Literacy Center: Silly Synonyms Game

Literacy centers are perfect for independent study as well as cooperative learning. But it can be time consuming creating skill centers for your class. This free skill center is a sample from our Skill Center Series that features time-saving, ready-made activities for busy teachers like you!

Follow these easy steps to play this fun game that will challenge students to match similar word meanings. While playing the game, students will get plenty of practice understanding and using synonyms.

7 Get-Up-&-Move Math Activities

Maybe you want to promote a healthier classroom by getting your students up and moving through an activity, maybe your students are more tactile learners, or maybe you find that if your students are active they are more focused and well-behaved throughout the rest of the day. Whatever your motivation, we've got some "active" math games to get your students up and moving... Plus you don't even have to leave the classroom!

Bowling Math
Get an inexpensive bowling kit from the toy section and set up a lane or two in your classroom. On the bottom of each pin write numbers (depending on your student's level make the numbers as small or large as you'd like). Have students take turns rolling the ball down to the pins. After one student rolls the ball down to the pins, have that student walk, lunge, or skip down to the pins. Have that student add up the numbers on the bottom of their pins--that's their score for that round. If you'd rather not keep score, just have students work the math problem. They can either add, subtract, or multiply all of the numbers or just the two largest numbers.

Active Stations
As students make their way through your normal math stations, have them do lunges, crab walking, or wheel barrels to get to the next station. 

Bean Bag Toss
Use these simple instructions (from Dirt & Boogers Blog) to make your own Bean Bag Toss easily and with very few materials. Adjust the design with a few extra holes to make this game educational. Simply cut several holes into the box and label each hole with a number. Give students a math equation and have them toss the bean bag into the hole with the correct answer.  Or assign word problems to each number. Whichever hole the bean bag lands in, that is the word problem the student must answer.

Game Show Games with an Educational Spin

We all love a good game show! Next time you’re looking for ways to spruce up your game-play in the classroom, try watching your favorite game show and then modify the games for your classroom. This is not a new concept; it has been done for years with shows like Jeopardy and Family Feud. And now we’ve done it with three games that are spin-offs of NBC's Hollywood Game Night classics.  

If you're not familiar with it, the show brings together two awesome components—games and celebrities. We’ve simply put an educational twist on a few of Hollywood Game Night's very simple games so that you can use them to review just about any subject in your classroom. You probably won't have the celebrity guests, but you can definitely have fun! Bonus…these games require very few materials. Each game will require you to have a writing utensil (shock!) and a timer (a watch will do just fine).

Want more reasons to start playing games in the classroom? Read this!

Off the Top of My Head Materials: Sticky-Notes, Marker, & Timer

Split the class into at least two teams. Each student will have a sticky note on his or her forehead. Each sticky note has a review word, phrase, punctuation or grammatical term, math formula, historical figure, book character, or whatever you might want to review written on it. Everyone can see what is on the sticky note, except for the person wearing the sticky note.

Have one team play at a time. Depending on how many students are in each team, assign a time limit, like 90 seconds. Each team has that much time to try and get through as many sticky notes as possible. Have team members line up. The person at the front of the line turns to face the person behind him. That person gives the guesser clues to help him figure out what the sticky note on his own forehead says. Once the guesser gets the answer, he moves to the front of the line and turns around to begin giving clues to the person who was behind him. The person who was giving clues goes to the end of the line. Each correct answer is worth one point.

Watch how this game is played on Hollywood Game Night.

The Benefits of Playing Games in the Classroom

There's a lot of game playing going on in the classroom these days, and we think that's pretty awesome! Are you among the 67% of teachers using traditional and digital games in their classrooms?

3 Fun Dictionary Games to Build Vocabulary

Build students' dictionary skills and you’ll watch their vocabulary, reading skills, and independence grow! Each week, before you hand out your spelling list, introduce students to the words with these fun dictionary activities.