Novelty can increase engagement for all students, but especially for gifted and advanced learners (see Novelty, Surprise, and Twists ~ How to Inject These Into Your Lessons).
Here are a few fresh activities to share with younger students!
GUS AND GABBY GUESSING GAME (FREE)
Inspired by Marcy Cook’s Contrasting Facts and the Who Am I? (SolveMe) puzzles, this game should be novel to your K-2 students because they will guess two numbers. Each student needs a Gus and Gabby handout and ten foam number tiles marked 1-10. (Note: You can make your own number tiles by purchasing these). Separate the number tiles in snack baggies- enough for each student to have one baggy. Download the PDF below for this activity
GUS and GABBY Number Logic Game ~ Set A (PDF Download)
GUS and GABBY Number Logic Game – Set B
WHICH ONE STANDS ALONE? (FREE)
This is a game based on attributes, inspired by many others including Which One Doesn’t Belong?, the $100,000 Pyramid game, and various sorting activities in the PETS lessons. The surprise for students in this activity is that there isn’t just one answer. I think I’d try it with 2nd graders first; it’s challenging enough to do with older students, too, but your K-1 students might surprise you with their responses. Preview the slides below and make your own copy of the activity HERE.
BREAK THE RULES (FREE)
Younger students can handle activities that “break the rules” if they are presented in a playful way. These two activities, previously shared in other posts are great examples of surprising students with something unexpected.
(1) First Day Poem – a guessing game poem/ students see patterns, make predictions, and learn new vocabulary
(2) Unlikely Addition – divergent thinking applied to math equations/ read more here
DRAW AND TELL STORIES (FREE)
I was very young the first time I saw a “draw-and-tell” story, and I still remember the sense of surprise! As our local librarian told a story, she drew things on a large piece of paper. At the end of the story, a picture had appeared.
I know the stories are very simple and not literary masterpieces 😂 , but the creativity and “magic” behind them makes them worth sharing with students at least once, and wouldn’t this be a fun way to introduce a mini-unit? Older students might be inspired to create their own to share with younger students (My brain always goes to, “Could students create these?”). You can find instructions for drawing and telling several stories HERE, including the one shown in this video, Building a Bot.
WORD PLAY (FREE)
You can find several vocabulary-building and novel language activities in a previous post, Playing With Words ~ Language Levity for Little Scholars.
Please comment below if you use any of these activities with your students or if you have others you can share. New lesson ideas and activities are shared about twice a month, so if you are interested in updates, you can subscribe to this site.