Seven Ways to Bring Fun Back Into Your Classroom

From Dull To Delightful:

7 Ways To Bring Fun Back Into Your Classroom

January 9, 2022

Neurologists have proven that everyone learns and retains more when they are having fun. One of the most difficult tasks teachers face is how to keep students engaged in learning throughout the day. Here are a few ideas to keep learning fun and exciting.

Healthy Debate

Encourage students to discuss issues they are passionate about. An easy way to do this is to switch up a daily lecture with a more conversational format. Or you could go even further and set up informal debate teams. Teach them how to voice their opinion and back it up with statements of fact. Show them how to speak and listen respectfully. Explain how everyone has a voice and deserves to be heard and listened to. Learning about other viewpoints and that there are no easy answers helps students grow.

Give Students Choices

If there is room in the lesson plan for some leeway between topics, let students choose the next activity. Giving them a small amount of control in subject matter helps encourage attention and interaction in the classroom.

Let the Student Be the Teacher

Students may be more interested in learning when they know they will get a turn to be the teacher. Make sure they take it seriously by helping them devise their own lesson plan. Give them a short amount of time to teach about a subject they are interested in.

Seek Out the Mysterious

Students find learning more fun when they are discovering along the way. Ask questions that even you might not know the answer to. Think of ways to investigate a mystery that will pull the students in as they learn along the way.

Directly Correlate Lessons With Life

Find out what your students are thinking about in their out-of-school hours. Incorporate their concerns into your lesson plans. If they are interested in earning money, change your math lesson to include ideas about work ethic and tips for saving.

Take It Outside

Go on small field trips. Just a walk in the field behind the school might bring plenty of scientific discoveries. From testing water and soil quality to identifying birds and insects, a trip outside is always a learning experience.

Use Technology

It’s no secret, it’s a technological world. Being able to use computers is part of the current education experience. Using Google Slides or Boom Cards will enhance computer literacy as well as the learning experience in your classroom. With topics ranging from recipes to “this day in history” slides, to math, reading comprehension and science, no subject is left out. Colorful slides and fun features like fill-in-the-blank and drag-and-drop keep students engaged. 

To find out more, check out the following suggestions:

Google Classroom Suggestions:

 

We, at Remedia Publications would like to congratulate the graduating class of 2019! Now that you have achieved that diploma, you should keep up the educational process by making learning a lifetime adventure. Our books are not just for school kids.

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Teaching & Reviewing Essential Survival Signs & Symbols

We encounter special signs, symbols, and directions in every area of our lives. They provide us with information and tell us what we can and cannot do. Knowing what they mean is vital. Knowing them is even more essential for students who are trying to expand their knowledge outside the classroom into the real world. We've put together some fun, hands-on activities to help you teach and review the essential signs and symbols with your students.

Drive-Thru Menu Math Stations

Beep beep! Honk honk! Put students in the driver's seat with these realistic math stations. Your students will love hopping in the car and heading out to get lunch at the drive-thru--no driver's license required. Bonus, these math stations are great for any level.

What You'll Need
Menu

• Get your hands on any of our Menu Math activity books that come with full color menus, and that means no prep necessary. Plus, they are packed with reproducible practice pages and come in multiple levels.
• Snap a picture. Next time you're at your favorite drive-thru restaurant, take a picture of the menu, print it, and then laminate.
• Make your own kid-friendly menu.

Pencils and Paper
Chairs, four per station

Set-Up
Create several stations, or let's call them "restaurants," throughout your classroom. At each restaurant have a menu (or a few copies of the menu for each student), pencils, and paper. Split students into groups of four or five, but no more than five. Assign one student per station to be the cashier; this student will take the orders.

Practice Following Directions in the Kitchen

Improving your students’ ability to follow directions is not only a skill that will help improve your daily life in the classroom, but it will help your students out in the real world.

Encouraging Grit & Perseverance in Your Students

There is a lot of buzz about teaching students "grit." The word is gaining excitement and controversy, and no matter where you stand on the debate, it's hard to deny that encouraging students to have grit and perseverance can't be a bad thing. The idea of "grit" is like when if you fall off your bike, you pick yourself up, and get back on the bike. If we can instill this value in students who struggle in math, reading, or any other subject, just think how far they could go.
 
If you're interested in helping your students gain some grit and perseverance, you're going to have to put in some effort. Sometimes through the pounding over the head method of teaching and sometimes with a bit more subtlety. Because unfortunately, you can't teach these traits in one single lesson plan with a quiz and letter grade at the end. So we have compiled some suggestions on how to instill some tenacity in your students. 
 

Verbal Encouragement
Instead of general praise (i.e. you're so smart), recognize a student's performance based on their effort. Try saying, "Great job on that test! The time you spent after class reviewing really paid off." Students need to understand how their efforts effect their outcome, whether it be success or failure.

Resist the Urge to Offer Hints
Letting students struggle a little to answer a question will be a hard task for both you and your students. However doing this not only teaches them that it's okay to not always know the answer, as it's an opportunity to learn, but it also lets them become comfortable with the struggle. Just because it's not easy, isn't a reason to quit and give up. 

10 Real-World Activities that Support Your Curriculum

 
When it comes to getting your students' attention, and keeping it, making your lesson as relatable as possible is key. Turn what kids already find entertaining, like going to the movies or texting, into learning experiences, and they'll meet the challenge head on! And they'll have fun doing it! Here are 10 tips to supplementing your daily lessons with real-world kid experiences.
 

1. Have students text a summary of the story they just read to a friend in the class and then share their friend’s summary with the class. This will really help them to make a summary brief and to the point.
   
   
2. For book reports, have students write a review of the book on their Facebook page. This may even prompt discussions about the book with their peers. Have them print their review and discussions to include in their book report.
   
   
3. Take a picture of your mall’s directory and post it on your whiteboard to teach mapping skills. “Travel” through the mall with your students. Have students write directions from one store to the next store.  Find the pet store. How would you get there from here?
   
   
4. Follow-up your lessons on fact and opinion with some previously recorded TV commercials. Have students divide a piece of paper into 2 columns, labeling one as "facts" and the others as "opinions". As students watch the commercials, they'll quickly see that there are probably more opinions in commercials than facts!
   

Activities to Improve Students' Verbal Communication Skills

Verbal communication can be difficult--even for adults! It's one life skill we inarguably all need to work on. And the more practice we can give to our students early on, the better off they will be in the future.

“I came to realize that conversational competence might be the single-most overlooked skill we fail to teach students,” said Paul Barnwell in the article, "My Students Don’t Know How to Have a Conversation" from The Atlantic. The article is about one teacher’s concerns regarding how on-screen communication had diminished his students’ engagement and abilities in “real-time talk.”

Don't worry though! We're here to help. Below are six fun games that will get your whole class talking--not just talking--communicating.