Teacher Feature: Teaching in Room 6

Hi everyone!   This is Stephanie from Teaching in Room 6 and I am so glad to be here as the Featured Teacher for this week!

I teach 5th grade in Southern California and am in the middle of the rainy season.  Well, it actually doesn't ever really rain a lot, but this year, it seems like we have had more rainy days than ever (it might just seem like that because my classroom is an outside bungalow, so no matter what, I have to go out in the rain)  Since the rain just keeps coming and coming, I thought I would share some of the activities I have been doing in my class as we stay in together all.day.long.

Flyswatter Race

All that is required of this game are two flyswatters and a whiteboard/chalkboard.  Break your class up into two teams.  On the board, write the answers to some math problems you are working on, dates from your social studies unit, vocabulary words, or anything that you happen to be studying.

Once the board is set up, have one player from each team stand about 10 feet away from the board, flyswatter in hand.  Ask them a question to which the answer is written on the board.  The students run to the board and swat the answer.  The first person who swats the correct answer (you can see who swats it because their flyswatter is on the bottom of the other one) gets the points.   Continue until one team reaches the set amount of points.

Silent Ball

Over the summer, I picked up some small sized beach balls for my kids to play with at the beach.  Now that the summer is over, these balls have found their way into my classroom.  One perfect rainy day use for them is Silent Ball.

This game is simple.  The kids sit in their seat and silently throw the ball around the classroom.  The object is to silently communicate with the person you want to throw the ball to so that they can catch it.  If you drop the ball, you are out (unless it was a bad throw).  If you throw the ball, but your partner didn't know it was going to be thrown to them (you didn't have good nonverbal communication) you are out.  The last person left in is the winner.

Rainy Day Mats

These mats are a HUGE hit in my class.  When it rains, my kids a begging for them.  I am not sure exactly why.  They just have a bunch of puzzles and games that the kids can do quietly.  I think it is because they are laminated and vis-a-vie markers get to be used :)  Here are the mats for you.  They are 8 x 11, which means when you print them out, you have the option to put them together to make them bigger or just keep them as is.  You will also see that they are NOT rigorous at.all.  This is purposeful.  I feel like my kids work so hard all day, their recess should be a bit more laid back.  So while I want them engaged, I don't necessarily want them doing brain surgery! 

So there you have it.  A few simple ideas you can use in your class when the skies open up!  Thanks for having me here on TBA.  Come on by and visit me :)

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