Minute to Win It (Part 5 of 5)

It's the final countdown (I use this song in my class the day before the big end of year assessment)! My last 10 Minute to Win It Challenges! 

26. Clipboard Tennis: For this activity, 2 students will use clipboards to volley a balled-up piece of paper back and forth. Meanwhile, I will ask 6 questions, stopping mid-sentence if the paper hits the floor until they are volleying again. The students should take turns answering the 6 questions.  Once six questions are answered correctly or the buzzer sounds, the game is over.

                                         

27. Ring Finger: I use the Halloween spider rings for this challenge, in which the student must associate 10 items to a particular term and place a ring on each of their fingers to represent each correct response in 60 seconds or less.  For example, if the unit we were studying was American Indians, I might say "1. hunted buffalo", and the student would respond with "Lakota," then I might say, "2, lived in the Eastern Woodlands," the student should respond, "Iroquois." I do this 10 times. I can also see this activity being done with geographic regions, scientific method, geometric figures, spanish vocabulary words, etc. 

28. Paper Clip Chain: In this activity, the selecting student's team must answer questions correctly and attach paper clips to one another to form a chain. I give the team about 8 paper clips. Some may get more than 1 paper clip if the teams are small.  I start the questioning with the selecting student. If they get the question correct, they hand their paper clip to the next player. That player connects their paper clip to the first student's clip. If they can also answer the question correctly, they can pass their chain to the next player. If the paper clip chain is all in one lengthy piece before the buzzer sounds, that team has successfully completed the challenge.

29. Puzzled: I love doing this activity with maps, but it works with any image. After printing the image on 8.5 X 11 paper, I write a question on the back of the sheet. Then, I cut the image into 9-12 pieces of varying shapes and sizes. The team that selects this challenge, must tape the puzzle together, flip it over, read the question, and answer it correctly in 60 seconds or less to complete this task.

30. Marble Track:  The student who selects this challenge must build a marble track using sets of staples.  Usually I pre-set modeling clay, books, or other items to vary the elevation of the potential track (students can always add or take away from what I've set). I always mark a starting point and have a cup at the end point. Then, when I start the timer, I have the student set up the track with staples and additional supplies (if necessary). When he/she acknowledges that the track is ready, I ask him/her a question. Once the student answers the question correctly, he/she has to drop the marble at the beginning of the track and hope it makes it all the way to the cup.  If it doesn't, they must fix their track before being asked another question and sending a marble down the track. Here is a short version of the track:

31. Marble Yard: The student who selected this challenge must answer three questions correctly, and then spend the remaining time trying to roll a marble down a yardstick and into a designated area. If the student can get one marble to sit in the designated zone, than they have completed the challenge successfully.

                                   

32. Balloon Blows: Set up 4 cups at the edge of a desk or table. Each of the cups should have an index card with a question inside. Give the student a balloon. The student must inflate the balloon and try to blow off the cups and answer the questions. They will have to inflate the balloon multiple times. If they can knock off all 4 cups and answer all 4 questions correctly, they've successfully completed the task. 

33. Timely Order: For this activity, I provide handouts with pictures/text representing events from history that the student's team must put in chronological order. I usually give 10-12 events that they must put in order in less than a minute.  

34. Marshmallow Mouthful*: I'VE NEVER TRIED THIS. I'm not sure, if I will or not. But, for this activity, a student must start with one marshmallow in their mouth. Then, they have to answer a question correctly. Once they do, they put another marshmallow in their mouth. Six marshmallows and six correct answers in 60 seconds, and the mission is accomplished. 

35. Ping Pong Tissue Box*: I'VE NEVER TRIED THIS. Have a student tie an empty tissue box (using rope/yarn) around their waist. Remove the plastic part where the tissues were grabbed with snotty hands and put 5 ping pong balls inside the tissue box. Student must bounce around to knock the balls out. If they can knock three balls out and answer 3 questions, they win.

I hope you've enjoyed reading about these M2Wi challenges. The students love them. They don't have to be used as part of a M2Wi game, they can be used and adapted in many different ways. Just get creative :)

Minute to Win It (Part 4 of 5)

As you read more of these M2Wi challenges, I encourage you to consider ways that you can add some fun and excitement to learning in your own classroom. It really keeps the kids engaged and interested.  I hope you think of ways that you can use these activities in your own content!

16. Pictionary: You know the drill. One student draws a picture and his/her team must guess what they are drawing. I have an index card prepared with the item that the student must draw. I have kids use the dry erase board so that the whole class can see what is being drawn.

17. Sculptorades: Anyone who has played Cranium knows this one too. Similar to Pictionary, but instead of drawing, the student who selected this challenge must sculpt a pre-selected item using Play-doh. I have an index card prepared with the item that the student must sculpt. Their team has 60 seconds to guess what they are sculpting.

                                       

18. Easter Egg Hunt:  A perfect challenge for the springtime! Before class begins, I have already hidden 4 easter eggs in the classroom. Up, down, all around (except in my teacher-only zone), the classroom has many good hiding places...trust me.  If you don't believe me, grab some sticky putty and then try. I let the whole team of the student who selected this challenge search for the eggs. Inside the eggs are a sheet of paper with a question on it. Students have a minute to find 3 eggs and answer 3 questions correctly. It's always fun to see the students' reactions when you show them where you've hidden the eggs they didn't find!

19. Stocking Stuffer: Another seasonal challenge, this winter activity can be quite amusing. I stuff a Christmas stocking with all sorts of stocking stuffers--little stuffed animals, toys, t-shirts, you name it. The student's task is a difficult one. They must be able to make some connection to what they've learned in class to any 3 items they pull out. For instance, if they pull out a stuffed cow, they could say, "The Mid-Atlantic colonies specialized in livestock." If they pull out a University of Virginia T-shirt that was sponsored by State Farm, they could say anything about Thomas Jefferson, cotton, or farming--as long as it related to something they learned in class.  They could pull out a candy bar and talk about how the Columbian Exchange made candy bars a possibility. These are a couple of examples from my classroom...there are so many opportunities and sometimes the kids will come up with things that you've never thought of yourself!

20. Sentence Structure: For this team challenge, the students must correctly place individual words in order to form a grammatically correct sentence. For example, I might give them 13 sheets of paper with the following words:

Doctrine                  European                     not                in                The                     Western                     interfere
Monroe                   to                              nations           warned          Hemisphere.         the


Can you put them in order?

The students should be able to put the words in order as a team correctly in under 60 seconds. The punctuation and (sometimes) capitalization are big clues.

SPOILER ALERT: The sentence should read, "The Monroe Doctrine warned European nations not to interfere in the Western Hemisphere."

21. Who, What, Where Charades: The student that selected this challenge must act out silent clues to get their teammates to guess who they are, what they are doing, and where they are doing it. I provide an index card with that information to the student before starting the timer. You could do something like, "Robert E. Lee surrendering at Appomattox Court House" or "George Washington leading the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia." To challenge your students even more, you might want to  switch one or two of the who, what, or where so that they are silly and not necessarily historically accurate. Examples: "Robert E. Lee surrendering in an igloo" or "George Washington digging for gold in an airplane." You could also play this game as Who, What, Where Pictionary.  This idea was inspired by a board game.

22. Head of the Class: The student who selected this challenge must balance a book on their head and answer 5 questions correctly. If the book falls, they must put it back on their head and answer 5 more questions. If they can balance the book until they have finished answering all of the questions, and they do so in less than a minute, they win it :)

23. Post-It Challenge: As you've probably read already, I have a bulletin board with a map of the U.S. in my classroom. Before the challenge, I write one geographic feature or region on each sticky note in a stack of post-its. I hand the stack to the student and start the timer as they must rush to throw all of the stickies on the board in the appropriate location before time runs out. 

24. Bucket Head: The student who selected this challenge must answer three questions correctly and make three baskets, one after each question.  The student must choose a teammate to hold a recycling bin or other bucket on his head. The bucket must stay on their head during the shot. They can move around, bend their knees, or jump, but they cannot take the basket off their head. I don't count it if the ball bounces out (the student must figure out a way to keep it in the bucket!).

25. Did You Just Flarp?: Flarp is a noise-making putty that comes in a plastic can.  If you keep it in the container and move your fingers around in it, it will make some laughter-inducing noises. The student who selected this activity should stand 10-15 feet away from the flarp. They must answer 5 questions correctly, but after each correct answer the student must run to the flarp and make a flarping sound. The rest of the class should be quiet in anticipation for the sound. Once it's heard, the student runs back and answers another question (the rest of the class is usually giggling at the flarp sound). This is repeated until 5 flarp sounds have been heard or the buzzer sounds.

My final 10 Minute to Win It challenges are coming next week...

Minute to Win It (Part 3 of 5)

The following activities are part of a larger game I play, called Minute to Win It. Check out my previous blog posts to learn more if you haven't already!

11.  Ball Toss: For this activity you need to set up cups in a pyramid and have a squishy ball of some sort. I hide questions on index cards in the cups. The student who selects this activity should throw the ball toward the pyramid while a teammate retrieves the ball and throws it back.  The goal is to knock down the pyramid, run to the fallen cups, and answer the questions on the index cards correctly before time runs out. I usually have a six-cup pyramid and three of the cups have questions.

12. Hut, Hut, Hike:  For this activity, the student that selects the challenge becomes like a center in football ready to hike the ball. Except, instead of a ball, the student will throw toilet paper between his legs and into a basket. I ask the student 4 questions and then give them the remainder of the time to try and hike the toilet paper into the basket one time. If they do, they accomplished their task! It involves toilet paper, and apparently, anything that involves toilet paper in the classroom is fun for the kids.  I won't forget purchasing an oversized bag of toilet paper from Wal-Mart for personal use at home, and while standing in line, one of my students spotted my wife and I and asked if the toilet paper was for a classroom activity. Unsure of what to say, I simply grinned and said, "You'll have to wait and see..."

13. Spell It Out: A simple team activity, for this challenge I ask a recall question that has a short response (maybe 2-4 words) and have the students dig through foam letters and spell out the answer. I think I might try a new twist this year, in which students would go through a newspaper or magazine and have to cut out letters that spell out the correct answer.  WARNING: In order to make this task reasonable, make sure that your answer is a short one!

14. Zip Around: Similar to "I Have, Who Has", the team of the student who selected this challenge must complete a zip around of 10-12 cards in 60 seconds. Each card has a question and an answer to another question in the room. For instance, one person asks, "Which president bought Louisiana from France?" and someone else reads, "Thomas Jefferson" then flips their card to read the next question. The final answer should be on the back of the card with the first question.

15. Flash Mob: One of my favorites, party music must be readily available for this one (remember you just need 60 seconds of a song). When the timer begins, so too does the music and dancing. I allow my students to dance on chairs and (sturdy) desks, while I read flashcards aloud to the student who selected the card. The student's goal is to answer 8 of the flashcards correctly without being too distracted by the music or the groovy moves of his/her classmates. This challenge may or may not have been inspired by my attendance at this event:

I make an appearance at the 4:05 mark. Can you spot me?

There will be 2 more posts in this series. Each one will contain 10 more Minute To Win It challenges that you can use in your own classroom!