Elementary Game Ideas

[wattawoman]

With the warm weather coming on, we took the opportunity to be outdoors to have a scavenger hunt.  We called it the Amazing Race as the kids had to stop and perform some tasks.  These are the Roadblocks and Detours.  I made the words to paste onto envelopes.  Inside the envelopes were clues.  When they are finished with all the clues, they are given a page of riddles.  They must be the first to solve the riddles in order be the winner.
This is mostly an excercise in reading.    But the kids really enjoy it. 
This is one long document, instead of several different ones with the clues, directions, etc.
It could be made more difficult for middle school kids, too.  Also it is for my school, so the clues such as "100 year statue" would have to be modified to fit your school.

[lkvorders]

Has anyone played any games that have been a hit with 5th and 6th graders? Please let me know if you have!

Thanks!

[alexinasia]

Review game: Bomb. They love it. I'm sure you've heard of that by now but if not, it's great.

Not quite a game but an activity I did recently that my 6th graders LOVED was making a time capsule (same word in Korean). We had them write 4 sentences about what they will do for summer vacation (I will play computer games like Sudden Attack and Star Craft. I will go swimming. I will visit my grandmother in Busan. etc). They wrote their name and attendance number on the paper (we made little papers with lines to hand out) and put it in the time capsule (a decorated soda bottle we made). After vacation they will open it and check off the things they did and didn't do. I imagine you could do this for anything, beginning and end of summer camp, etc.

[KirstyT]

Hi - I am sure a lot of people play these already - but I thought I'd put down some of my favourites.

I play Hot Seat a lot as an end of lesson filler - one student stands at the front facing the class (back to whiteboard) and you write some of the target vocabulary on the board. (Eg "I go swimming.") The other students must then tell them what is written without saying the words on the board. Ideally, no Korean should be spoken - so they use a lot of movement and some simple english words (Water! Water!). Sometimes I let them say it in Korean if the student is struggling.
You can also play in teams - by having several students sitting at the front with white boards. First to write and hold up the correct answers gets points for their team.

Blazing pens (unscrambling words and sentences) is another good one. Use a powerpoint with the mixed up words and have individuals from teams writing on the board or give each team a whiteboard. First team with the correct answer wins, natch!

Slow word reveal or picture reveal can also be good. Again, just use a powerpoint with the image/word relating to that day's vocabulary. I usually ask teams to guess in turn about a single image and reduce the points they are going to win each time another hint is given.

A friend suggested Countdown to me (UK tv show - contestants select 7 letters (4 vowels 3 consonants) and the team that can make the longest word wins!) My kids got pretty into it today. I played along with them and they thought that was pretty funny. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e32kaa9TzeE&feature=related
You can use that timer to get them into it.

You can also play blockbusters if you draw a letter grid on the board and have a clue for each letter (EG - What R kind of weather will get you wet? RAINY!) First team to get 4 letters blocked off in a row is the winner. 

Not a game but they LOVE wordsearches. Candy for the first 3 finished results in frantic scribbling.
A quick game of pictionary/hangman or even charades using that lesson's vocabulary can also kill a few dead minutes at the end of a class nicely : )

[timcity]

My 5th and 6th graders liked this activity.  Put them in groups of 4 and give each kid a different worksheet.  Student A worksheet, Student B worksheet, Student C worksheet and Student D worksheet.  Each student must take turns reading aloud their clue for question number 1.  Once they've all read aloud their clue, they must guess the object the clues are describing as a group.  This activity usually takes about 15-20 minutes depending on the level of your students.

[mffrance]

Jump & Read

I copied song lyrics or Green Eggs and Ham into a powerpoint presentation so I could enlarge it on the television screen.  Then everyone from group 1 would take a turn reading until they messed up, picking up where their teammate messed up.  When everyone in their team was finished I wrote down the line they ended on (slide 7, line 3).  The kids loved it and it was a lot of fun even for the students watching.  For younger classes, I told them they could spell letters if they can't read words and it worked well.  Make sure to have plenty of slides because some teams were really good.

[jille86]

That sounds awesome! I want to try it with my students, but just to clarify, if a team consisted of say, 5 kids, then 1 at a time they would read until they messed up the skipping or the reading or both and then the next kid would go until all 5 had gone? How would you determine a winner? The team that got the furthest in reading? Is there a time limit for each team?

[mffrance]

That sounds awesome! I want to try it with my students, but just to clarify, if a team consisted of say, 5 kids, then 1 at a time they would read until they messed up the skipping or the reading or both and then the next kid would go until all 5 had gone? How would you determine a winner? The team that got the furthest in reading? Is there a time limit for each team?

yes, 1 at a time, then I keep track of how far their team got.  If you have uneven teams, like one of the teams only has 4 students, then tell that team that one student must go twice.  Their turn is over when they mess up jumping; I corrected their reading/pronunciation as they went.   They group that worked together to get furthest in the PPT wins.  No time limit.  This is the sort of thing we did during camp or on a fun day.

[erindipity]

that sounds like a great idea!

would you mind uploading the PPT? my school lib doesn't have any dr. seuss :

[forever]

Its not the powerpoint - but it is the script.

http://www.havefunteaching.com/fun-activities/readers-theater/green-eggs-and-ham.pdf

http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/Francisco-53026-Green-Eggs-Ham-correct-Dr-Seuss-and-Education-ppt-powerpoint/

you can download the ppt from here - http://staffweb.srk12.org/sears_l/powerpoints/Green+eggs+and+ham+rhyming.ppt

(I don't know how to attach it to this message)

[foreverJ]

love this idea! thanks!
There is another powerpoint for the book on this thread: http://waygook.org/index.php/topic,3448.0.html

[teacher_del]

love this idea! thanks!
There is another powerpoint for the book on this thread: http://waygook.org/index.php/topic,3448.0.html

http://waygook.org/index.php/topic,3448.msg17022.html#msg17022 precisely.

Lots of other stories in that thread, too.  Download them all! 

[erindipity]

awesome guys! thanks! i'm totally gonna try this out today! just borrowed a jumprope from my school nurse. *fingers crossed*

[breezyp]

So is the student jump roping and reading at the same time, or does one student read until another student messes up jumping and then the roles change to other students?

[MelKorea]

Hey Guys!

I came accross this list of game ideas. They can be adapted to any topic... sometimes the book can be a little dry so these ideas can help to mix things up a bit!
Enjoy. 

[youlovetonyt]

Thanks for this! I was looking for some new game ideas

[incheonelem]

this is really useful - thank you!!!!

[Hello]

Hey. Thanks. I`m at a Hogwan and I am not really allowed to play games, but some of them can at least help to make the classes more entertaining. 

[agentsik]

awesome thanks

[jmtomkin]

Fantastic! Thanks for the long list of ideas!