No-prep ideas to spice up your classroom

Every March, it seems like I am fresh out of ideas.  It seems like students know my tricks, and they aren’t as exciting any more.  Luckily, I have just come back from NECTFL, and I feel like I am bursting with ideas.  I also review my blog to see what games I forgot to play!  On a recent trip, I listened to a couple of episodes of Inspired Proficiency, and I feel like I have plenty of new ideas to change up our routine:

• On the games episode, I remembered the “move if” game.  With my level 5 and level 3 classes, we did this as a variation on weekend chat.  For my level 1, students said things that they liked.  One student stood in the center of the circle of chairs and stated something that they did that weekend.  If other students had done the same thing, they had to move seats and there was someone new in the center.  I was skeptical, but all of my classes really enjoyed this including my seniors.  Many of them asked for extra time to play!  (Although your neighbors may be wondering why your students are yelling “I LIKE FISH!”)
• Recently, I was able to play two games from AnneMarie’s blog!  The Game of Quotes is amazing.  My students struggled with Details, Details while we are reading our books, but I think they would do better the next time.
• When we are going to read a story (or after we read a story), dictation can be really useful.  I only have to pick out 4-5 sentences to read aloud.  Students can do this when they are tired, and it helps them to tune their ear to listen.
• While EdPuzzle isn’t typically low-prep, you can find SO many online!  The EdPuzzle database is amazing.  You can also search many times to find them.  I also just created an EdPuzzle about Mexico from Dreaming Spanish for my level 5 class, but you could probably use it for level 4 as well.  Find a great video, but an EdPuzzle doesn’t exist?  Turn it into a project, and students can tell you what they know.
• I am a huge fan of GimKit, but you don’t always have to make up the lists.  Press Kit Collab and let students write the questions!  I like to allow students to write more than one question, but you have to turn that feature on.
• Since we are reading books now, I like to give students a way to creatively express what they understand.  My favorite ways are to have them create a meme, a fake text conversation or tweets!  Or we will pull out the Play-doh and students can recreate scenes with it.  Then we discuss everyone’s scenes.

What has been your favorite way to spice up your classroom in March?

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