Classroom+Activities

Team Building Activities
David believes that many activities suitable for outdoor education are transferrable to just about any classroom:

//I have come to realize how valuable and transferrable the techniques of team-building and trust activities can be to a wide variety of educational settings. These ‘games’ develop collaborative group skills, build classroom community and student confidence. There are dozens of other benefits as well. Interestingly, many of the activities can be used in the classroom or in the gym or in the school’s field and so there is no reason to think they should be limited to outdoor education.//

Business Balls
I had suggested a site called "Business Balls" with many great activities that would serve this purposes:



Value Lines
Heather made a very convincing case for using VALUE LINES, something she gained from Beyond Monet:

//In my classroom I often use Value Lines as part of my Oral Communication Program and they work well across all subject areas. Value Lines are a great tool to foster oral communication and create great discussions. Oral language is obviously used throughout all subject areas. Often as students get into the upper grades we feel that they 'should know how' to communicate orally and they 'should know how' to listen to one another. Our intermediate students require instruction or reminders as to how to properly communicate with one another. I spend a lot of time preparing students for value lines. How do we express an opinion? How should we respond to an opinion we disagree with? How will other students on the value line know that you are really listening to what they are saying? To start a value line you need to choose a topic or statement such as for a Science or Geography class - 'All homes should be forced to use solar panels as a power source'. At one side of the room you have the sign posted strongly agree and on the opposite wall you have the sign strongly disagree. Students are to position themselves somewhere between the two signs depending on their feelings or opinions on the topic. The students then share their feelings on why they choose the position that they did. This activity fosters speaking and listening skills. I am sure that most of us can see how value lines can be used in most subjects -some of you might question math - but some topics ideas could be - Memorizing times tables is critical to do well in Math. Boys are better at Math than girls etc. Information about value lines can be found in Barry Bennett's book Beyond Monet: The Artful Science of Instructional Integration on p. 107. Extensions/Modifications that are recommended to further discussion are: a)to 'fold' the line in half and have students discuss their opinions with others who feel the opposite b) from the time line move into a debate then return to the line to see if there has been a change in thinking.//