Every school (and school district) does things a little bit differently but one thing’s for sure — if you have students with you for any length of time after they’ve tested, you need some fun activities to keep them engaged and learning. We’ve compiled a few of our favorites that you can use.
- Blackout poetry. Think about everything you know about poetry. Now throw that out of your mind. Seriously, this is nothing like traditional poetry. It’s all about allowing your students to create a new meaning from an existing piece of text. If you want to stick to science-themed instruction, you could easily pull a recent current event article and use that. Have some sharpies on hand and let them go to town! You’ll be surprised at how creative they get.
- Experiments. We usually think about setting up labs after we’ve taught a certain concept and then letting our students see it in action. But if you have a few leftover supplies stashed away, there’s a pretty good chance your students would love to see it. Experiments are the FUN part of science so there’s no reason to put an end to the experiments. (More on the importance of labs here.)
- Brain breaks. Lots of brain breaks! Once the pressure of testing is off, it’s important to make things low key and fun. Brain breaks are an easy way to accomplish that. Whether you teach older students or younger ones, you can find something that suits each age. Brain breaks are also a great way to provide structure but still allow students to move around, talk, and get some energy out without giving them free reign of the classroom.
- Science Buzz. Whether you’ve played it all year or this is your first attempt, let your students quiz each other on the vocabulary terms you’ve drilled them with all year. Make it low key and let them laugh and have a good time. Find some variations to add to it if your students are used to playing Science Buzz regularly. Maybe each team could see how many different people could give clues in 90 seconds?
- Movies. What’s the end of the school year without a movie or two? This list has movies centered around science and you can pick appropriate topics and ratings for your classroom.
Boom. Summer is just around the corner!
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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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