I've been posting recently about my teaching beliefs... this week I'm sharing about my belief that "Learning Made Fun IS Fun"! One of the ways that I make learning fun is through lots of "get up and moving" activities.
We do a hallway hunt just about every week, we do activities with our white boards, we work with partners, we get choices in our learning, and we also play lots of games together. I've posted many times about my favorite game "Back-to-Back". Be sure to click that link if you've missed those posts!
But today I'm showing you my collection of quick and easy activities that help us practice our speaking and listening standards in fun ways...
Down under my easel are many bins with quick, quick activities... some are just fun and silly (ie. the little chipmunk you see in the front) but the other activities down here help me cover my speaking and listening standards in fun, interactive ways.
We have a "morning meeting" in class each day that takes about 10 minutes. This is just a positive way to start the day. We greet each other and then do some sort of quick activity using the materials under this easel.
The little chipmunk guy (find it on AMAZON) asks us silly questions, the football is used as a sort of "talking stick" to help us promote manners while speaking and listening. The blue bin in the front has a collection of phonemic awareness question cards that, yes, we still need work on in 3rd grade.
Speaking and listening standards are ones that are easy to leave behind in the dust... for a long time I felt like, since we're speaking and listening all day long, we didn't need to spend a great deal of time learning the mechanics behind it... but, after doing a morning meeting for several years now, I see where that is so false. Not only do kiddos need practice speaking and listening, but this is also a fun way for us to get to know each other better!
How do you encourage speaking and listening skills in your room? I'd love for you to share in the comments below!
Fun! I committed to doing morning meeting everyday last year and I loved how it helped build community in my classroom and start the day off right. I even used your awesome freebie morning meeting flip cards for greetings and activities, so thank you again! This year I plan to build on my morning meeting, so I love the addition of all these little tools and toys, especially the chipmunk...so fun! Thanks for sharing more great ideas.
ReplyDeleteAmanda
The Teaching Thief