Teacher’s Brain

Tag: prompts

Spring Would You Rather Game For Elementary That Students Will Love!

Distance Learning, Teacher's Pay Teachers, Teaching Tips, Writing

There’s nothing I love more than when students get excited to learn. It’s the best feeling to see their faces light up as they fully engage in their lesson. It’s every teacher’s dream! However, it can be tricky to achieve. Especially as we approach the end of the school year. Students start to get a little restless so it takes a little creativity to really capture, and keep, their attention. 

One of my favorite ways to do that is by playing games! Games in the classroom are proven to increase engagement, learning outcomes, and fun! In fact, research says that along with increased participation, playing games with your students can also encourage social and emotional learning and motivate students to take more risks. 

One of my favorite games to play in the classroom has to be Would You Rather! 

If you aren’t familiar, Would You Rather is a fun game where you have to choose between two different scenarios or items. For example, would you rather see a bird or a butterfly? These questions are intended to be silly and fun and encourage creative thinking. It’s guaranteed to get your students giggling.

With spring officially here, I created a spring-themed Would You Rather game that your students will love! 

would you rather game preview

These Google Slides come with several questions to get your students thinking about spring. After making their choice, students will then use the paper provided to explain why they made that decision.

These Google Slides are interactive and editable. Which means you can change them up to fit your needs. Feel free to delete slides, add your own directions, or change the pictures as you see fit. 

You can have students hold up one or two fingers to share what they would pick. It even comes with a movable highlighter to highlight your student’s most popular choice! This resource comes with 50 colorful slides for endless writing fun. If you are distance learning, this resource is easily adaptable to do digitally as well. 

would you rather game preview

If you love this activity, you can also get it for every season! 

Would you rather game bundle image

The complete bundle comes with Would You Rather slides for Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter. This means you get over 200 colorful slides. A great way to teach students the seasons as well! 

What are your favorite games to play in the classroom? Let me know in the comments!

Would You Rather Game Pin Image

Looking for some more fun spring resources? Create a bunny trap with this resource! 

 

Writing Prompts For Every Day Of The Year

Teacher's Pay Teachers

One of the most important things we teach in elementary school is reading and writing. These skills provide so many valuable benefits for students. Being able to express yourself, your thoughts, and your ideas is a great way to share and communicate. 

writing prompts

These skills will continue to be important as they write resumes, emails, cover letters, articles, or whatever else their future careers require of them. Developing these skills early is crucial to success. 

Writing takes practice, and a lot of it. Our younger students aren’t necessarily naturals at telling stories. It is up to us to teach them about a beginning, middle, and end. We must also remember to teach them the importance of adding details to their writing for better reader comprehension. 

With lots of practice and direction, students will eventually become great writers, readers, and better communicators. 

When I was in the classroom, I made time for writing every day, no matter what! It was important to me that my students got ample time to practice and hone those writing skills. It was amazing to see the progress they have made with their writing skills at the end of the year! 

To keep writing exciting, I provided fun and creative prompts for them. Having something different every day would spark their imagination, creativity, and keep them from getting bored with it. 

This lead me to create these writing prompts for every day of the year. 

You read that right- every day! 365 writing prompts so you can always add variety into your writing time. These writing prompts are themed to go along with the month so you’ll get some Halloween and Christmas writing prompts too. 

writing prompts

Each month comes with a journal cover that students can color and make their own. Each journal has a rubric, self-checking list at the bottom of each prompt, a word bank, along with the decorative cover. Just print and staple!

 You can use them as quick writes or add a second page of extra lines in between each prompt to encourage more writing. One of the student’s favorite activities with these writing prompts is when I asked for volunteers to read their writing to the whole class. I only picked a couple a day because of time, but it is what motivated them to become better writers. They knew someone might hear their words. It gave their writing meaning.

writing prompts

There is a themed word bank in front of the journal with room for students to add their own words. This allows them to feel ownership when they get to add their own words. I would also have students use the Self Check off at the bottom of each page to remind them of their writing expectations. Then, I asked them to each take a green crayon to highlight their capital letters, and a red crayon to highlight their punctuation.

Happy Writing!

 

Writing Prompts For Early Elementary Students

kindergarten survival, Teacher's Pay Teachers, Writing

Do your early elementary students need help getting their creative writing juices flowing? Writing prompts can help!

When faced with a blank page, many kids can feel overwhelmed by writing assignments. They’re not sure where to start, and some students can even shut down when faced with writing activities. Other students might be comfortable with writing, but just don’t get excited about “boring” writing assignments in the classroom.

writing prompts

 Writing prompt journals are the answer for these challenges!

Journals filled with writing prompts give a clear assignment each and every day. Your students will know exactly what to write rather than spending time deciding about a topic.

With daily assignments students will approach their writing with more confidence. As they become more comfortable with responding to prompts they will lose their feelings of overwhelm. 

In addition, journals are a great way to monitor students’ growth in their writing skills. By keeping each month’s journals you will be able to see their content and conventions grow over time. You can also identify problem areas for particular students or the whole class and address those skills with specialized lessons.

As your students become more familiar with daily writing, they will take more chances with creativity. Writing as a daily routine will help you address all of these skills regularly without extra planning. You can even add in word banks with vocabulary words for them to use and teach them how to check their work with self check-offs.

If you’re ready to incorporate daily writing prompts in your classroom, my Writing Prompts with Word Banks Bundle is just the print-and-go material you need.

Simply print the pages out for the month, staple, and you’re ready!

writing prompts

Students will love the fun writing tasks as well as the word banks. They can easily spell words they may need in their writing and feel more confident in their ideas. There are also checklists at the bottom of each day’s prompt so students can check their own work for writing expectations. Each month includes a writing rubric you can use to assess students’ writing.

writing prompts

In addition to journals for all twelve months, I’ve also included silly writing prompts to really get your students excited! Reluctant writers will enjoy using their skills for a fun writing assignment. 

I hope these writing prompts get your students excited to use their creativity with writing!