We spend about 7 hours a day in our classrooms. Routine is very important not only so we can make sure everyone is following the same schedule but also to help with SEL strategies of keeping predictibility in our day.
However, it also helps to change things up from time to time just to keep things interesting. My dog is very smart. He gets bored easily with his toys. But if I link two toys together-look a new toy! He LOVES that. I think it's the same with our students.
Ways I believe we can use novelty in the classroom:
1) Rearrange the classroom periodically. Let the students change seats. With the world of Covid we have to be strategic about this. We do it before going on breaks so they aren't sitting in someone else's germs.
2) Room Transformations-if we are learning about bats I buy black tablecloths at the dollar store and cover their desks to make caves. When we learn about the "qu" digraph we decorate for a wedding so q and u can get married.
3) Incorporating fun critical thinking activities like optical illusions or riddles.
4) Games! My students love to play Four Corners with their sight words or sight word snowball fight where the words are written on a paper and we throw them at each other for a minute and then read our words.
5) Different supplies-even just giving kids troll pens or colored printer paper can make an activity more exciting.
More than ever right now we need to make things as engaging as possible. Only 5 months left to get the students where they need to be.
What kinds of activity do you do to shake things up?
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