In this post, I will share with you two of my very favorite whole group games to play with Kindergartners and Pre-Kindergartners: The Quiet Game and Whole Group Bang! Both of these are “staples” in my classroom, and absolutely get used every single year! In fact, I used the Quiet Game nearly every single DAY to keep my class busy if I had to stop teaching to talk to another adult for some reason, or help a child individually with something. So I hope you find these games as useful as I do!
I started “collecting” and writing down all of these games for a presentation that I give called “Whole Group Games and Activities for Math and Language Arts.” And I can tell you that it was a LOT of work! After all of that work, it’s a shame to share them with only the few people that are fortunate enough to get a day off to go to a conference. (And if you get a PAID day off to go to a conference that your district paid for- well, you are VERY lucky!) Anyway, I think I’ll post a few games every week or so this summer, so if you are interested in hearing about them, you might want to sign up for the emailed updates to make sure that you don’t miss any.
I’m going to start with the silliest, “stupidest” game ever. But I use it nearly every day; no teacher should be without it! When I first started teaching Kindergarten, I taught the afternoon class, and I had moved into a room with a very experienced, expert teacher that new teachers tend to find somewhat intimidating! Luckily, she took me under her wing, and taught me all of the things I should have learned in my student teaching experience, but didn’t. Anyway, when the AM teacher, Mrs. Kinne, taught me this game, I thought she was crazy. What child would ever find this entertaining? Who in the world would think of such a thing?
The Quiet Game
What you need:
1. Your teacher chair.
2. A DISTRACTION that pulls you away from teaching your class for a minute or two- like a child wetting his pants, or a parent that MUST talk to you right away, in private!
How to play:
-Choose one child to be the “starter.” This child gets to sit in your teacher chair and chooses the quietest person in the room.
-The person that gets chosen by the starter gets to be the next leader. He gets to sit in the teacher chair and picks the next quietest person to sit in the teacher chair.
-Boys must pick girls, and girls must pick boys. No “pick backs” allowed!
-No “stalling” allowed; (you can’t just sit there and pick no one, or the teacher will choose for you. If I notice kids stalling, I call out, “Okay, I’m going to count to three, and then I will pick for you!” That always does it. They pick someone immediately!
The end of the game:
When you are done managing your DISTRACTION: have the person in the chair choose someone to start the game next time. Don’t let the person in the chair be the starter next time, or kids may sit and “stall,” refusing to choose someone- usually because they hope to be the starter next time!
Tip:
-Keep track of who gets to be the next “starter” on a small white board and pin it to a wall or bulletin board nearby your teacher chair. If you can find a small one that has a place to attach a little dry erase marker with an eraser on the end of it, then it will be really quick and easy to write it down each time.
-If my “starter” is absent or busy with something, then I usually have my helper of the day start the game.
The children in my class last year loved playing this game so much that they would whine about it if we didn’t get a chance to play during the day! And, sometimes while a few of them were waiting for their parents to pick them up at the end of the day, they would play it while they waited! They would even play it when there were only TWO children in the room! You wouldn’t believe how dramatically they would think and think before they would choose that other person! I even had a child play it once by herself! She got a couple of dolls and bears from the playhouse, put them on the carpet squares, and proceeded to pick the “quietest” one! (Don’t ask me how she made THAT decision! Ah, the wonders of the Kindergarten imagination!)
Whole Group “Bang!”
Here’s another great game. We play this one a LOT- especially at the beginning of the school year with our Zoo-Phonics cards!
What you need:
1. Flash cards for any concept, some with the word, “Bang!” on them. Or, put your flash cards on Power Point as shown above. Every so often, though, you’ll have to scramble up your slides so that the children don’t memorize where the Bang cards are “hidden.”
How to play:
-Drill the kids on the flash cards. When the word , “Bang!” comes up, they sit down. The next time it comes up, they stand up, etc.
Variations on Whole Group Bang:
Change the motion to something else, such as spin around, growl like a tiger, or snap like a crocodile. Change the word bang to “Kablooie!” and have the kids explode and fall down.
Anyway, for now the download is free, but it may not be forever, so if you are interested in having it, make sure you grab it now, then pop on over to the free downloads page on my website and see some other fun ideas to experiment with as well. And keep checking back for more Group Game ideas coming here soon!
Happy teaching!
Heidi
