Spark 2

Hand Dances

Make up hand dances to use with your students. This can be while waiting in line at restrooms, to focus attention, while waiting for groups to finish or clean up, transition between activities/subjects/locations, stimulate brain before difficult task like test/summative projects/focus on tough subjects.

Move your hands, to be the leader, and the students will follow (it should be like an echo movement between you and them). This is a quiet, no talking dance. You can use face expressions also to create variations in movements.

Suggestions: Move hands up/down, right/left, in circles, opposites, cross midline, touch other side of body, a dance above the waist, fast/slow, patterns, finger counting, sign language, use face/head/ears.

For Lively Elementary Teachers (or contact @livelype on Twitter)

See videos in WINGS for ideas and for your students to use now.

2 videos have been made thus far:

Hand Dance #1(1:30 min long)

Hand Dance #2 (5:30 min long)

Eventually students can lead this, like follow the leader.

Lively Elem Teachers: Look in WINGS W:\PE\Hand Dances

 

Team Spelling BEE

Materials: 2 sets of alphabet letters in 2 different colors (Have enough letters to be able to spell words duplicates might be necessary)

Students will be divided into two teams (just a general split down the middle, stay seated at desk). Each student will be given 2-3 letters (both the same color signifying which team they are on). Teacher calls out a locomotor movement that students will be required to do on their way up to the front of the class when spelling. Then teacher calls out spelling word. If a student has a letter that belongs in that word, they must take it to the front doing the locomotor movement. Two teams are racing against each other to see who can spell the word first. Students hold the cards in front of them in the correct order to spell the word correctly. The team that gets the word spelled correctly first, gets a point and all students are sent back to their desk for the next round/word.

Variations to challenge: Add another movement to their locomotor movement (hop on one foot and flap your arms like a bird), throw in a word you have not covered yet, through in a wacky word or academic vocab that they have learned, have those that DO NOT have a letter in the word do an action either while they are spelling the word or when the word is spelled correctly they have to do a movement to show that they are done  

Variations to modify/help: provide a vocab list posted on the wall or desk, decrease locomotor or use no locomotor, team up helpers together with students who need help 

Questions: The team can help each other in spelling saying who needs to move, if there are extra people they will need to sit down before the word is complete, they need to give some kind of visual/sign to say they are done, if they have two letters that are in the word then they take both up and it is just held in the place that it needs to be

 

-----Need help in a certain area? Please ask! We can help on subjects, topics, units, spelling, vocab, math, you name it we can find an answer or make up one. We are here to help you reach our students in every way possible. ------

 

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