As a teacher, I have struggled to find a great way to start
school each day. The problem you run
into is that students arrive at different times. Some are right at the door at 8 a.m., and
others are running in right before the bell rings. The different arrival times
makes it hard to assign any kind of practice work that all of them could
participate in.
I was meeting with Mrs. Gamez in the
spring and she showed me some “brain games” that she uses to motivate her
students. They are fun games created to challenge the mind by building
reasoning and creative thinking skills through play.
So this summer I
collected different games that were created with the brain in mind. Some of the games the students play in the
morning are Last Letter, Spot It, Tell Tale, and Izzi. The card games are fast
paced and require quick thinking and inspired vocabulary. You can match symbols, play word games, tell
stories based on crazy pictures, or simply match geometric shapes into a
puzzle.
A side benefit I
didn’t anticipate is that playing the games helps with socialization in my
class. Often, my students mix with kids other than their best friends.
So if you come
into my classroom on almost any morning, you are welcome to join in on a game
and stretch your brain!
Love this!
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