For the past five years, I have been slowly improving and managing the “Grammar House Cup”, our Harry Potter-themed, inter-homeroom competition. (More on that later. But come on… if YOU had exactly four homerooms in your middle school, wouldn’t you do this, too?) And for all five years of the “GHC”, I wished I could find a way to play Quidditch. But for a while, I couldn’t figure out how to do it WELL with the limited space of the classroom (and while engaging ALL the students instead of just some). This past May, I finally figured it out and beta tested it with all of my 7th and 8th graders. I got the supplies from the gym teacher, grabbed my recess whistle, and took students outside. (This activity was actually part of our final exam review!) There are a zillion ways to adapt this game. Feel free to modify the instructions below to YOUR grade level, subject area, or course content. (This doesn’t HAVE to be about grammar!) Why play "quidditch"? Low prep on the teacher's part (aside from maybe finding the hula hoops and dodgeballs) Students get to be active (and review concepts at the same time) Both athletic and non-athletic students have a place in the game What you’ll need: A large space (outside, a gymnasium, etc.) 6 hula hoops 2 dodgeballs (or similar) A premade list of questions you will ask students 1 yellow, gold, or orange Easter egg (or container) 1 harder question, written on a slip of paper Optional, but suggested: a whistle or attention-getter Optional, but suggested: 2 small dry erase boards and markers (1 set for each team) Sunscreen, hat, and sunglasses for yourself, especially if you’ll be outside for several class periods in a row. (Trust me. I got my worst sunburn of the year on Quidditch day!) Students need: Totally optional: pen and paper to take notes on the questions you ask, especially for the teams of students on the sidelines. Student Players/Roles: 6 Hula-hoop-holders (students became the moving goal posts) 2+ Keepers, at least 1 defending each set of 3 goals 3+ players per team on the field; they start in the center of the field, backs to each other, facing the goal they want to score on. 2 Seekers, 1 per team Everyone else is divided into 2 teams; they sit on the sidelines, answer my grammar questions, and yell strategy to their on-field teammates. (NOTE: I divided the two teams. However, once in teams, students were happiest when I let them decide who would be in what position, AND I gave them the option to “sub out” and change roles at the halfway point, in case someone want to enter or exit field play.) Setup: Prep the Golden Snitch. Remember that gold Easter egg? Take the slip of paper with a hard question on it, tuck it in the egg, and hide it in your space when students can't see you. (Or, send a trustworthy student to hide it.) Explain the game to students. Drawing a diagram helps. Make your explanation quick so they can spend time assigning players to roles and getting outside. It's a little chaotic the first few minutes, but after one “turn” of grammar-question-and-gameplay, they got it. How to Play: First, get everyone into position. This is honestly the only hard part! Moving excited students is like herding cats! Ask a grammar question from your list, loudly enough that everyone can hear. (See my example list below.) The teams on the sidelines huddle and come up with their answer. On-field students are allowed to help IF they're willing to risk the other team hearing. (I suggest a time limit. Also, it's up to you if you accept the FIRST correct answer, or if you let both teams “win” the round just by producing the right answer.) The team(s) with the right answer gets to move players on the field. The 3+ students in the middle ALL get to take ONE giant leap forward (think long-jump without the running start). Wherever they land, they must stay until the next correct answer, when they can take another leap toward their goal. This is where the strategy comes in. When one field player is close enough to one of the three goal hoops that he thinks he can make the shot, his teammates can give him their one dodgeball, and he can attempt to throw it through the hula hoop, being held by a goal post student from the same team. The hoop holders can move their arms, but not their feet, to help; the opposing team’s keeper tries to block the shot. Once a shot has been attempted, all field players of that team have to “reset” back to the middle of the field and start over, trying to advance toward their hoops. (Thus, there's some risk involved in attempting a shot). To be honest, most of my students DID make their attempted shots, but it was fun for them to get points. If you want to make it harder for them to make the shot, there are many ways to do that (like spreading out the distance of the field more). Game play continues until we run out of time. The team with the highest points wins. Meanwhile, the golden snitch! As soon as I ask the first question, the two seekers run off to start looking for the hidden golden snitch. (Yes, I gave them a boundary line to stay within.) When a seeker finds it, that seeker must come back to me and attempt to answer the question that is hidden inside. A right answer gets them additional points for their team; a wrong answer gets zero. Once the snitch has been found, I made all students stop, sit in place, cover their eyes, and badly sing obnoxious songs (like the ABCs or the HP theme song) while a trusted student went and hid the Snitch again. Repeat the process, using the same seekers OR new ones that the team chose to swap out. Other Pro Tips: Bring a camera, or get a student on the yearbook staff to bring one! This can get pretty funny. Use choral response to get all students across the field to repeat the correct answers back to you. This is one way to ensure students are still listening, participating, and learning. Encourage kids to strategize which students are in particular roles on the field, based on their strengths. Sample questions I asked: What does AAAWWUBBIS stand for? What are the three kinds of verbals? What's the difference between active and passive voice? Explain why Mrs. H wants to Hulk-smash things when students write “should of”. Give me a correct example of a complex sentence, including punctuation. Give me a correct example of parallel structure. What is a predicate? What is a participle? Sing a prepositional phrase used in a song. Trick question: how many Harry Potter books are there? (As you can see, I occasionally got off-topic, ha!) About the Grammar House Cup Read more about the GHC in this blog post. ALL of the grammar lessons, game boards, quizzes, and tests in my Grammar House Cup program can be found here. Do you have suggestions or ideas? I would love to hear them in the comments!
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Playing Feelings BINGO is a fun and engaging way to review the variety of feelings and emotions your students are learning throughout the school year. This game is perfect for the lower elementary grades, but I’m sure some upper grades may enjoy it as well. You decide! It comes with 25 unique BINGO cards and 100 calling cards. You may decide if students win BINGO with five in a row or by filling the entire card. It’s up to you. You can use this game as a whole class lesson, or you can pull a few cards for a small group. Feelings BINGO includes the following feelings: confused mad proud shy happy bored sad surprised scared tired frustrated worried curious confident disappointed excited silly grateful grumpy embarrassed When I play BINGO with students, I typically tell them not to clear their boards as others start winning. This way, we can get as many winners as possible without having to start over entirely. (Especially since there are 100 calling cards!) I usually have stickers, pencils, or other kid friendly trinkets for the winners. This resource does not come with BINGO chips/markers. I’ve included a link to find a set like the BINGO chips I use. Once you print the cards onto cardstock and laminate, you can continue to use this Feelings BINGO game again and again. Feelings BINGO is also part of The Feelings Activity Bundle which includes the Feelings Posters and Feelings Card Games. Please be sure to FOLLOW ME for alerts about my new product listings! If you have any concerns or questions, please contact me so I can do my best to help. Technical issues should be directed to TpT. © Savvy School Counselor Permission to copy for single counselor use only. If you intend to share this resource, please purchase additional licenses.
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If your students enjoy playing "Simon Says" they are sure to love this game! You've probably all heard of the old song "The Name Game" that goes "Shirley, Shirley, bo birley, banana fanana fo firley, fee fi fo mirley, Shirley." Well, this name game is a little different, but just as much fun
Meet Lizzy! She's a Seneca Valley senior whose session took place at the beautiful Hartwood Acres Mansion on a beautiful morning right at sunrise! I'm thankful that we were able to get some glowy morning light too - and the mansion area practically to ourselves! Lizzie plays volleyball and wants
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Hi all! Happy Monday! It's Amber from Mrs. Masters Kinder Love and I'm so happy to be sharing with you today! I can't believe that I'm already planning for the end of the school year! My head has been spinning with all the amazing ideas I see on blogs, Pinterest and instagram! Today I am sharing 5 ideas with you that I think are AMAZINGLY, AWESOME and they DO NOT break the bank!! Enjoy!! Class Pic Collage I love this idea from Jo's PhotoMojo! A lot of us have done this individually with students and sent it home for each child's family at the end of the school year. BUT this would be such a memorable piece for students to look back on when they are older and remember each of their classmates! Slideshow If you are anything like me, you take a million pictures of your kids throughout the year, and then don't really know what to do with all of them at the end of the year. Then you end up with thousands of pics on your computer that are slightly (or majorly) unorganized and just a bit of a mess. By creating a slideshow, you pick out the most memorable pictures of the year. Then you don't have to feel bad about getting rid of the 500 that you probably don't need. This idea from The Littlest Scholars is a thoughtful gift for students and families! QR Code Gift Cards! Can I just say GENIUS!! This idea from FlapJack is an easy twist on making video slideshows for your kids! You can create cards with QR codes to the videos that you've created throughout the school year! It's easier and much cheaper than buying cd's for every student in class! You can give each student a few cards to share with their families! Name Frames I am absolutely in love with these name frames from Mrs. MeGown's 2nd Grade Safari! I love the process that she used by having her students write down a word to describe each person in the class! She even included it as a freebie! You can grab her freebie and read all about this gift here! You can find frames for a dollar a piece at the Dollar Tree! Such a meaningful gift that students will be able to enjoy for years to come! Beach Balls! I've seen a couple different things you can do with beach balls for the end of the school year. The first is just using it as a fabulous/inexpensive summer gift! Check out Read Write Sing A Kindergarten Story blog post and pick up the free tags!! I have also seen this idea floating around Pinterest and think it's such a cute take on the memory book. Mrs. Patton's Patch explains it all here!! Each student gets a beach ball. You can write "We had a ball in ____ grade!" in Sharpie. Students can sign their names to the beach balls! This idea goes perfect with the popular "Beach Party" theme on the last day! Here's the great news....you can get 12 pack of beach balls for about $7.00 on Amazon!! I hope you were able to find a few fabulous ideas to get you thinking about the end of the year! Have a wonderful week!
Meet Lizzy! She's a Seneca Valley senior whose session took place at the beautiful Hartwood Acres Mansion on a beautiful morning right at sunrise! I'm thankful that we were able to get some glowy morning light too - and the mansion area practically to ourselves! Lizzie plays volleyball and wants
This activity pack contains 11 social skills, anger management, and social emotional activities in a fun spring theme to use around Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, and the days in between! It contains the following: – Social Skills Pragmatic Conversation Heart Cards (32 cards with decorative card backs) – Shamrock Charades Cards (32 cards ...
