Happy fall y’all! I was feeling particularly fall-ish today on account of the gorgeous fall weather in northern Ohio and thought you might enjoy a little fall freebie!
As a child myself, I LOVED doing “MadLibs.” They were a blast and always so funny.
Randomly choosing different words in specific parts of speech always turned into a hoot in the end when the story ended up so silly.
While I didn’t realize it then, I was definitely working on knowing my parts of speech while just having fun.
WHAT?!
I had to know the difference between a noun, an adjective, a verb, a counting number, and so on. Having that informal practice in the disguise of a game really helped solidify those concepts.
Using Simple Games to Reinforce Concepts
Along with basic fill-in-the-blank stories, lots of other basic games are perfect for review concepts in the classroom:
Around the World: I love this for math flashcards. One student starts next to another student in the room and you pull math flashcard from the back. Whoever wins moves to the next person and the one who does not sits in that chair. he goal is to get all the way back to your own seat.
Sparkle: Students love this game mainly because they get to sit on top of their desks until they lose. The teacher starts on one side of the room and gives the first student a spelling word. If he or she gets it correct, they get to stay on top of their desk. If they get it wrong, they sit in their seat and you give the same word to the next student. If they get it correct, they get to stay on top of their desk and you give the next word to the next student. Play continues until either only one student is still on top of their desk.
Flashlight Vocabulary: Write several current vocabulary words on the board and have student form 2 team lines. The front student in each line gets a flashlight (I like to color the lenses with dry erase markers so it is easier to see who has what) and you say the definition. The first team to get their flashlight on the word gets a point and that student goes to the back of the line. Keep continuing until one team gets to X amount of points.
Higher or Lower: One of my all time faves! It works perfectly in the hallway or as a quick time filler. You begin with saying aloud: “I am thinking of a number between 0 and 100.” The first student farthest away from you in the room gets to guess and you say “(the number they chose) is (higher or lower) than my number.” Then I usually let that student pick the next – with the requirement that boys pick a girl and girls pick a boy. Play continues until someone correctly guesses the mystery number. This game can also be modified depending on your students’ abilities. Make the number 0-10 if needed or even 0-1,000,000. I’ve done both.
Tic-Tac-Words: On the board make a large tic-tac-toe board and place random letters – one in each of the 9 spaces. Make sure to use popular letters and at least 2 different vowels. Then, have students grab a piece of paper and give them 5 minutes to write as many words as they can come up with from the letters in the grid. I like to award a winner for the most words (non-repeating) and another who comes up with the longest word.
And of course if you loved doing MadLibs as a child like me, you will love this set of two fall themed silly story worksheets to use with your own students!
Directions to Use:
- Pair up students. Give each pair 2 different stories.
- Partner A verbally asks Partner B for words to fill in each of the blanks – without reading the rest of the story.
- Repeat with the opposite story and partners switch roles.
- Students take turns reading their completed stories aloud to one another.
Hope this gets a fun laugh from your students and brightens up your day as well!
What are some of your favorite basic review games that “trick” students into learning without a fuss? We would love to hear in the comments below!
Enjoy!
~Charity
This post originally appeared at Organized Classroom.
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