Getting Students to Participate

sometimes it's hard getting everyone is the class to participate...especially first period. here are two ideas that i use CONSTANTLY in the class room which the students love because they feel like games.

1. whiteboards

i have homemade mine out of sheet protectors and cardstock. not too expensive and the kids LOVE them. remind them that if they wipe them off with their hands, it puts oils on the boards and ruins the markers. but no need to get erasers for everyone! just have them use the bottom of their markers. after about 5 days of using them, i have to clean them. i have a TA do it for me :) here's a picture of what they look like...

2. true/false construction cards

i couldn't find of picture of this so i will just explain. again, homemade and SO easy! you take two different colors of construction paper and cut them into 5'' by 4'' rectangles (or really any size...make it easy on yourself but they have to be wide enough to staple and fit your hand in!) put 4-5 staples on the sides (and yes, you need that many! kids shove their hands in and break them all the time!) and you'll have a "puppet-y" like invention. you put it on your hands and you can use them for true/false, yes/no, nutritious/non-nutritious, muscle/cardiovascular...any question with two answers and it's easy to see who's participating and who is not!! my kids love it because we do a countdown, "ok, on three! ONE....TWO....THREE!!" and it's a game to them. they other REALLY fun thing we did with them, is in our social unit, i used them for girls/boys. so we did questions like, "who should send the after date text." ha ha. they loved that one.

if that does not make sense email me or leave a comment and i'll explain more.

what easy, good ideas have you found??? please share and we'll get some stuff going for 2012!

already 1/2 way through january. so weird.