Quick and easy time-fillers for middle-years students?

December 3, 2009 2:36 PM

Quick and easy time-fillers for middle-years students?

Oftentimes I will have 5 fre minutes as students are entering the classroom or in-between activities, and I want something relatively productive/educational/interesting to do with those who are already ready.

20-questions works great and I've used that successfully. Do you have any suggestions for other activities? Please keep them appropriate for middle-years students (grade 5-8).

Thanks!

posted by iftheaccidentwill to Education (3 answers total)

Best answer: Can you put a rebus or word/logic puzzle on the board for them to solve?

Or, if they have journals they write in regularly, you could put up a journal prompt on the board and they could get started on a journal entry.

You could also choose random Friday Five sets for them to respond to.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 2:41 PM on December 3, 2009 [1 favorite]

Seconding logic puzzles. my 8th graders love those...the one day I forgot to write one on the board, they were actually disappointed. My kids also do daily "quick write" journal entries.
posted by dzaz at 3:56 PM on December 3, 2009 [1 favorite]

I'd actually suggest a set of 3-5 tasks, like:

* write a poem
* write a descriptive passage that includes all the senses
* draw a picture

and encourage them to choose a different one than the day before - if you wrote a poem yesterday, do a drawing today. You can add a topic if you want to make it even more specific:

Today's topic: California

* write a poem about California
* write a descriptive passage about California
* draw a picture of something that represents California
posted by kristi at 10:24 AM on December 4, 2009