Whole Group Games and Activities: Entry #6

Guided Drawing
Guided drawing is a GREAT whole group activity, and can easily keep a group of four and five year olds happily engaged for a good 20 minutes at the beginning of the year and even up to 30 minutes by the end of Kindergarten!
What you need:
An easel, some simple drawings to copy, paper, black fine tip markers or crayons, and a place for everyone to work where they can easily see you while they draw.  I save a sample of each year’s lesson and refer back to it to help me remember what I drew and how I drew it.  I have the kids sit on the floor and use large pieces of cardboard to write on.  We do seasonal drawings and drawings of things that we were learning about.

 The trick to guided drawing is to relate what you are drawing to a shape they already know how to make.

*  An arch is a "rainbow."  An upside down arch is a "smile."

*  A pointed top can be like a "capital A without a line in it."

*  A half circle can be a letter C.

*  Two parallel lines can be a number 11.


I try to use the letters and numbers that the children already know to reference  shapes that the children can use in their drawings.  This also turns your guided drawing lesson into something of an alphabet or number review, if you keep mentioning letter or number shapes as you draw.  You can kind of “stretch it” as much as you need to, in order to meet your required number of minutes in certain subjects, but also let the kids do something fun.

How to Draw David Shannon’s Book, “No, David!”

*  Draw a circle for the head, big enough for the eyes, nose, and mouth.

*  Make a letter C on each side of the head for ears.  

*  Draw two dots for the nostrils.  Then put a triangle around it.  The triangle is like the big A, with the line on the bottom.

*  Draw two dots for the eyes.  Make two lines going in for his eyebrows.  Draw little lines on his head for hair.  Make a big smile with a lid on it for the mouth.  Add triangle teeth.  

*  Make a number 11 for the neck.

*  Draw a circle tummy.  Draw two lines going down for each leg.  Put a “lid” on each pair of lines for the bottom of his pants.

*  Draw circle shoes.  Put a number eight on the shoes for shoe laces.  Make a line above the shoes for the socks.

*  Draw two lines going out for each arm.  Put a lid on them.  Make two circle hands.  Put two lines on the arms for the sleeves of his striped shirt.  

*  Make two lines very close together on his tummy for the belt.  Make a number 11 in the middle for the buckle.  Now color in the belt with your black marker.  Don’t color in the number 11.  That’s the buckle.  

*  Make some lines on the shirt for the stripes.  Don’t make more than 3-4 lines.  

Possible topics and titles for a class book:  

David Goes to School, David Goes to the Library, David Visits the Computer Lab, David Goes on a Field Trip, etc.

Sounds Fun!

I know I mentioned this recently, but I am including this again since it is in my presentation on whole group activities.  Sounds Fun is a fun whole group activity that teaches letter combinations and their corresponding sounds, such as the /th/, /sh/, and /ch/ sounds.  The great thing is that it gets the kids up and moving, so it provides a “brain break” for those little wiggly ones that really need it!  I designed it to be a fun and active method of practicing the sounds of the digraphs and dipthongs. The movements and characters really helps kids remember!    It works a lot like Zoo-Phonics.  

1.  Show a flash card with a visual cue.

2.  Kids respond physically and verbally.

3.  Remove the visual cue and practice as before.

I also gave them practice reading words that fell into that word family group.  We did the motions while sounding them out.  I put a set of cards on the wall, but for some kids, they were too far away to see.  So I made up single sheets to put on the table.  We eventually made this into a poster, so that I could post the whole thing in one spot easily.

After working with them on it for about a month, I removed the character to see how they would do.  More than half of the class had memorized them easily, without any character on the card for prompting!  But the best thing about it was that it really gave the kids a way to express the written sounds that don’t fall into those basic 26 sounds that we always teach with the alphabet.  So they were able to write phonetically just about any word that they wanted to write without help, and then  were able to read their sentences back again.  It opened up a whole new world of writing possiblities for the children, and this in turn greatly influenced their ability to read and attack unknown words.  

Write the Walls

What you need:

Each child needs a clipboard or a book to write on, and a piece of paper.  Their job is to write as many words as they can and read them to somebody.  This can be done whole group, but I think it makes a great small group center for a group of kids that has to work alone for about 15 minutes.  They can usually do alright with it and be happy enough copying words down all by themselves.  The kids really love this activity!    They always wanted to brag about how many words they had been able to write down.  It’s great if you can find the time to listen to them all read their papers.  I made a special “Write the Walls” paper for them, which I’ve included here as a free download for you!  There are two versions:  one has lined spaces for careful printing, and the other does not.  But the truth is that a blank sheet of paper will work just fine if you are limited in the number of copies you are allowed to make at your school, or if you are caught one day without a lesson fully prepared.  

The Kindergarten News

What you need:

A "newsletter" for the kids to fill in, a pencil and crayons for each child.  Mine was on 11” x 14” paper, but I have also included an 8.5 x 11 inch master for those of you that can’t print on the larger sized paper, or who would prefer a shorter project. Both masters have been included here for you as a free download!

What to do:

As you write in front of the children, have them watch you model filling one of these sheets out for several days.  We did a couple of them in small groups as well.  Once they had the idea, I passed it out to the whole group and they did great!  We did this activity during the last two or three months of Kindergarten, when they already had lots of basic skills.  This is a neat way to introduce journaling about what you did during the day.  Once the children understood how to do this little “newspaper,” they loved sitting together and talking about their day as they filled it out.  Even better was the opportunity to share their papers later!  Fun! 

Whole Group Games and Activities: Entry #5

Whole Group Hangman
What you need: A whiteboard, a word wall, or words on a pocket chart.
Draw: A gallows, and a line for each letter in your word.


Choose:

A word from your word wall or pocket chart.  This is what makes this game different from regular Hangman and also what makes it age appropriate.  You only choose words from a specific word bank that they can see right in front of them, so they are using the process of elimination, logic, and reasoning skills to help them get the answer.  They are also using their reading skills as they consider each word.  Children that are still working on learning their letters can benefit from it as well, since it also serves as a review of the alphabet.  So this is a great game for differentiated instruction!  Once the answer becomes obvious to some of your brighter children, you can enjoy watching them squirm as they try to “hold it in;” it always appears as though some of them are going to just “pop!”  Hence, it also becomes a lesson in social skills like self-control, taking turns, and treating others nicely, since taunting other children who have not yet figured out the answer is clearly unacceptable!

Variations:
You can play a non-violent version by drawing the parts of a cat, pumpkin, snowman, bunny, pig, etc., instead of a dying man, of course!







Whole Group Tic Tac Toe

You can play this on a white board, and have the children read a word or answer any question for drill and practice before placing an X or an O on the board.  Kids love to play boys against girls!

You can also play this "live" by placing nine chairs in the middle of the room, and having the kids sit in the chair where they would want their X or O placed.  This idea of playing it “live” came from the wonderful teachers on  the Kindergarten chatboard on Teachers.net.  If you haven’t checked it out, I highly recommend it!


Whole Group Checkers
One year, some of my brighter boys were really "into" playing checkers during playtime.  But many children did not know how to play.  So I put self-adhesive velcro on a checker board and on the markers and taught the class to play!  Just set the checker board on an easel and play boys against girls.


CVC Activities

There are many activities coming up that are demonstrated with resources from Heidisongs CVC Word Families and Sight Words book, but can be played with any flash cards.  There are flashcards that can be used for word matching and sound sorting, and other types of activities that can be practiced whole group.  There are also small sized cards that can be sent home for homework practice, and matching worksheets for the same.  I use these worksheets for homework every single week, once I have introduced blending short vowel sounds (usually by November.)  I use sight word worksheets until we get to that point, and continue to use them afterwards, of course!  I have just completed a new book of sight word worksheets and mini songbooks that I am very excited about using as well!  But more on that later.  That should be up on the website around the middle of August.  It’s been a busy summer, that’s for sure!


Hop To It
What you need:
Pairs of flash cards, like CVC words and pictures that match.  You need one card per child.  If there is an odd number of children, then you play, too.  I am giving you one set of downloads of the “At” family flashcards free!  This free set doesn’t come with the worksheets though- sorry!  To get those, you would have to buy the book or the five dollar download of the short A unit.

How to play:

Each child holds his or her card on his chest and when the music starts, they begin hopping around the room, looking for the person with the card that matches theirs.  When they find their partner, they stop hopping and hold hands with him or her.

Variations on Hop To It:
*  Use pairs of sight word cards and have the children find the person that has the same word that they have.  Or, match pictures and letters, or numerals and dots. (The “Counting to 100” song that they were hopping around to is on my Jumpin' Numbers and Shakin' Shapes CD)

Word Wall or CVC Word Whackers
Give two kids a word whacker.  Tell them to find a word and whack it.  The first person to whack it gets to choose the next two whackers.  The kids choose a name by pulling a name stick.  Word Whackers are available on Amazon.



I use a couple of old Nestle's Quik containers to keep my name sticks in.  I just taped them together with clear packing tape and them covered one side of it with stickers.  That’s the side that I start on.  Once the kids have had a turn, I move their name to the other side.  Also, when I write their names down, I write the boys names in blue and the girls names in red (or pink, if I can find a pink marker!).  That way, if we are playing a boys against girls game, I can easily pick the right name.  For the last couple of years, I wound up making an extra set of name sticks with another container to keep in a “Play School Box” that is on our toy shelf, because the kids love to play teacher and quiz each other on the different flashcards that they can find around the room.  Also, when I wrote their names on the sticks, I wrote them all with a black marker so that if I found a stray name stick somewhere in the room, I would know right away which set it belonged with.  Nothing is worse than losing a name stick and not knowing about it until weeks later!  This only seems to happen to the very shyest students, of course, who wouldn’t dream of speaking up if they did not get a turn!

I put a bunch of extra sets of flashcards in the box that they could get all mixed up and play with (or lose!), etc, and it wouldn’t matter to me.  There are also a couple of small white boards and markers in the box, and some red marking pens.  I keep any extra copies of old worksheets or scrap paper in a tub where they can always find it, if they want to “correct” each others work!

Whole Group Games - Entry #4

Here is another set of games and activities that are always a hit with my little ones.  It’s funny how many I can remember doing, when I really start thinking!  One memory leads to another, and then I realize that I remember having done some other thing that was also fun!  And so it goes...  It’s actually a good thing to sort of “catalog” them and list them out, I think.  Maybe I’ll remember to use each of them more often, now that I’ll have them all listed out on paper.

Rhyming Riddles

This book, 201 Thematic Riddle Poems to Build Literacy, by Betsy Franco has lots and lots of cute little poems and riddles that use rhyme to help children guess the answer.   Published by Scholastic.


Example:
“Which shape am I?
A pizza, a clock,
A bicycle wheel,
I have no sides,
But I’m for real.  I’m a ________.”
(Answer:  circle)

I spy:
I spy with my little eye
a mammal with a spout.
It’s bigger than my grandma’s car.
It swims to get about.
I spy a ________.  (Answer:  whale)

Erase a Rhyme

I originally found this activity in the book the I mentioned above.  But as I recall, there were only one or two “Erase a Rhymes” in there!  So I started making up my own.

Draw a picture on a white board or chalk board, and then tell a rhyming phrase.  A child comes up and erases the part of the picture that rhymes with that part.

Example:

The Bat

Give a cheer!  Erase one ____. (ear)

If you like to sing, erase one ____.  (wing)

You can try; erase the _____.  (eye)

Telephones ring; erase another _____.  (wing.)

If you can't stay put, erase a _____. (foot)

Have no fear!  Erase another _____.  (ear)

My, oh, my!  Erase another _____.  (eye)

Stay awhile!  Erase the _____.  (smile)

A chimney is covered in ashes and soot.  Now you get to erase a _____.  (foot)

There’s nothing left; the bat is dead.  To finish him off, erase the _____!  (head)

I have a bunch of these that I created as a free download.  There’s one for parts of an insect, one for parts of a plant, and one for numbers.  Enjoy!

There are lots of these FREE at :  http://www.jmeacham.com/erase.htm

... and MANY other websites!  Just google it.

The Queen Game

What you need:

A whiteboard, and flash cards for any concept, or even just a word wall, or questions in your head!

To keep track of points:

Draw some pictures of the kids on the board and label it, and a picture of you on the board with a crown on your head and label it.

How to play:

Drill the kids on the concept that you want to work on, one child at a time.

*  If a child gets it right, the kids get a point. If not, the queen gets a point. 

*  The queen also gets a point if a child tells the answer when it is not his turn, or breaks any other rule.

*  But the queen also gets a point if she is in a bad mood, or if her foot itches, or if she needs a drink of water!

*  The queen always loses, and cries dramatically!  The queen is a poor sport. The children usually find this to be quite hilarious!

Optional:  Wear a plastic tiara while playing!

Whole Group Games: Entry #3

Here is entry number three in my whole group games series.  This entry contains a lot of story telling techniques that kids seem to love, and that are sure crowd pleasures for me!  But first, here is my favorite whole group activity.  I’m sure it comes as no surprise to people that are already familiar with my website and my techniques!


Music and Movement to Review Academic Concepts
What you need:
Music with an academic focus that you can move to, or DVD's of the same.
Whenever your kids cannot sit any longer, stand them up and keep teaching through music and movement!  This will work at the end of the day, right before recess, right before lunch, after opening up Halloween candy, and immediately before dismissing the kids for Christmas vacation!  It is my best “trick” and something that I use every day!  Last May, after introducing some of the new songs from Sing and Spell Vol. 5 that my kids particularly liked, a little girl raised her hand in the middle of our calendar time and said, “Are we going to sing a song today?”  I had to smile at that question.  My response:  “Have I ever NOT sung a song with you, on ANY day, EVER?????  Absolutely, we will sing today!”  The kids love to pick their favorite songs, too, and just sing those- although I almost never do that.  I almost always choose the songs based on what they need to work on.

My favorite titles to try:
Sing and Spell the Sight Words, (Look for specific words you need on vols. 1-5), Musical Math, Singable Songs for Letters and Sounds, Jumpin' Numbers and Shakin' Shapes, Vols. 1 & 2, Little Songs for Language Arts.   (CD's and DVD's available at www.heidisongs.com)
You can also have the kids write the words while the songs play.  We do this about once every one or two weeks.  Name That Tune is a fun game to play, too!  Don’t tell them what the name of the song is that you are putting on.  Just have them figure it out and write the word.  It’s fun!


Draw a Story
Kids LOVE stories that you tell while you draw a simple picture!  It's great to have a few of these up your sleeve.  Save a little time to review the story ahead of time and practice drawing it once or twice.
What you need:  Books by Richard Thompson, including Frog’s Riddle and Other Draw and Tell Stories.  Kids will ask to hear these stories again and again!  So it is worth the time to figure out how they go.  I always make some penciled in notes in the book on the page to help me remember which part of the drawing goes with which part of the story.  I love this book so much that when it went missing last year, I had to buy another!

Fold a Story
Fold and tell stories, also known as "Storygami,” can be found in books like Fold Along Stories:  Quick and Easy Origami Tales For Beginners by Christine Petrell Kallevig.  This book is also available at www.storytimeink.com.  Watch the author tell some of the tales on youtube.com first to see if this is for you.  Just do a search on her name and a video will come up.

Cut and Tell Stories
This book, called Cut & Tell Scissor Stories for Fall has lots of stories you can tell while cutting little shapes out of a paper plate.  The cuts make a picture at the end of the story.  Again, you need to figure it out ahead of time!  But the children find it enthralling.  I find that there is a much better selection of stories for Bible school than there seem to be for regular school; perhaps there are some stories that can be adapted for a public school setting.

Movement Stories
This book, Movement Stories For Children Ages 3-6, by Helen Landalf and Pamela Gerke.    There are some really fun little stories in here that have the kids moving along with you.  You may have to adapt them for your group, though, depending on the size of your class.  Some of the motions require too much space or fewer kids.  Some of them, though, are absolutely perfect!


Audience Participation Stories With Sound Effects or Movements
For stories like this, google “audience participation stories, and you will find many choices.  Or, add the sounds and movements to your own books that you read.  Just pause when you come to those words, and wait for the kids to make those sounds or movements.  This works well with any story that has repetitive sections.
Example:  "Every time I say the word, 'tiger,' I want you to ROAR!  And every time I say the word, monkey, I want you to say, 'oo oo oo!'"
Example:  "When the little boy runs, I want you to make a running motion like this.  And when he walks, I want you to make a walking motion, like this."

My mother used to tell a sound effects story about cowboys and indians, and I wanted a similar one for our unit on Native Americans.  So I wrote my own little story with sound effects in it and I have included it here as a free download!  It’s not going to win a Nobel Prize or anything, but it will help you get the idea of how you can adapt an existing story and include some sound effects in it.  I’ll apologize now for the use of the word, “Indian” rather than Native American in the story.  If this offends anyone, please accept my apologies!  The word “Indians” is just plain quicker to say and read aloud than the five syllable, politically correct version.  I do realize that our Native Americans did not come from India!

Whole Group Games: Entry #2

Here is the second installment in my series of whole group games that I am reviewing in my blog.  My favorite here is “Blast Off!” and for this game, I needed a drawing of a rocket.  I looked on the internet to try to just “borrow” one from somewhere out there, but never found one.  So I decided to draw my own rocket, and I am including the game here as a free download for my blog readers!  In it, you will find one page with just a black and white copy of the rocket, just in case you wish to print your game in black and white instead of color.  There is also a blank page at the end of the game in case you want to use different flashcards with a different topic for your game.  My game is designed to have the kids practice counting.

Blast Off!
This game plays similarly to Whole Group Bang, but you change the picture to a rocket and the word to "Blast Off!"  (If you missed the directions for Whole Group Bang, see the entry above.  Every time the card comes up, the whole class, including the teacher, turns 90 degrees to the right, and continues drilling in this new position.  So what happens is that every time you come to a “Blast Off!” card, everyone in the class shifts to a new position- and being the goof-ball that I am, I make a big deal over it and sort of run over to the other side of the room in a hurry, all flustered.  The kids get a kick out of it.  Well, you know what they say!  Good teaching is 3/4 theater, and 1/4 preparation!

What you need:
Flashcards for any concept, and some “Blast Off!” cards mixed in with them.  When I made mine, I used a counting theme to help the kids practice counting to 100, and especially to get from those “nine’s” to the next group of tens, such as from 39 to 40, and from 49 to 50, and so on.  Duplicate extra “Blast Off!” cards so that the game will be different each time.

The end of the game:
The game is over when you run out of cards.  Whoever winds up in the “first” row closest to the teacher is the winning group!  This will be more of a surprise if you vary the number of “Blast Off” cards that you put into the set each time you play.

Whole Group Memory

What you need:
Flashcards for any concept, such as CVC words and matching pictures, and a pocket chart.  I use the flashcards from my CVC book, but any flashcards and pictures will work.  Even matching the same words will work, of course!  The CVC book can be downloaded one vowel unit at a time on my website.  Sorry, this one is not a freebie, but it is not that expensive to just get one unit.  It’s just five bucks for the download, and it includes flashcards, worksheets, and a bingo game.  That would be everything you would need to teach the “at/an” family, etc.

How to play:
Put the cards face down on the pocket chart and have the kids come up one at a time and try to match them up.

Variations on Whole Group Memory:
- Match numerals and numbers.  Use ten frames and flash cards.  The ten frames are a free download on my website.  Free is good!
- Practice sight words by matching two of the same sight words written in different fonts.


The Old Switcheroo

What you need:
A hundreds pocket chart, or numbers on a pocket chart up to 10, 20, or 30.

How to play:
Have the kids hide their eyes.  Meanwhile, switch two numbers on the chart.  Have the children guess which numbers were changed.  Give the children clues to help find the correct numbers if they cannot figure it out.

Variations on The Old Switcheroo:
You could play this game with letters of the alphabet as well, or even by switching two children's seats!  This was a favorite game to play right after we did the calendar on some mornings.  It was very quick; we just did two or three rounds and then went on to the next activity.

Great Whole Group Games - Entry #1

Since I just finished creating an entire presentation about whole group games and activities, I thought I might share some of them here in my blog!  After all of that work, it’s a shame to share them with only the few people that are fortunate enough to get a day off to go to a conference.  (And if you get a PAID day off to go to a conference that your district paid for- well, you are VERY lucky!)  Anyway, I think I’ll post a few games every week or so this summer, so if you are interested in hearing about them, you might want to sign up for the emailed updates to make sure that you don’t miss any.  I haven’t been updating my blog all that often during the school year due to lack of time, so I am hoping to take advantage of the wonderful gift of time this summer, and do it NOW!

I’m going to start with the silliest, “stupidest” game ever.  But I use it nearly every day; no teacher should be without it!  When I first started teaching Kindergarten, I taught the afternoon class, and I had moved into a room with a very experienced, expert teacher that new teachers tend to find somewhat intimidating!  Luckily, she took me under her wing, and taught me all of the things I should have learned in my student teaching experience, but didn’t. Anyway, when the AM teacher, Mrs. Kinne, taught me this game, I thought she was crazy.  What child would ever find this entertaining?  Who in the world would think of such a thing?


The Quiet Game 
What you need:
1.  Your teacher chair.
2.  A DISTRACTION that pulls you away from teaching your class for a minute or two- like a child wetting his pants, or a parent that MUST talk to you right away, in private!

How to play:

1. Choose one child to be the "starter."  This child gets to sit in your teacher chair and chooses the quietest person in the room.
2. The person that gets chosen by the starter gets to be the next leader.  He gets to sit in the teacher chair and picks the next quietest person to sit in the teacher chair.

• Boys must pick girls, and girls must pick boys.  No "pick backs" allowed!
• No “stalling” allowed; (you can’t just sit there and pick no one, or the teacher will choose for you.  If I notice kids stalling, I call out, “Okay, I’m going to count to three, and then I will pick for you!”  That always does it.  They pick someone immediately!

The end of the game:
When you are done managing your DISTRACTION: have the person in the chair choose someone to start the game next time.  Don't let the person in the chair be the starter next time, or kids may sit and "stall," refusing to choose someone- usually because they hope to be the starter next time!

Tip:

1. Keep track of who gets to be the next “starter” on a small white board and pin it to a wall or bulletin board nearby your teacher chair.  If you can find a small one that has a place to attach a little dry erase marker with an eraser on the end of it, then it will be really quick and easy to write it down each time.
2. If my “starter” is absent or busy with something, then I usually have my helper of the day start the game.

The children in my class last year loved playing this game so much that they would whine about it if we didn’t get a chance to play during the day!  And, sometimes while a few of them were waiting for their parents to pick them up at the end of the day, they would play it while they waited!  They would even play it when there were only TWO children in the room!  You wouldn’t believe how dramatically they would think and think before they would choose that other person!  I even had a child play it once by herself!  She got a couple of dolls and bears from the playhouse, put them on the carpet squares, and proceeded to pick the “quietest” one!  (Don’t ask me how she made THAT decision!  Ah, the wonders of the Kindergarten imagination!)



Here’s another great game.  We play this one a LOT- especially at the beginning of the school year with our Zoo-Phonics cards:

Whole Group "Bang!" 

What you need:

Flash cards for any concept, some with the word, "Bang!" on them.

How to play:

Drill the kids on the flash cards.  When the word , "Bang!" comes up, they sit down.  The next time it comes up, they stand up, etc.

Variations on Whole Group Bang:
Change the motion to something else, such as spin around, growl like a tiger, or snap like a crocodile.  Change the word bang to "Kablooie!" and have the kids explode and fall down.

I just finished enlarging a whole set of action cards that I'll post right here as a FREE download!  They include the “Bang!” card, the “Kablooie!” card, and the other ones as well.  Plus, there are about 40 more other large action cards to use as well.  I was thinking that this year, I might just pick a few of the cards at random and put them in with some sight word cards that we need to work on and drill the group.  That way, the actions would come up as a surprise each time (or nearly each time, depending on how often I change them!).  I think that would be a good way to keep the kids actively involved!  I have included in the download a blank card at the end of the stack so that you can print whatever sight words you want on it and duplicate it lots of times.

Anyway, for now the download is free, but it may not be forever, so if you are interested in having it, make sure you grab it now, then pop on over to the free downloads page on my website and see some other fun ideas to experiment with as well. And keep checking back for more Group Game ideas coming here soon!

Happy teaching!

Heidi