
del zapato-to-to

RING RING
Rin,rin.
Llaman a la puerta
Rin,rin
Yo no quiero abrir
Rin,rin Es la policía
Rin,rin
​Qué vienen a por ti

RING RING
Rin,rin.
Llaman a la puerta
Rin,rin
Yo no sé quién es
Rin,rin Es la policía
Rin,rin
​Qué vienen a por ti

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Someday the dream is to make this into a searchable database for games, but for now, a list will have to do. Some of the games that take longer to describe are links to other pages. While I...

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Media Literacy: not community-building exactly, but if we use these ideas when sharing information about immigration and political figures, we can help our students be better readers in any language. 

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Media Literacy: not community-building exactly, but if we use these ideas when sharing information about immigration and political figures, we can help our students be better readers in any language. 

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(Michele's private soapbox)

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It's news that's all too real: We're drowning in a stream of misinformation. The problem is so acute that the World Health Organization recently declared it an infodemic-a deliberate effort to spread misinformation, resulting in polarized public debate and amplified hate speech that threatens "long-term prospects for advancing democracy, human rights, and social cohesion," the organization warned in a 2020 release.

In classrooms across America, a generation of new readers-digital natives who spend more than seven hours online every day and gather information from social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube-are struggling to parse fact from fiction. In a 2016 study, for example, researchers gave middle school through college-age students 56 tasks-ranging from evaluating the trustworthiness of a source to distinguishing the difference between a news article and an opinion column. "Overall, young people's ability to reason about information on the internet can be summed up in one word: bleak," the researchers concluded.

For educators, teaching kids to be critical media consumers can feel like a daunting-and unfair-responsibility, given the unrelenting flow of information that kids are subjected to daily. Still, a number of states are exploring how to address media literacy in schools, and nonprofit organizations like the News Literacy Project offer news literacy training for educators.

A fundamental problem, says Sam Wineburg, a professor of education at Stanford and the lead researcher on the 2016 study, in an interview with Edutopia, is that typical approaches to teaching information literacy are often outdated. In a holdover from the days of traditional print news, we often teach a vertical analysis of information: closely reading an article to look for mistakes, dubious assertions, or inconsistencies. "We learn to think critically by paying close attention and reading thoroughly from top to bottom, thinking very carefully about what we're reading," says Wineburg, whose body of research over the last three decades has focused on how students judge the credibility of online information.

But poring over a text with a fine-toothed comb from start to finish is time-consuming and inefficient, and few readers are knowledgeable enough to suss out factual errors. Instead, Wineburg offers a simple, teachable strategy, drawing from what he calls the "virtuosos of the internet": professional fact-checkers.

In contrast to typical readers, fact-checkers move laterally rather than vertically, opening multiple browser tabs to validate claims and checking who is behind a site before continuing to read the initial page. They recognize that they're at a disadvantage if they stay within a website, so they cross-check information across many sites to get a second-or even a third, fourth, and fifth-opinion. It's a modern approach to identifying misinformation online that Wineburg says should be much more commonplace in schools.

Can Students Vet Information Like Experts?

In a 2022 study, Wineburg and his colleagues set out to determine whether they could teach kids to read laterally-like fact-checkers-and whether there would be a change in student skepticism about sources.

Using materials they developed at the Stanford History Education Group, they asked 499 high school students to evaluate information found online. In one activity, students assessed the credibility of minimumwage.com, a "site purporting to offer nonpartisan information about minimum wage policy." To get full credit, the students had to avoid being deceived by the site's superficial qualities-that it was a dot-org, referenced scientific studies, and claimed it was staffed by professionals with advanced degrees-and find information about the organization behind the site, any hidden motives or agendas, and any other sources that might challenge the site's claims.

Half of the students were given six 50-minute lessons in lateral reading, while the other half participated in their business-as-usual government classes. After a three-month period, both groups of students were tested on their ability to assess the credibility of a site, the accuracy of the information presented, and whether or not the claims made were supported by evidence. While students in the traditional government classes saw a modest gain of 25 percent, students who were taught the lateral reading strategy nearly doubled their scores, improving their eye for unreliable information by 71 percent.

"Students are bringing analog strategies to a medium that demands a digital way of evaluating information," Wineburg concludes. To keep up with today's ever-changing digital landscape, we need to adapt how we teach information and media literacy in schools.

A Different Way to Navigate the Web

At the heart of lateral reading is the idea that a single source of information should always be read with a critical eye. Instead of taking an article at face value, we should take a step back, says Wineburg, and think about the information it contains as part of a broader ecosystem of both reliable and unreliable sources: Is the claim corroborated by any other sources? Are we looking at firsthand accounts, or does the information originate elsewhere? What is the site's reputation?

Media bias and reliability charts can help readers quickly identify where a major publisher lies on the political divide and how accurate its reporting is-from Slate and The New York Times to The Economist and The Wall Street Journal to Breitbart News-while fact-checking sites like PolitiFact.com, FactCheck.org, and The Washington Post Fact Checker can be used to help quickly verify a claim.

Developing a list of reputable sites and cultivating a skeptical mindset in students-information should be considered dubious until verified-should be central to how students vet information they read online. Meanwhile, a quick scan for spelling or grammatical errors, sensational claims that sound too good to be true, and overtly political perspectives and single-source reporting, along with Google searches about the site itself, can also help students identify possible misinformation on an unknown webpage.

While researching, students shouldn't spend too much time on any one site, Wineburg asserts. Unlike many readers, expert fact-checkers are adept at ignoring information while looking for answers; they almost immediately leave the site of the original claim and move laterally across the computer screen as they open new web pages. They assume that information is low-quality until fundamental questions are answered: Does a quick search on Google yield information about a website or news article that will help me gauge its trustworthiness? Have journalists investigated the site in question and uncovered a flow of funds from organizations that have a hidden agenda? Are the website's claims confirmed by reputable sites in the cascading tabs?

Getting Started in the Classroom

Here are five tips for setting kids up to succeed at lateral reading, drawn from our own research and Wineburg's work-and there are more on the Stanford History Education Group's website.

1. Guide students with probing questions. U.S. history teacher Will Colglazier, who is part of the Stanford History Education Group team, launches a lesson on lateral reading by asking his students to answer three key questions when assessing the credibility of a website:

Who is behind the information? Students should investigate the people making the claims and how their motives could influence what is presented and suppressed.

What is the actual evidence for the claim? Claims often appear to be scientific or based on evidence; when students gather and assess the actual evidence, does it still add up?

What do other sources say? Students should corroborate claims and verify information with other sources, such as experts, scholarly journals, and reputable news sites.

2. It's OK to use Wikipedia. Students are often told, "Don't go to Wikipedia," says Wineburg. Yet "one of the first things fact-checkers did was go to Wikipedia and use it as a jumping-off point, as a portal to more authoritative sources," he says. In fact, reading a Wikipedia article "can provide students with an opportunity to learn about peer review, sourcing, footnotes, and internet research," explains Benjamin Barbour, a high school history and government teacher in Fairview, Pennsylvania.

Meanwhile, it's a myth that anyone can change what's written on a Wikipedia page. Try changing Donald Trump's Wikipedia page, says Wineburg. "Unless you are the highest-badge Wikipedian, you're not going to be able to touch that page."

3. Work on productive skimming. "You don't have to read everything on a particular website to make a decision," says Wineburg. It's difficult, if not impossible, to spot misinformation on the basis of the original source's claim. Instead, get a quick sense of the content by scanning the page, and then do a Google search and open more sites to see if the information is supported by other sources. Come back to your original page for deeper reading after assessing the claims more broadly.

4. Don't be fooled by appearances. Twenty years ago, creating a professional website was costly; a poorly designed site peppered with spelling errors, clip art, and inconsistent formatting was often a red flag. Today, however, slick websites are more attainable and affordable. Just because a site looks professional doesn't mean it's trustworthy.

Similarly, it's easier than ever to purchase .org and .com domain names, and using those suffixes to determine a site's reliability is a mistake that students often make.

5. Create a list of go-to sources. Engage in a conversation with students about how to develop a roster of reputable, go-to sites-trusted resources from across the political spectrum from The Wall Street Journal to The New York Times, government agencies such as the FDA and the EPA, and independent research organizations like the National Science Foundation and NASA, for example. As part of the conversation, talk about bad-faith outliers on both sides of the political divide, like Daily Kos and Breitbart News, and explain why relying on reputable, well-established publications is a critical part of smart media literacy.

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What Fact-Checkers Know About Media Literacy-and Students Should, Too

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It's news that's all too real: We're drowning in a stream of misinformation. The problem is so acute that the World Health Organization recently declared it an infodemic-a deliberate effort to spread misinformation, resulting in polarized public debate and amplified hate speech that threatens "long-term prospects for advancing democracy, human rights, and social cohesion," the organization warned in a 2020 release.

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Numbers, animals, whatever you need to "Get 'em moving!"

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Loading up my little darlings with Comprehensible Input

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I heard once, "if their bum is numb, so is their brain". I don't know who said it or when (it was a loooooong time ago) but it stuck with me. (My husband just suggested a new saying "if their bum is numb, their brain is dumb" Same idea, anyway.) Here are some of my favorite ways to move them around and wake them up!
Muévete si.... Move if...
It's easy and requires no prep at all. ( Score!) I usually use this between activities to pep them up. Teacher says Move if you have two sisters....five, four, three, two, one or Move if you're really tired right now....five, four, three, two, one or Move if you love eating In n Out hamburgers...five, four, three, two, one. You get the picture... Students listen to the statement, and move to an empty chair if it applies to them. Remember to speak slowly and use words they know. I count down from five to one pretty quickly just to add to the general sense of panic and pandemonium. It's more fun that way. Ba ha ha ha!
Animal Partners
Sometimes I just want to move them around and keep moving with my lesson, so I'll tell them to take out their Animal Partner Sheet and sit with their kangaroo buddy. Huh? What? Kangaroo buddy? It gets everyone out of their seat, mixes them up, and then we continue with my plan.

Number Duel: Students pair up and stand back to back. Both choose a number between 1-5 and hold up that number. They count to three and face each other, showing the other one the number they're holding up. Then they race each other to add both numbers and say it in Spanish. (So if one student is holding up 2 fingers, and the partner holds up five fingers, they race to say siete). Then they turn around and play again. After they get good at it, I change it tens. So, each finger is worth ten instead of one (so 3 fingers is 30). After they get good at tens, then we play by hundreds (5 fingers is 500). This one is a fun and easy break between activities, or great to fill in the last few minutes before the bell rings.
Chants, songs and pattycakes
I teach my students a LOT of songs. It's funny because I have a really awful voice. Really, really bad. Actually, I didn't know that my colleagues knew that I had such a bad voice (because I only sing in front of my students) until just recently. One of my dear teacher friends commented that she can tell which of her students had my class the year before because they sing off key. You guys: my students sing off key because I teach them songs off key. I can't help it. It sounds good in my head, honest. When my kids start to get drowsy, my first line of defense is to make them stand and sing. Here are a few of our favorites; I've given you the lyrics to project and videos so you can see the motions. (And also because secretly I am hoping become a YouTube singing sensation. Just like Justin Bieber. Well, not just like Justin, but you know). And just to be clear, I didn't make up any of these!

This one is challenging and my high schoolers especially love it. The Amazing and Talented Rita Barrett taught me this one years ago and it's just so much fun!

Lyrics: Con el ritmo de los pies Video: Con el ritmo de los pies

Lyrics: Cinco elefantitos Video: Cinco elefantitos

Remember "Who stole the cookies from the cookie jar?" This is the Spanish equivalent.

Lyrics: ¿Quién robó pan en la casa... Video: ¿Quién robó pan en la casa...?

I can't remember where I learned this one; I've been teaching it since the dawn of time.

Lyrics: Izquierda Derecha Video: Izquierda Derecha

It always surprises me how much my high schoolers get into doing juegos de manos, even the boys! I don't have any videos of my students doing these, but these are the ones I teach my kiddos throughout the year. It works wonders to wake them up, but I avoid these during flu season....all the hand slapping germ swapping ....gross....

Lyrics: Las vocales Video: Las vocales

Lyrics: Marinero se fue a la mar Video: Marinero se fue a la mar

Lyrics: Dos policías Video: Dos policías

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I heard once, "if their bum is numb, so is their brain". I don't know who said it or when (it was a loooooong time ago) but it stuck with me. (My husband just suggested a new saying "if their bum is numb, their brain is dumb" Same idea, anyway.)

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I sent a slideshow out to parents to add pictures with their children. Then we could talk about it for weeks, comparing, sharing, building community.

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See #1. I asked young children's parents to send me slides, and then I asked older students to contribute to a slide show to use this wonderful idea as a way to start introducing students from the beginning of the year. 

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See #1. I asked young children's parents to send me slides, and then I asked older students to contribute to a slide show to use this wonderful idea as a way to start introducing students from the beginning of the year. 

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It's closing in on 2 months since I wrote my last post and now it's closing in on the beginning of school. The opening day of school for me is less than a month away and thoughts of planning for a new group of students are more frequent. In particular, my thoughts are on the first day of school.

The list below has some ideas I used in the past, some I found on Pinterest, and from blogs. A few are ready to go as listed, and others will need changed depending on which level it is used. The goal is to provide comprehensible input in the target language, even on, or better said, especially on, the first day of school!

Reminder: If the activity requires output in the target language, I suggest to dismiss it for beginning levels, or tweak it and/or provide the scaffolding needed to make it level appropriate.

1. 2. I used Summer photos.
Last year before school started, I emailed my Spanish 4 students and asked them to send me a photo of something they did during the summer. I put the photos in a powerpoint and our discussion was based on the photos. It helped the students, and me, to learn about their classmates. This year I may create a Google presentation and share it with the students which will allow them to add their pictures on the presentation. (Work smarter, not harder, right?)
A Story!
this activity in the past for the first day of class (semester class that started in January) with students that had no exposure to the past tense before. They had 70 minutes of comprehensible input of the past tense and left class feeling confident that learning does happen when the language is delivered in storytelling format.

3. Schools around the world.
Why not spend the first day of school talking about what your school has in common with other schools around the world? for a powerpoint of photos of schools around the world, or is another option. The photos will help to keep the questions and discussion comprehensible.

4. 5. Mafalda: Primer día de escuela
Dive right in and start the school year with a MovieTalk activity. Click for the 45 second video about Mafalda's first day of school. When I use this video I'll ask them about walking to school with their parents (more like did their parent drive them to school) and if the floors in the hallway were filled with charcos (puddles) from all the students crying. HaHa - this should be a fun discussion!
Personal word Clouds.

This isn't suitable for beginners, but is another type of get-to-know-your- classmates activity that is suitable for levels 2 or higher. Choose your favorite word cloud site and fill it with words that describe you, activities you like, or places you have been. After the students see the teacher's model word cloud, give them the assignment to make their own, but not to include their name. (My suggestion is not to have the students make this in class, but rather give students 1-2 days to complete the activity.)

After the students have submitted their word cloud, you can choose several (2-3) to show to the class each day. Students will guess which of their classmates made the word cloud and then continue the discussion about the student. This will provide you with more than a week of student-centered topics to set the foundation of a student-centered classroom.

If you haven't added the Pic Collage app to your devices yet, then wait no longer! The app is user-friendly and I continue to find more classroom uses for it.

This activity is similar to the Personal Word Clouds listed above, but instead of words, students will make a photo collage. Students can use photos from the app or their own photos, as long as it doesn't include people in the photos that will give away who made the collage. These collages can be printed out to put around the room, or put on a powerpoint or Google presentation. Lead the discussion around the pic collages and the students' interests.

(If you want to keep it uniform, set guidelines such as: include x no. of photos, 1 should be of an activity, 1 of your favorite food, etc.) 7. 8.
The TOP 10 List.
I did this activity several times in the past with my upper level classes. I give them large sheets of paper and tell them to make a TOP 10 LIST of reasons to learn Spanish. I encourage them to use their imagination and make them funny, and they have never failed to disappoint me.
Below are more ideas that I found on Pinterest:

Most students are going to be excited about getting chocolate candies on the first day of school, or from my experience, getting chocolate on ANY school day is memorable for them. M&M game!

The blog post found , explains the M&M game. It's not a beginning level activity for a second language class because it requires output, but higher levels will enjoy it.

9. The Name Game
The teachers from the Creative Language Class blog describe how to use the on the first day, even with level 1 students.

10. Memorias de un verano maravilloso
A Pinterest find. Click for a free download that students can sketch or write their answers.

Also check out:

- Show what you know (from the Creative Language Class)

- What does this make you think about? (from Martina Bex)

- - Cognate Practice (from the Creative Language Class)

Todo Sobre de Mí (from Carolina Gómez)

- Getting to know you grid (from Methods and Materials for WL Teachers)

Do you have a favorite activity for your first day of class or are you planning something new that you would like to share? I'm sure there are other great ideas that I overlooked.

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10 First Day of School Ideas for the MFL Classroom

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It's closing in on 2 months since I wrote my last post and now it's closing in on the beginning of school. The opening day of school for me is less than a month away and thoughts of planning for a new group of students are more frequent.

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Supportive research here too.

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Prompting students to use physical gestures like high fives in the classroom helps build a sense of community.

All good teachers strive to build a sense of community in their classrooms, and they know from experience that creating and strengthening bonds between students isn't a one-time event. In the real world and in school, fellowship and mutual respect among peers are fostered-or frayed-over days and months, not during the first week.

Because class time is precious and passes too quickly, strategies that leverage small moments in instruction have great potential for helping students gel as a community.

Group Salutes

One quick, low-prep, high-impact approach to cultivating community is something we call Group Salutes. A salute is a gesture of recognition or respect when people meet or say goodbye. In the classroom, a Group Salute is a teacher-prompted social or physical gesture shared between two or more students at the beginning or end of an interaction. Group Salutes can be used with students of all ages, including ones who are shy or struggle with social skills, and English language learners.

At the outset of an interaction, Group Salutes help break the ice and lead students to connect in a non-academic way. At or toward the end of a dialogue or task, they provide a sense of closure or accomplishment.

Opening Group Salutes

Have students introduce themselves: "Tell your partner your first, middle, and last name" or "Share your birthday with the group."

Ask them to share favorites: "Before starting, share your favorite ice cream flavor" or "To begin, tell your group mates how spicy you like your salsa."

Give them options to choose from: "Rainy days-thumbs up or down?" or "Poll your group: pizza or tacos?"

Closing Group Salutes

Remind them to say goodbye: "Say, 'See ya real soon!'" or "Say goodbye in [another language]. Here's how: ________."

Ask them to express gratitude: "Finish by saying, 'Thank you for working with me.'"

Have them wrap up the lesson: Have group leaders end a discussion with "So, in summary, we think _____."

Invite them to celebrate: "Whisper to your team, 'We did it!'" or "Turn to your partner and say, 'Good job, partner!'"

Group Salutes can also involve physical interactions such as handshakes, fist bumps, one- or two-handed high fives or low fives, or hand claps. Variations that don't involve contact include an actual salute, a wave, or a quick individual dance move ("When you're done, face each other and dab or floss").

Combining oral and physical responses works too. For instance, ask students to huddle up and put their hands in the middle, like a sports team, and repeat a phrase or chant. Or say, "Raise your pen or pencil in the air" and follow with a teacher- or student-led toast. Teachers should use prompts that make sense with their own and their students' personalities.

Benefits of Group Salutes

Group Salutes are not simply clear signals for starting and stopping activities-they're a subtle and effective strategy for teaching students how to exercise courtesy, be cordial, and use good manners. In fact, the Latin root of salutation, salutare, means to "pay one's respects to," which is essentially what the teacher is asking students to do through words and gestures.

Evidence from real-world situations suggests that Group Salutes can contribute to team success. A study produced by the University of California, Berkeley, found that the NBA teams whose players touched the most (via high fives, fist bumps, etc.) in an early-season game had the best records for the season. The researchers attributed this to the increased trust, goodwill, and camaraderie experienced by the players.

And Google's Project Aristotle found that the company's most successful teams were those with a sense of psychological safety-those whose team members trusted one another enough to take risks without fear of judgment. In the classroom, Group Salutes are a concrete step toward establishing that kind of trust.

We're not suggesting that every interaction between students should involve a Group Salute. Students of all ages appreciate a balance of predictable and novel routines. Responding to the same social or physical cues day in and day out can get stale or feel robotic.

For that reason, consider using Group Salutes frequently with tasks that involve short interactions in the beginning of the school year; later on you can reserve them for tasks that involve more sustained or in-depth peer interaction or collaboration. Or do the opposite: Use Group Salutes sparingly at the beginning of the year and ramp up to launching or closing most quick connections (turn and talks, or Think-Pair-Shares) with them.

We recommend keeping Group Salutes brief, fresh, and age-appropriate. This might involve giving a time limit ("You have 10 seconds each to share whether you've seen and liked any Star Wars movies"), asking students to contribute ideas for prompts, or having a volunteer tell the class what to do or say.

The long-term goal is for students to use Group Salutes on their own, without prompting. When they transfer the underlying social and affective skills to their everyday interactions, we can be confident that we're building a community.

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Prompting students to use physical gestures like high fives in the classroom helps build a sense of community.

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Bryce Hedstrom - Comprehensible Input Materials & Training

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Special Person Interviews

For hands-on training and demonstrations, ask Bryce about his new Special Person Workshop, with a free accompanying handbook for all participants. Remote or in-person training is available.

Read Bryce's blogs about Special Person interviews here.

Because many examples are from lower levels, teachers of upper levels often understandably wonder if Persona Especial interviews work in levels 3, 4, and 5. This interview with a non-native student named Jayme in a level 3 class will help to answer that. Read this article to see how Special Person interviews work in upper-level classes: QUESTION-DRIVEN GRAMMAR IN SPECIAL PERSON INTERVIEWS: Jayme

This is how to do Special Person interviews in levels 3, 4 & 5 - and keep them going. This is a chapter from Bryce's forthcoming book on how to launch the interpersonal mode with Persona Especial student interviews. Special Person Interviews in Upper Levels
Steps of the Process Chart for Special Person Interviews

1. Ask a Question... and then Follow-Up. If the student shows any enthusiasm in the answer, continue to ask a series of follow-up questions.

2. "Report Back" to the Class (Repeat steps 1 & 2 as long as the interest lasts. Mojo is king.)

3. Verify Information with the interviewee: "So you're saying that..." "Let me get this straight..."

4. Check for Understanding with the class: "What do we know about this person, class?"

5. Students Write Notes about the interview for themselves. Pairing with another student helps. In rowdy classes or with younger students, have them write what you "report" in step #2.

6. Quiz: Students write sentences in the target language about the interview (no notes).

Teaching World Language like Socrates This is a chapter from my forthcoming book on how to do Special Person/Persona Especial student interviews.

Here are the results of Persona Especial Interviews after less than 2 months in a Spanish 1 class. Students were able to manipulate the language and confidently engage in conversation for almost an hour (!) with the student teacher, who masterfully answer with interesting comprehensible input: STUDENTS INTERVIEW THE STUDENT TEACHER

Here's what we're trying to accomplish: Real connections and deep, lasting attitude & behavior changes, while acquiring useful interpersonal language.

Real Students + Real Language + Real Interest = Real Acquisition

STUDENT-CENTERED LEARNING

"Special Person" student interviews are the very definition of student-centered learning. In this ongoing classroom interview activity/method, we focus on the students and ask them questions about their lives, their interests and their goals. And it works with ALL levels.

A common definition of student-centered learning is that it "... puts students' interests first. It acknowledges student voice as central to the learning experience and allows students to choose what they will learn, how they will learn, and how they will assess their own learning."

This is precisely what we do with personal interviews: We interview each student in the target language and the interviews grow in depth and complexity as the students grow in language ability. Students choose what they will share and the direction of the interview by their responses. We also quiz the students regularly on what they know about their classmates to help them maintain focus and raise their level of concern just a bit.

SPECIAL PERSON QUESTION POSTERS

IN 12 LANGUAGES:

"Special Person" posters with student interview questions and sentence starter answers are available in several languages below. These questions can help provide a format to help you to begin this fantastically engaging activity/method with your students.
Arabic Special Person Thanks to Ashley Fredrick, of Fort Dodge, Iowa, for the translation.
Mandarin Chinese:
Chinese Special Person CLASSROOM POSTER 1
Chinese Special Person CLASSROOM POSTER 2
Thanks to Jian Li, of Dallas, Texas for these translations.

French:
LA PERSONNE PRECIEUSE CLASSROOM POSTER IN FRENCH
Thanks to Carrie Ely from Lee, Massachusetts and Anna Gilcher in Cameroon for these.

German:
Superstar - Eine spezielle Person German PowerPoint
Superstar Interviewfragen-1 German
Thanks to Ulrike "Ulla" Seckler for creating and sharing these German Special Person Interview materials.
Ho Chunk Special Person Thanks to Shena Munden, of the Ho-Chunk nation in Wisconsin, for the translation of the questions and adapting them to Ho-Chunk culture. This is worth looking at even if you don't speak Ho-Chunk.
Latin:
Here is a link to the questions in Latin that I use in my classroom, theDISCIPVLVS ILLVSTRIS.
Thanks to Lance Piantaggini for the modeling in Latin here. Visit his website, magisterp.com, for more Latin C.I. musings and graded readers in Latin.

Russian:
"OUR STAR" PERSONAL INTERVIEW IN RUSSIAN
Thanks to Michele Whaley for the language, and Don Read for the formatting on this labor-intensive PowerPoint for the Russian classroom. Follow Michele's outstanding Comprehensible Input blog .
LA PERSONA ESPECIAL CLASSROOM POSTER 2 Here are student interview posters with graphics in Spanish for young students: Persona Especial Posters for Elementary Students by Amy Roe of The Storyteller's Corner.
MORE SPECIAL PERSON ARTICLES & EXAMPLES

Focusing on a student and asking the right kind of questions to bring out her personality and make her shine like never before is a skill that can be developed. This article, I explain how to put the focus on the students and make them the star as you do personal interviews in your classroom: Make Any Student The Most Interesting Person in The Room

RECENT USEFUL WORDS-POSTERS Some teachers find it useful to record the words used in interviews. This is a list I used one year. One interesting thing about it is that the list is finite. The upper limit of core daily vocabulary in most communities is usually no more than 300 or so words. With that amount of vocabulary, students can talk about almost any aspect of their lives on up to the Intermediate-Mid level of proficiency. But writing a list like this is not necessary. These words come up often enough in interviews that most students will get them.

Here is a format for a Special Person Quiz. They can write as many sentences as they like, but the grade is cut off at 25 sentences. No one can get more than 100%, because too many students were getting 200% (not the worst problem to have for a teacher1). Special Person Quiz Form

Engaging Students With LA PERSONA ESPECIAL. Special Person is a popular and successful activity in my classes that starts on day 1 of level 1 and continues for the rest of the year, and even to succeeding years in upper levels. It is a structured way of getting to know one anther in the target language. It's using real language and real interest in real people. And the result is real acquisition.

Here are some examples of using Special Person interviews with the present perfect verb form-sometimes thought of as grammar for a higher level class. If it is comprehensible and interesting it can work: Special Person with Traditional Upper Levels

Some Pig! This is a summary of a Person Especial interview that generated enormous engagement with students. A shy girl got to talking about her pet pig. We had no idea...
WEEKEND CHAT POSTERS (SPANISH)

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For hands-on training and demonstrations, ask Bryce about his new Special Person Workshop, with a free accompanying handbook for all participants. Remote or in-person training is available. Read Bryce's blogs about Special Person interviews here. Because many examples are from lower levels, teachers of upper levels often understandably

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Ashley's spreadsheet of even more activities: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13hElE6I7J_5ZWJcLg_cEsnsazs7PnWg47DtYN6GZQBQ/edit#gid=0

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Sometimes you just need a chance to turn off the screens and unplug your students for a bit! Check out these no tech review games for Spanish class to practice and reinforce the skills your students have been working on!

These options are a variety of low prep and a bit more set up, individual, small group, and whole class review games for you to choose from!

¡Corre en Círculos!

¡Corre en Círculos! is great for vocabulary, grammar, reading, and writing skills. It's an individual or small group practice activity. Click here to learn how to play!

The Unfair Game

The Unfair Game is a whole class review game that is great for after a story or novel, vocabulary, or grammar.

El Toro Review Game for Spanish Class

El Toro is a fast-paced verb trading game for a small group of students! You can use it to practice any set of verbs you've been working on with your students! Click here to learn how to play.

¡Mi Lápiz!

¡Mi Lápiz! is one of my all time favorite review games. It's perfect for pairs or small groups and there's almost zero prep, but it's so fun!

Stations

Stations are a great tool to use, keep students moving, and provide a lot of opportunities to practice! I love to include a station for reading, writing, speaking, and listening!

Running Dictation

Running Dictation is basically a way to do a dictation that incorporates teamwork and movement! It can be done in pairs or small groups (of 3) and practices reading, writing, speaking, and listening!

Reverse Running Dictation

Similar to Running Dictation - movement, reading, listening, speaking, and writing, but with a small twist! Click here to learn more!

Partner Matamoscas

Partner Matamasocas is often used for listening & vocabulary, but it can be great for recalling a story and checking comprehension!

No Tech Review Games for Spanish Class

What other review games do you like to play with your classes? Which is your favorite? Comment below and let me know!

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No Tech Review Games for Spanish Class - Srta Spanish

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Sometimes you just need a chance to turn off the screens and unplug your students for a bit! Check out these no tech review games for Spanish class to practice and reinforce the skills your students have been working on!

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I have to start by saying sorry (not sorry) that once you introduce this activity to your students they will ask to do it all the time.

This activity is all about students listening intently and reacting to what they hear.

No prep involved. Just grab an object, like a ball, and you're ready to go.

I call this activity Sauter or Saltar. in the target language that you teach.

Pick a topic category. Any category. Any proficiency level. Here are some possible topic categories:

The entire class stands in a circle. If there is not enough room in the classroom, maybe take a trip outside.

Tell students the topic they are listening for.

The teacher tosses the ball to any student and says a word, phrase or sentence.

If the word, phrase or sentence is on the chosen topic, the 2 students next to the student who catches the ball jum p. The one who jumps first stays in. The other sits down and is out. There are often ties. [example:category is "days" and teacher says "Monday"]

If the word, phrase or sentence is NOT on the topi, the 2 students next to the student who catches the ball DON'T jump. If they jump they sit and are out. [example:category is "days" and teacher says "July"]

Continue tossing the ball to random students around the circle.

The same rules apply. Keep in mind that...

If the word, phrase or sentence is on the topic the 2 closest students still standing to the left and right of the student who catches the ball jump. The one who jumps first stays in. The other sits down an is out. [example:category is "past tense" and you say "I went to the store."]

If the word, phrase or sentence is NOT on the topic, the 2 closest students still standing to the left and right of the student who catches the ball DON'T jump. If they jump they sit and are out. [example:category is "past tense" and you say "I go to the store."]

When there are only two students remaining the ball is not tossed.

The teacher says a list of words, phrases or sentences that may or not be on topic.

The first of the two remaining students to jump when they hear the word, phrase or sentence that fits the category wins the game.

Once you have played this a few times and students have the hang of it you can choose students to be the one to give the prompts in the middle of the circle. It may be the winner from the previous round.

This activity works well as a class starter, closer or as a brain break at any time. It's also useful for quickly reviewing vocabulary themes before diving into a discussion or follow-up activity.

This entry was posted in Activities and Games, Classroom Procedures, Listening and tagged ACTFL, activity, french, french teacher, language, language learning, language teaching, spanish, spanish teacher. Bookmark the permalink.

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No Prep Listening Activity for the Whole Class (Jump)

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I have to start by saying sorry (not sorry) that once you introduce this activity to your students they will ask to do it all the time. This activity is all about students listening intently and reacting to what they hear. No prep involved. Just grab an object, like a ball, and you're ready to...

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Brilliant way to corral the dice!!

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¡Mi Lápiz! is a review game known by many names. Some people simply call it, "The Dice Game", others call it "¡Seis!", or "Surrender in Seis". I realized that what my students tended to say most when they were playing was something along the lines of, "MY PENCIL", so I decided to try changing the name to match, and now that's all you hear! I first learned of this game from a someone had posted on one of my social media feeds, and I just had to try it! There's almost ZERO set-up, but the engagement is huge! Youtube video

Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

Not a need, but a want..

Not a need, but definitely nice to have are little containers for the dice to go in!

Just portion the dice out into containers like or , and POOF! The dice no longer escape from desktops and roll all over the floors! It's a life saver! I have a set very similar to this one and while they were pretty cheap ($1/container), they've held up well for over five years!

The point of the game is to be the first to complete the sheet/set of questions correctly.

There is only one pencil, because only one person may write at a time.

Begin with the pencil in the middle. Take turns rolling the die. The first person to get a six gets to take the pencil and start writing.

Everyone else continues to roll. AS SOON AS someone else gets a six, they get to take the pencil and start writing.

That's it! Sometimes I will set this on a timer and only let them play for about 8 minutes, but we have played for 40 before and they were not happy about calling it quits when the bell rang!

If I can tell the game is dragging, or the excitement wavers for a moment, I'll throw a giant timer up on the board and let everyone work for a minute, then resume the game. Olivia Smith mentioned that she will add another number for more variation - say if they roll a 2 they get the pencil, BUT they have to write with their non-dominant hand!

A few more notes:

Remember, the first person to complete the sheet CORRECTLY wins - so as they finish, I check their answers and give them some feedback. Sometimes there's a huge upset because they worked too quickly and made a mistake, sacrificing valuable pencil time to the other player(s)!

I usually keep the worksheet length short - think around 15-30ish questions that are fill in the blank. Longer sentences are tough, because sometimes the pencil will get snatched out of their hands mid-sentence and they'll forget what they were doing!

Click here to pin this post for later!

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Low-Prep Review Game: ¡Mi Lápiz! - SRTA Spanish

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Looking for an engaging review activity, but don't want a lot of prep time? This game is perfect for any class, and any grade level! All you need is a pencil, some dice, and a worksheet or set of questions! Click to see how to play!

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They say it's all fun and games until someone pokes an eye out, which absolutely cannot happen with any of these games because your Little Darlings will be far away from nearby students! If you're teaching right now behind a mask and with your kiddos spaced 6 feet apart, here's a round up of some...

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Slideshow of games (don't know whose! Sorry!)

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Slideshow of games (don't know whose! Sorry!)

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Bill Langley asked the Twitterverse for favorite games

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Bill Langley asked the Twitterverse for favorite games

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We built Wakelet using the latest technologies to make it faster and easier to use. Unfortunately, your browser doesn't support those technologies.

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The best part: it's a video!

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As a FLES teacher, TPR is often my go-to Brain Break for my K, 1, and 2s. However, it's good for everyone to mix it up a little. There was a question in the "CI/TPRS for French Teachers" FB group about Brain Breaks for "circle time." Here are some of my favorites that don't require a lot of moving or shuffling around of kids and can have quick transitions.
Below the descriptions are a couple of videos during which I do all of the following Brain Breaks. Check out the time stamp for each one.
WARNING! I filmed these today, the day we came back from vacation, so the kids are SQUIRRELLY!! Not my best decision, but I was chomping at the bit to get this post out. I seriously debated on whether or not to publish the videos, but I decided, why not. Yes, there's a girl who pulled out an apple and started eating it in the second class. Yes, there are a boy and a girl who seem truly smitten with each other in the first class. Yes, a stuffed giraffe appears in the camera in the second class. I certainly felt at moments like the worst teacher out there. But I guess it's good to see the rough days as well as the home-run classes! We're all human, right?!

Tiens, voilà main droite (#1 1:50)
This is a hand-clapping game, easy to do in a circle and great for hand-eye coordination.
Aller-retour (#1 5:10)
Another hand-pattern game in partners. This is my take on the Spanish chocolate. I really like the words I chose in my French version (in French, aller-retour means "round trip").
Papier, caillou, ciseaux (#2 4:45)
There are soooo many variations of this, but here's the basic (kids playing in pairs against each other), and one alternative way (me "against" the class). Check our La Maestra Loca's blog for different versions of this.
(And can I just say it totally cracks me up when, at 6:30, one girl shouts, "Hey, I gagne!" and one of her classmates responds with, "You do NOT gagne!" Man, I love this age group!)
Dansez comme maîtresse (#2 0:38)
Silly!! This was actually the first time I've ever done this BB with this class, and I thought it went pretty well and didn't need a ton of introduction.
Animal movements/statue (#1 10:25, #2 10:10)
I ADORE this one! It's a great comprehension check as well.

There's one more I thought of that I forgot to film today: On ferme les yeux, on touche le nez​. Students close their eyes and try to touch their noses with one finger. We do it once with the left hand, and once with the right hand. It can get goofy, but it just serves as a little reset!

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As a FLES teacher, TPR is often my go-to Brain Break for my K, 1, and 2s. However, it's good for everyone to mix it up a little. There was a question in the "CI/TPRS for French Teachers" FB group...

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There's a set of no-tech games listed. Love them! Note that Quizlet Live is no longer free :-(

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Well, week one of school is behind me. Every Wednesday, I write out my plans for the next week so that I have my planning period on Thursday and Friday to get materials ready... This week, even planning just a couple days ahead was too early. This will be a year of pivots.

Heading into week 2: Highlight Real

Don't get me wrong, I FREQUENTLY change my plans around. We move in pace with how ready the class is to take the next steps! BUT... it was different this week. This week I erased in frustration. With myself...

I knew this year wasn't going to be normal. I knew we'd have some work to do to find out exactly where the kids are after the 18 months of chaos we've all been through. What I didn't realize was how mentally exhausted we all are.

The exhaustion comes from a lot of places. We've been through remote/hybrid/in person. We've been completely shut down. We've been in masks. Our community is at war OVER the masks. We have students who are Zooming in from quarantine. We have students who are sick with other stuff. Most of all, we're going full days for the first time in 18 months and it is exhausting physically at the beginning! That just adds another layer to our exhaustion cake!

Why did I erase it all?

Because we need mental health breaks. We need, every.single.day, to do something that is light and fun to synthesize the day's material. Last year we were able to learn in spite of so many hurdles and challenges but we lost a lot of the JOY we have had in my classroom. There just wasn't time for some of my favorite activities. So this year, they're coming back. With 15 activities, I can do one activity per day for 3 weeks and then recycle back through them!

Hope that you're able to make some of these work for your classroom environment!

Tech Based

1. Gimkit - There are so many different Gimkit games that you can go through a whole semester playing every three weeks and never play the same game. I keep the games proficiency based by asking questions related to the content of our lesson rather than just making vocabulary flashcards.

2. Blooket - There are many different Blooket options as well. You can play every 3 weeks and never play the same game in the semester! Just as with Gimkit, we do proficiency based question and answer types!

3. Kahoot - I love Kahoot for a fast, retro game. The kids have played it a million times but they still love it! We usually play three rounds of the same Kahoot to get lots of repeated exposure to our content.

4. Quizlet Live - One of my class favorites, this game lets them connect in groups to try to win. It goes fast but they always demand multiple rounds to try to win!

5. Charlala - I love using a Charlala drawroom. The new, paid, Charlala would be great if you plan to use it a lot. You get to open 10 free draw rooms and after that, you have to switch to the paid version. What I like about it is that you can type out lines from the story for students to illustrate. Then, charlala takes these illustrations and scrambles them and kids have to read all the sentences to decide what the drawing represents. BUT you can also just read sentences aloud and have all students illustrate them then select the best drawings. For me, the ability to just "wing it" is great when we get done a few minutes early and I haven't created a "set".

NO TECH

6. Jump the Line - This is an active way to adapt true or false questions. Have all students start out on one side of your "line" (I lay out a bunch of rulers end to end). If they believe the answer is true, they should hop to the other side of the line. If they believe it is false, they should not cross.

7. Grudgeball - This game is INSANELY fun. The kids get SO MAD but they love it. Use comprehension questions from your current unit to play.

8. The Unfair Game - Again, so unfair but SO MUCH FUN. All you need is a set of comprehension questions from any unit you are working in.

9. Marker Partner - Make a list of True/False questions. Break the class into two teams. Seat team A in a line and team B will line up each facing a player from team A. (If you have an "odd" player, have them rotate with the last player in line. Place a white board marker, standing upright, between each pair of students. Test run: Have both kids lean in toward the marker to make sure their heads won't hit. Read statement 1. If it is true, the students should try to grab the marker. No wrestling! The one with the marker in hand is the winner. Count how many markers each team has and award a point to the team with the most. If it's a tie, give both a point. Play until you've gone through all of your statements!

10. Take One, Please - This is a fun way to do comprehension questions.

11. Quip-Lash - When we are reading, I love to ask "who said or would've said..." types of questions. Quip-Lash is a fun way to do that!

12. The Scene Machine - Kristy Placido made this game up for a teacher's guide at Fluency Matters and it is so much fun. Students work in small groups and then get repeated exposure to parts of the story as they try to solve the other groups' game boards.

DOODLE BASED

13. Write, Draw, Pass - This is almost like the game telephone... but on paper!

14. Musical Chairs Retell - When your group is ready for a little output, give this activity a try!

15. Paper Chain Reading Comprehension - Rather than just having students order events from 1-10 by writing a number on a piece of paper, make some manipulatives. I think having the papers separate really helps them see each event independently. I encourage mine to get them in order before they start forming their paper chains! *Pro hint:* Before I scramble up the events to make the manipulatives, I like to put a word or phrase out in the margin (I use powerpoint to create my documents because it's so easy to add and move text boxes) so that when I'm grading them, I can easily see if the letters on their links spell the word Like ¡Es correcto! or ¡Quiero agua!

My hope is that this year I will spend as much time having FUN in class as we do on content. FUN doesn't mean that students aren't learning! As you look back over these 15 activities, I hope you see that they're rich in input, are great for reviewing the day's lesson, and are easy to implement. Here's to another year of building the plane as we fly!

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Well, week one of school is behind me. Every Wednesday, I write out my plans for the next week so that I have my planning period on Thursday and Friday to get materials ready... This week, even planning just a couple days ahead was too early. This will be a year of pivots.

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This video models how to prepare students for an activity and how to debrief it, Responsive-Classroom style.

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Morning Meeting: One-Minute Greeting | Responsive Classroom

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Carolyn Bush prepares her fourth grade students to start their Morning Meeting with a successful, safe, fun "One-Minute Greeting."

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Here's a Morning Meeting greeting idea from , by Carol Davis:

Secret Handshake Greeting

Creating secret handshakes taps students' creativity and builds community.

How to do it:

1. Students pair up and take a few minutes to create and practice a secret handshake and a greeting that includes each other's names.

2. On your signal, all students begin doing their secret handshakes and greetings with their partners.

3. On your signal, students find new partners and teach each other their handshakes.

4. Repeat once or twice.

Tips for Success:

Brainstorm and model creating a safe and friendly handshake quickly and greeting a partner with it.

Reinforce positive behaviors. For example: "I saw and heard lots of cooperation as you worked with your partners to create secret handshakes."

Skills: creative thinking, cooperation, sequencing
Variations:

Invite partners to do their handshake in the center of the circle one pair at a time.

Challenge students to create their biggest, smallest, fastest, slowest, or most complicated handshake.

Tags: 3rd Grade, 4th Grade, 5th Grade, 6th Grade, Building Classroom Community

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Here's a Morning Meeting greeting idea from , by Carol Davis: Secret Handshake Greeting Creating secret handshakes taps students' creativity and builds community. How to do it: Students pair up and take a few minutes to create and practice a secret handshake and a greeting that includes each other's names.

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Best used if students know a number of songs already.

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Here's a Morning Meeting activity idea from 80 Morning Meeting Ideas for Grades 3-6, by Carol Davis:

Encore!

Students team up to connect vocabulary words with favorite songs.

How to do this group activity:

1. Place students into small groups of four or five.

2. Call out a word or topic related to a unit of study (for example, a weather or science term, historical event or person, number or math term, or adjectives and adverbs).

3. Give groups a few minutes to brainstorm songs they know that contain that word or connect to the topic.

4. Have each group sing or chant a line or verse from one or two songs from their brainstorming.

Tips for Success:

Before starting, ask students, "What will it look and sound like to work together in your group?" Model these behaviors (taking turns listening and talking, accepting others' ideas, and so on).

Reinforce positive behaviors. For example: "I noticed everyone in the group sharing ideas and listening to their classmates. That made it fun for everyone!"

Skills: cooperation, vocabulary, recall
Variations:

List all the songs the class came up with. Then choose a few favorites to sing later.

After groups sing a line or verse, see if the other students can "Name That Tune!"

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Here's a Morning Meeting activity idea from 80 Morning Meeting Ideas for Grades 3-6 , by Carol Davis: Encore! Students team up to connect vocabulary words with favorite songs. How to do this group activity: Place students into small groups of four or five.

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Planning Morning Meetings for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) | Responsive Classroom

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When Elizabeth Powell and I co-taught in an inclusion program for students on the autism spectrum, we discovered that Morning Meeting offered an excellent opportunity to address these students' needs and to help them connect to their classmates by using two of their often overlooked strengths: humor and a passionate interest in specific topics.