Cheap and Easy Classroom Activities

Classroom teachers are always looking for inexpensive yet rigorous activities for their students. With a little bit of patience and ingenuity you can find plenty of resources already under your fingertips!

CARDBOARD COVERS

Go into your recycling bin and cut the covers off of each of the items in there. This will get you started. Every time you go to toss something else into your recycling bin take the face off and start filling an envelope. In a very short time you should have a good amount to start using in your classroom. I cut the cardboard faces off of everything from granola bars to cleaning supplies. Once you have enough you can use them for the following:

ABC ORDER

The long forgotten skill that kids don’t know how to do anymore! I pass out a cardboard cover to each of them. Without talking to each other I have them line up from A to Z based on the brand name of their product. You can switch things up and do it Z to A after they swap covers with another.

PERIMETER & AREA

Using these covers is a fun way to practice these math skills. The teacher might need to be a little deliberate in the cutting to eliminate having to round up or multiple fractions/decimals. This could be a great quiet center activity with a simple record sheet. The students could even check their accuracy on their own!

WRITING CENTERS

These covers can encourage students to write advertisements for the products or even opinion pieces on how their product is the best around. The students could even work on a new version of the product that they would have to present to the class. Teachers love those ideas that can work on their speaking and listening skills as well!

PIXAR SHORT MOVIES

Faces light up when kids start talking about the creative shorts that have been created for entertainment. Many of these can be found on YouTube.com. Pixar's shorts are especially great for classroom use because of the lack of dialogue. Make sure to watch them fully before you share with your class. 

INFERENCE

A few years my teammate found this adorable short film ---> Pixar's Short: Knick Knack

It is a creative way to help my students think about the difference between the terms explicit and inferred. I created an evidence chart that guides the students to support statements with evidence from the short. This is a great way to scaffold into finding evidence from texts.

SUMMARIZING

Many kids just want to retell what happened word for word. But if you encourage them to create a hand organizer with the 5 W questions. These notes will help them create a summary or gist statement. Writing is always more fun when the topic is something of interest. 

See more ideas about Writer's Workshop Part 1 HERE and Part 2 HERE.

Student Hand Organizer: using the 5 senses to describe an experience

PLAYING CARDS & DICE

Having a strong number sense carries students into the more difficult mathematical concepts. Any hands on method can help strengthen these important foundations.

OPERATIONS

Just with 2 simple dice you can have the students practice any of the operations. Whatever two digits the students roll they can add, subtract, multiply, or divide them. This can be done with a partner or on their own with a record sheet for accountability. 

You can find inexpensive and seasonal BUMP games in my store here ---> Fourth and Fritcher BUMP Games

PLACE VALUE

Students can draw a number of cards to create multi-digit numbers. From there they can try and create the largest or smallest possible number from those cards. With a partner they can work on the concept of greater than or less than in a war type game. I have also had them work with the two numbers they created together to practice multi-digit addition and subtraction. 

CIRCLES AND STARS

This is a great way to help introduce or practice the concept of multiplication. The first die rolled is the number of circles the students draw on their paper. The second roll with be the number of stars drawn in each circle. Once they count the number of total stars they will have the product created. The student then writes the number sentence that is represented in the picture. 

These simple strategies are inexpensive and easily differentiated for the needs of your students. Placed in a center or used in a whole group setting, with a little "thinking outside the box", your students will be excited and engaged with minimal costs.

Back to School Getting to Know You Activities

Building a strong classroom community is vital at the start of the year. But, how can we be sure to include those students who view public speaking as torture? If the goal is to get students more comfortable with one another and their new classroom, it is counterproductive to force students into scenarios that make their skin crawl. What are some ways we can get the students mingling without placing a huge spotlight on individuals?

Below are some ways you can “break the ice” without breaking your students.

Line-up

This task works on ice breaking without anyone speaking. I line the students up randomly and tell them they need to get in a specific order without speaking a word. We brainstorm some ways that they can communicate without using spoken words. There are many variations to this, but my favorites are lining them up from tallest to oldest, by birth dates, or ABC order by their names or favorite cartoon character. I have printed number and alphabet cards to also use as tools to have them put themselves in order. Playing cards work just as well. This is a great way to see how they can communicate without words.

Rock, Paper, Scissors War

This game is low stress and always brings smiles to any room. The students start playing with friends that they are comfortable and as they win the group gets smaller. The others that haven’t advanced sit back and watch the war progress. The last one standing is the winner. Getting them moving helps make those first days go faster for everyone!

Many of the icebreakers that students dread are the ones when they have to go around asking each other questions. These tasks do get them moving, speaking and listening, and learning names, but how about some other ways to learn each other’s names?

All About Me Creations

Name tags, cubes, collages, and a variety of shape templates can be a perfect canvas for everyone to express themselves. Some may want to present their creative products, but others will be fine displaying them for others to read from a bulletin board or table. 

Name Tags

Creatively drawing their name is a great way to start this project. I have encouraged the students to add 5 number sentences that help describe them. For example maybe the student has 4 siblings. The student would write an equation that 4 is the answer (100-96= 4) This is a nice way to incorporate math and they differentiate on their own by the math operations and equations they choose to use.

Paper Collages

I have the students create their names as well as 5 details about them. But they can’t draw them with any writing tools. All of the shapes and words must be cut or torn out of colorful construction paper. I have the students glue their shapes onto black paper so the colors of their collage pop. These collages are a great way to decorate the room for the year as well. It helps the kids have ownership in their new classroom when they are helping to decorate it!

Class Word Puzzle

I create a puzzle with all of the students’ names. This is a quiet morning warm-up that gets the students knowing the names of their new classmates. It can be done on their own or in a small group.  

Here's an easy to use website:
Discover Education's Puzzlemaker: Word Search

Name Bingo

Another way to familiarize others with the names is Bingo!. You can create a blank template that the student choose names from a word bank to add to their board. The teacher then randomly picks the names and the students cross off their matches on their boards. The winner can be challenged to identify the students on the winning board for an extra prize. 

Any task that helps build classroom community also helps you learn about the kids in your classroom - icebreakers aren’t just for the kids! They are great to see the personalities come through and how they will all fit together. 

STEM Challenges 

I love to give the students simple materials and challenge them to create something new. We have created tall towers of index cards, straws, marshmallows and toothpicks and the kids have loved every minute of it. Make sure to create explicit expectations and let them create. Throw a little math into it at the end while they measure their towers and graph the class results.

One easy challenge is to ask students to create a STEM project that demonstrates a rule for the classroom. Student creations are a great way to give a visual to the expectations!  

I used this FREEBIE from Teachers Are Terrific:
STEM Challenge Back to School Rules FREEBIE

STEM Prep:
I used random craft supplies that were laying around in a cabinet.

Raise Your Hand for Permission to Speak

Movement Makers

Kids on that first week want nothing but to get outside and enjoy the sunshine they are missing. Why not grab some plastic spoons and ping pong balls and make a class relay race. Beach Balls from the Dollar Store also make for a great relay challenge between the boys and girls of your class. All the learning doesn’t have to happen in the classroom. Human Chain is a fun cooperative game that doesn’t require any props. The students form a small circle of 5-6 and connect hands with different peers across the circle without letting go of the hands the students must untangle themselves. 

The first few weeks are so important in the success of the entire year. I firmly agree that putting the time in early on these foundations pay off big rewards later on! Make sure you are thinking of every kind of kid you might have in your classroom. Not every kid enjoys putting themselves out there. But having a variety of opportunities will help make those first days memorable and wanting them to come back for more!

You may also be interested in these other blogs to get your year started!

Back to Basics in an Elementary Classroom

Reading Response Journals

How to Host a Book Tasting in an Elementary Classroom

Friendly Letter Writing in an Elementary Classroom: Friday Family Letters

Easy Back to School With Picture Books