Look at that! I’m doing better about this whole posting thing. We’ll see how long this lasts…
In case you didn’t know, there are SO many ways that our brains learn. In teaching, we know that the more of these we can use, the more likely it is for students to learn, understand, and retain the information. Even within this, there are so many ways to do lessons: direct teaching, whole groups, small groups, discussions, activities, games, and so many more.
Ok! But I LOVE having gamified lessons. In case you are not sure what this means, or you’re not sure if your guess/memory is correct let me take a second to explain. Gamified lessons are just like they sound: lessons that are set up like games. These make learning fun and in a way kind of disguises the fact that students are learning or practicing a skill.
One that I loved doing with my kinders was “The Verb Game.” Their job was to go around the classroom doing a chosen action (verb) until the doorbell (our attention-getting device) was rung. When they hear the doorbell, they need to freeze. Then the teacher chooses the next student to choose another verb. The game continues until time is up or the class gets too crazy and the game needs to stop (and yes, this has happened before).
It was so much fun to do with my kinders! I even did it for one of my observation videos. The class I student taught with still remembers this game. When I sub, they will sometimes ask to play it. When we do, we have some rules:
- Students have to come up with their own verb (no copying buddies)
- Make sure you watch where you are going so you don’t run into buddies.
- No slithering on the ground (it’s hard to make sure you don’t hit a buddy when doing this. We learned this one the hard way…)
- No going under the tables.
- If it gets too crazy or if I hit the doorbell more than twice, then the game is over.
The students remember most of these rules, but I always review them just in case.
And they LOVE this game. Little do they know, they are practicing identifying verbs. They are also having to come up with original verbs (they can’t just repeat buddies or change them slightly). As a teacher, you have to make sure to call on students and you have to help students adjust their ideas to make them into verbs.
For example, one of my kinders said “Unicorn.” So we changed it to “act like a unicorn.” I asked the class, “what could we do to act like unicorns?” The students thought about it and then remembered “gallop” from PE. They suggested that. I asked what else we could do, and another student suggested putting our fists on our heads with the pointer finger up. This way we’d be able to have a horn. The students agreed. I said go, and the students started going until they heard the doorbell.
Other ideas our students had included: crawl like a bear, slither like a snake (where we learned to not do that), crawl, skip, hop, walk in slow motion, run in place (we don’t run in the classroom), fix things, paint, and swim. There were so many other verbs we came up with and so many more options that we never did.
The students enjoyed this so much! I loved watching them do it and even doing it with them. As a teacher, it helped me practice my patience, learn how to develop rules, and how to gently correct my students when they broke the rules or when they said something that wasn’t a verb.
I will always take any chance I get to make learning fun! It helps students enjoy what they’re learning and it helps to get their brains and bodies moving too!
Let the adventures in teaching continue!
-Brenna (aka Miss M)