If you are looking to incorporate more classroom activities in 2025, this one’s for you! I have always believed that a healthy mix between direct instruction and student lead learning is the best combo for student success. To accomplish this, I use a wide variety of classroom activities throughout the year.
A lot of teachers think that making a custom activity for multiple lessons in a week is too much, and I completely agree. This is why I use templates of 7-10 activities that can be adjusted for any topic, are ready to go, and just need questions placed in – which you would have done on a worksheet anyway. It is also nice to have a variety so that it is not the same thing over and over again.
The second concern from teachers is that students won’t have enough time to finish the lesson or complete the homework. I remind them that this is the perfect place to put some of the questions from the lesson and/or the homework. Many students don’t sit and work in class or complete homework – so I find it best to incorporate those additional practice problems into classwork by using an activity. This helps keep the students engaged and practicing the problems you wanted them to do anyway.
Here are some of my go – to activity templates:
Around the Room (2 Versions)
Version A: Type your questions into the letter boxes, and then put the answers to the question on the next letter. Cut and hang the letters around the room. Students can start wherever and if everything is done correctly, their flow should bring them back to the letter that they started at.
Version B: Student version is always ready to go, type 10 questions into the “points” boxes from easiest to most difficult, cut and paste around the room. Give each student a student page and then students can work at their own pace. They can check in with you after every problem, every few, or wait until the very end. If they get it correct on the first try – double points, second try, exact points, and last try is minus 50.
Face Math/Plate Math
This is one of my favorite activities to do, and my students love it as well. This really allows students to show off their art skills and they always mention how they miss “coloring at school.” Put your questions in the boxes with two potential options. One of the answers will have students draw one item, versus the other answer would lead them to draw something else. You will be able to tell what they did right or wrong based on their final picture. I have done multiple versions of this, face math, plate math, snowman math… the options are endless. I do this one typically once a semester in each class because it does take some time for them to complete – but it is well worth it!
Circuit
This is the most comparable activity to a worksheet. It is also the sitting down version of the “around the room version B”. You place your questions in the boxes and the answer to that question on one of the other questions. This should lead the students on a “circuit” through all of the questions. If they do all of them correctly, they should end up at the first problem they started with.
Clue Review
This is a fan favorite because you can personalize it to your school and your department – which makes it that much more fun for the students. Put your people, places, and items in the template. Put your problems on the next page, and then an answer to each question (except for 3) next to your people, places, and things. The goal is similar to the game Clue. Students will solve problems, and everytime they get an answer, they cross that person, place, or thing off of the list of the potential crime. The remaining three should be the person who did the crime, with the object that was left over, and in the place that was left over.
Simultaneous Round Table (SRT)
Students sit in teams of 3 or 4 students and work on the problem in the upper left hand corner. Students then pass the paper clockwise. The next student grades the previous problem and works with the original student to fix any issues. They then begin work on the next problem on the page. This process continues until all of the problems are complete.
Escape Room
This is the hardest activity to have a template for – but creating this activity goes pretty quick. You will need to use google forms in order to create an escape room because it allows you to lock the next section until a code is put in. On each page of the google form, put another question, mark it as required, and then add a code to get to the next section. At the very end of the question I put a picture that they need to upload for the assignment so that I know they made it all the way through and did it correctly. There is usually a theme such as helping santa save christmas, or help jack-o’-lantern deliver all of the candy.
Find a Friend / Find Someone Who
Students will be given a worksheet and instructed that each problem has to be done with a different “friend.” I have students start off by working with someone on their team. After students complete the first problem, they come up and check in the problem with me. If correct I tell them to find new friends. They stand at the designated “new friend” area and wait for a new partner. This process continues until all of the problems are complete. Sometimes I like to put a twist on this activity and do “find someone who….” and they not only need to find a friend but one who meets a specific requirement.
This is a good start of activities to begin incorporating into your lessons. Once you start your templates, making the activities become much easier to do – and then you will have the activities to use for years to come!
Happy creating!
Ms. Pi 4 Ever 