10 minutes… when you’re hanging out on the beach or out to dinner with friends, it just flies by, doesn’t it? 10 minutes – gone in the snap of your fingers. But when you finish up with everything you had planned for that day’s class, 10 minutes is a g o n i z i n g.
In 10 minutes, your students can find a way to destroy a classroom and things can get out of hand, fast! Here’s a fresh take on some activities you can do with your students to keep them busy and entertained for those few extra minutes.
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- X’s + O’s. Tic-Tac-Choice: it’s seriously the best thing to ever happen to the classroom because students can talk and they’re racing against the clock. Plus, they feel like they’re getting some choice in the matter, since they get to choose which way they draw their line. Organizational tip: print out the Tic-Tac-Choice board, laminate it, and keep a class set on hand. Set a class timer and have everyone start at the same time. When you’re ready to play, pass the boards and a dry-erase marker out to students so they can mark which ones they’ve completed. Call on several students after each round to share which one they completed and their answer(s).
- Tweet it. Having students use the parameters of Twitter to answer a review question requires them to keep it concise (140 characters!). But it also makes them think critically: when they’re scrolling through Twitter, are they more likely stop and read every tweet or focus on the ones with an image? Can they use a few effective hashtags? (More info here.)
- Play Kahoot. Last month, the website hit 10 million public kahoots. (Click here to log in or here to create an account.) So if you don’t have time to create a quiz to go with what you’re currently studying, just browse for your topic. You can also check out the trending tab to interact with some fun quizzes on current music, movies, or current events.
- Pause + play. One of the most productive things you can do in your classroom is use brain breaks. It profoundly impacts the way students’ pay attention. They can be used during those extra 10 minutes, or if you notice you’re finishing up too fast, pause for a few minutes of brain breaks, and then get back to your lesson. They’ll change the way you teach and the way your students learn!
- Whiteboard race. This is another vocabulary review strategy but there’s just something about handing out those markers (kids love them!) and using the word race. Pull out a current vocabulary list, allow the kids to group up, and go to town!
- YouTube it. Sometimes videos get a bad rap in the classroom. And that’s unfair because there are tons of great resources. You can search one out that goes with your current topic or you can take an inquiry approach: show experiments and have students hypothesize what happened. Video resources: we’re getting great feedback on our new series of 60-second science videos and we also have a Pinterest board full of videos for the science classroom.
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LearnEd Notebooks provides teachers and students with an innovative notebooking solution. We specialize in providing educators with a unique curriculum that allows you to break free from conventional methods of instruction and spend more time on labs and inquiry-based science. We provide the framework of an interactive notebook with the flexibility of teaching strategies that seamlessly integrate with each teacher’s own methods of instruction. Our complete programs include printed student notebooks, digital presentations, and access to teacher resources — each focusing on diverse learning styles and engaging instructional strategies.
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