Children get bored. As educator’s it is imperative to our students success that we find ways to keep children engaged and excited about learning.
Being a successful learner stems from balancing working hard and taking down time for SELF CARE. As the teacher in the classroom the responsibility to balance the kids day falls to you.
ICE BREAKERS and MINI GAMES are a great way to take a breather from learning while remaining stimulated and actively participating within the classroom. These activities are a great way to start the year by getting the class comfortable with you as the teacher, along with meeting their new classmates and future friends!
Ice-breakers can be used in a controlled environment to allow oneself to be silly and have some fun. Throughout the year mini activities can be used to transition the energy within the classroom. They also give the kids a chance to go outside and incorporate more movement into the day. Having these activities ready is an excellent way to ensure you have extra resources available if a lesson plan takes less time than expected, or the group is visibly losing focus.
The Mission:
To use open education resources to find and plan ice-breaker style activities and explore how they can be used to stimulate students while adding more movement and practical problem solving techniques into the kids day. These activities will certainly be fun and an excellent way to break up the day but I also believe they have a place in teaching within the curriculum in a unique way.
How will this look?:
Each week of the semester I will post at least one ice-breaker style activity along with the specific benefits and suggested modifications to adapt the activity to different age groups, relevant current events or the curriculum.
These activities differ from a lesson plan because of the length of activity, lack of materials and their heavy reliance on play style learning. By the end of my exploration I am expecting to have a collection of ready activities to try out as well as research on the best times to use these activities and the benefits they will have.