5 Little to No Prep Movement Strategies
I teach 90 minute blocks. When I first transitioned from 50 minute classes to 90 minute classes I knew two things: I needed a variety of activities and I needed to get kids moving. Four years in, movement is still a main focus for me.
#1 Partners
I do a lot of partner work and pair and shares in my classes. My go to strategy is having students pick cards. I have index cards for each student with the student’s name, class, block, and anything else they choose to share. I fan out the cards and pick one from the end. Let’s say I pick Michael’s card. I’ll walk over to Michael and ask him to pick a card at random. Whichever card he picks will be his partner. I then choose another card, let’s say it’s Ella’s. I walk to Ella and ask her to pick a card. Whoever she picks is her partner. This continues until I have two cards left. I look at one and then give the other to the last remaining person. I tell people with cards to find their partner. This method has a few advantages:
- It is a random pairing which I appreciate.
- Almost always, students have to stand up and move. Sometimes I will even make sure they don’t pick someone at their table group.
- You can have students pick 1 card for groups of 2 OR pick 2 cards to make groups of 3
- You can use the cards to have students pick groups! Have students randomly pick two cards and then announce the group. It isn’t their group unless they pick their own name.
#2 Questions Around the Room
I’ve had fellow teachers remark on this and I feel a bit of a fraud when I tell them the truth of how it’s done! It began by taking a traditional worksheet, cutting it up into sections and hanging them around the room. That’s it!
Rather than hand students a traditional worksheet, I have them walk around the room with notebooks or small whiteboards and answer the questions. Each section is usually 3-4 questions, depending on their complexity. Have 25 students but only three 5 worksheet sections? No problem! Make 5 copies of it and code them with a color/symbol. Put a green star on one set, a blue triangle on another set, a purple square on another, etc. Give each student a color/symbol and tell them that those are the sheets around the room they are looking for. Usually, students don’t even realize they all have the same sheet until we go over it!
Want to make this even lower prep? Have students write a question on an index card with the answer on the back and tape the cards around the room! Pro-tips: give each student a number and have them number the cards for order and have students pair up and check questions for accuracy before posting. Bonus: If the questions are great, save them for the next section of the class or next year!
#3 Quizlet Live
By now I hope most teachers have discovered Quizlet Live. My students love it and never seem to tire of it! This infographic shows you five ways to adapt Quizlet Live. My favorite is the relay! It takes a bit of explanation and modeling at first but it’s worth it. You have to be on the lookout for teams that are trying to help each other too much though!
#4 Scavenger Hunts
I’ve talked about this in other posts. It really is one of my favorite activities. There are great ready-made ones on Teachers Pay Teachers or you can make your own!
#5 The Classics: Inside Circle – Outside Circle, Two Lines, Speed Dating…
These are all classic movement strategies that most teachers know. Sometimes I’m so busy trying to reinvent the wheel or innovate that I forget to go back to the classics! When I do revert to some of these, I’m shocked how often students have never done them!
When I was in school, we played the game “Around the World” All. The. Time. You know, the classic review game where one person stands behind a classmate and the first person to answer the question correctly moves on with the goal being to make it all the way around the classroom. Philosophically I have some problems with this game but that’s for another post. A sub did this with my freshman one day and next class the students were raving about this “new” game! They loved it! I don’t understand the appeal they saw in it but for that group of kids, it was engaging and it worked. I had never used it because I assumed that this generation, like mine, were over exposed to it and burnt out. Don’t be afraid to go back to the classics. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel with each activity. Who knows? Maybe what you consider outdated or overdone will be brand new to your students!
#6 New Tricks: GooseChase App
Sometimes the new things are great. I’ve heard a lot about the GooseChase App. I’ve played with it a bit but have yet to try it with my classes. It does require each student/team to have a device of some type which makes it a bit restrictive in terms of access and depending on your school policy regarding the use of phones in class. That being said, it looks amazing. It’s basically a scavenger hunt you set up and students take pictures of the required items to earn points. Here’s one teacher’s review that gives you a pretty good idea of what the platform looks like.
I’m not counting this as little or no prep because it does take work initially to create your activities but it would be easy to modify in the future and ready to go the next time you want it!
How do you work movement into your classes? I’d love to hear!
