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Friday, July 20, 2012

Gestures Activity....1st Week of School

Let's share both WBT activities and also any great "starter" activities for the first week of school.
The only procedure I usually start with on the first day is Class/Yes because even on the first day I will need to get their attention.  I then tell the students we will cover other procedures/rules as the need arises.

In the past one of my favorite activities has been a gestures game of sorts. Students line themselves up in a circle. The first person says, "Hi my name is ______" and then the must do a gesture (generally no sound effects). The rest of the group replies, "Hi _____!" and they all repeat the gesture. The next  person in line says their name and gives their own gesture. NOW....the whole group repeats the second person's name/gesture and then ALSO repeats the first person's name and gesture. They go all the way around the room until the whole group repeats all 30 some odd names and gestures in a row! Usually takes about 2 days. This is a great activity because it shows the group that we can all be silly together (no one is better than anyone else because they all participate) AND they get to know each other a bit.

There are a few rules that go along with this activity. For example, a gesture can only be used by one person and everyone must participate. If someone repeatedly doesn't participate they may be asked to perform it all on their own (never had that actually need to happen). Also...no one is skipped. If a person isn't sure of what gesture to use we just wait. I explain all of these rules before starting.  This trains them to the idea that they will not be able to use the "i'm not sure" answer to get out of answering questions.

There have been many years when I almost have not done this activity because I felt it was going to be too silly or because I didn't want to take the time but it ALWAYS ends up worth it!

1 comment:

  1. This sounds like a lot of fun as well as getting gestures involved right away!

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