Top 10 Activities from my 2021-2022

Join me in counting down my TOP 10 activities on my list and as hard as it may be, narrowing it down to 10 was super satisfying!

It has become a yearly tradition in which I sit down and reflect on my most favorite 10 activities that have happened throughout my previous scholastic year. This helps me in preparing myself for a whole new year while also looking back at the possibilities of how I can improve some of my work and enhance it in different ways.

Number 10: "Dinosaur Mayhem"

Activity information: Mess up the classroom while students are out. Create a havoc with their belongings too. Let them get in the classroom first and WAIT for their reactions. Do not spoil their fun. This is a great opportunity for open-ended questions! WATCH & LISTEN!!!!

So this activity has been such a favorite over the years that every time I go about it, it gets better and better. The activity is simple to adapt in any theme and the aims are somewhat always similar. The effect it leaves on children is priceless and their expressions are ones to look for. Keeping a serious face is by far the hardest job in such an activity but the outcome is always never ending. The sheer confusion and disbelief is easily visible on students first reactions. What is not to love about a bit of a mess right?

Activity Tip: Record their reactions via a video! It would be on loop for the whole scholastic year.

Number 9: "a-MAZE-ing Tracks"

Activity information: Use coloured tape to find a surface to apply funky markings with. Make them as long/short as you please however make them spacious enough to allow different abilities to shine especially their strengths. Lead some tracks to the finish lines and others back to square one. Let "Trial and Error" exploration improve through play and using cars made it even more colourful.

Having just started a new scholastic year, it was evidently surprising to observe how much the students were immersed into transportation. Cars and vehicles were the obvious choice for our first theme, however I needed to find innovative ideas on how to WOW them with new games that instil more than just a fun factor. The maze itself provided so much opportunities for colour recognition, pre-writing, cognitive thinking, experiments and much more, that the opportunities were endless. NO not all students followed through successfully with their first attempt BUT they were eager enough to try over and over again until they felt accomplished. Why is this one of my favorites? Because it was one of the first activities that we did as a group and it can be easily adapted to any other projects in the future.

Activity Tip: It is OK not to drive the cars directly on the lines. Focus on using fingers if cars are too much of a distraction and reinforce by using a car as a reinforcement at the end of the task.

Number 8: "Google Street View"

Activity information: Use your school as a starting point and write down the address of your students houses as your destination. Allow children to manoeuvre their way in the streets of their home town in order to arrive to their home destinations.

Living in such a digital era is inevitable not to use resourceful devices, hence why it is important to instil digital competencies other than just watching YOUTUBE. Chucking away the old school Yellow Pages manual and moving on to a more refined, paperless way on how to manoeuvre around towns has never been this exciting. The sheer awe in it all made it even better. Watching your children identifying their homes and sharing what they see along the way is massively awesome. You can imagine how gobsmacked they were when I showed them the distance I travel everyday to make it to Hamrun from Iklin. This activity deserves a spot on the list as it gained several interest and opened up discussions such as "my door is no longer blue".....or "George lives next door"! Who knew walking around the streets of Hamrun from our classroom would be so inviting right?

Activity Tip: It is also a great time to explore esafety measures such as switching off location on devices when not in use, not giving out addresses to strangers etc.

Number 7: "Balance Beams"

Activity information: Create space events for children to engage in various skills through Freeplay. Add a Balance Beam to your play area and watch them play.

Freeplay is NEVER a waste of time and it surely never gets boring. Add a touch of Balance Beams and watch how play changes. Integrating gross motor skills with dressing up, opened up more conversations between students not to mention improved on social skills development. The drop was not far from the floor, hence why many students opted to try it out unaided, giving them a boost in risk taking and more body control. Not all Freeplay have to be seated and with table top toys you know!

Activity Tip: Change up the shape of the Balance Beams every time you use them. Make them straight, circulars or in any other shape to improve various ways for exploration.

Number 6: "Scribbles, Wriggles and Lines"

Activity information: Cover a table with writing paper. Provide crayons or other writing tools and leave the children to explore. Ask questions and label their work to show interest in what they are marking.

Chucking away those colouring books and instead using raw surfaces to expand their creative sides is the way forward. This activity deserves a rightful spot on the list as it was effective to the core. The squiggly markings, the colour experimentation, the stories told.... more expression less oppression. Open spaces are the most meaningful and this was no exception! Love it and will redo on numerous occasions in the near future too.

Activity Tip: Revisit a student more than once to see how their drawings and stories unfold from the beginning till the end. It will evolve!

Number 5: " Creative Movement"

Activity information: Create a challenge for movement in your classroom with streamers. Place them around different angles and adapt in various heights. Add a touch of musical instruments to the ends to allow sensory play take place while also improve focus, attention and balancing skills while playing.

Movement is essential in Kindergarten yet alone with curious jumping jelly babies like mine! Transforming my classroom into something dynamic is always amusing for both myself and everyone else but for the students it is always a new mystery to resolve. This was part of our theme called "Sounds". We had to create a fun alarm system to make sure that thieves don't break into our classroom while we were out. Of course testing it was a true MUST and it is unforgettable how much we laughed every time someone accidently sounded the alarm. This type of classroom setup could be adapted with other themes and I recall doing similar challenges pretending to be stuck in jungle and wriggle our way out like as if we are training for the army.

Activity Tip: Click here to check out how the activity took place and how I decorated our classroom upfront. Worth a try promise!

Number 4: "Fruit Bowls"

Activity information: Blow up balloons. Place on a cup. Discuss the process of "liquid vs Solid" transformations together with "reversible vs irreversible" properties. Melt chocolate. Spread melted chocolate on balloons. Wait for chocolate to solidify. Cut the fruit and place in a bowl. Pop the balloon. Slowly gather the chocolate bowl. Place fruit in the bowl and serve or take home.

I got so much backlash for using chocolate as a resource for this experiment that I deeply thought my attempt was a total fail. That is until I realised that I was in no means promoting unhealthy habits but it was used as a concrete example for scientific experiments through a cooking activity. Nonetheless the aim of this activity was mainly to understand how properties of objects can transform such as balloons having gas and solid chocolate transformed into liquid. The concept which was so abstract, was done in an age appropriate way to which I am satisfied to repeat due to it's success. If anyone is wondering... all baskets were taken home and not eaten in class however it did leave a beautiful chocolate smell in our class!

Activity Tip: Check for any allergies and supervise while chocolate is hot. Don't be afraid to let them spread the warm chocolate and pop their balloons. It makes it more engaging.

Number 3: "mTiny"

Activity information: Product can be bought from "Headstart Technology Limited" and then explore the different ways on how to code. Use the puzzle boards from both sides, dress up the panda, use a digital pen to code, guide robot to draw with markers and more.

Who can ever forget about mTiny? This little gadget can truly do BIG things and no wonder it was loved by both students and adults. An innovative technology that we need in an evolving classroom. You can use this in so many different ways that it would be extremely hard not to fall in love with it. Our personal favorite combination was that of working in a group and creating different paths for the panda to move on. We were able to create new ways, patterns and above all CODE in a fun way. mTiny has so many features which interact with the students investigation that automatically you fall in love with the emojis, sound effects and every wiggle. What is not to love right? It is already on my Christmas wish list and I hope Santa will approve *wink*.

Activity Tip: Could be easily the new class pet! No allergy reaction apart from very contagious curiosity by both young and old generations.

Number 2: "SPA-tacular"

Activity information: Create a SPA ambiance to beat the heat. Add a pool to the setting and pamper the sweet ones with manicures, pedicures, facials and refreshing freshly squeezed juice.

Beating the heatwave in style made my days less tense and more worthwhile. Our classrooms are not equipped with air-conditioning and the fans can't keep up with the old school building. This however was so appreciated by my students that I MUST repeat yearly. A small paddling pool made wonders but so did the mini pedicures, facials and manicures. The pampering sessions were loved in abundance so you can imagine how excited I am to repeat!

Activity Tip: Swimsuits make the day even better and so do bubbles in the paddling pool!

Number 1: "Pet Therapy"

Activity information: Take a pet to school and immerse in pet therapy all day!

If I could, I would truly take Destiny with me to work EVERYDAY! Her presence in our classroom was truly a much needed one. Throughout the scholastic year 2021-2022 several disruptive occasions occurred, be it with new intakes, quarantines, class visitations, class observations, class dynamics and much more. No surprise, they were challenging circumstances. Whenever you think that you are finally somewhat settled, something else crops up. At some point, the class was becoming unbearable with the endless changes and I was becoming drained. I was always fond of pet therapy and having a pet of my own I decided to give it a go, in order to ease of not only my stress but calm the class to regenerate focus, attention and above all bring more calmness to the storm. Destiny worked her magic! She behaved and was very obedient, understanding and above all charming. Students took a liking to her immediately and of course her acquaintance was welcomed with plenty open arms. Thanks to the Emergent Curriculum I was able to integrate Destiny's visit as part of our project with ease making things more settling and less of a havoc. By far this activity will go down in my books as the total BEST of all throughout the year as thanks to her presence I was able to engage back into doing what we do best....Learn through play!

Activity Tip: Check with guardians if students are afraid or allergic of pets. This will help you in identifying if it is a good idea or if you should revert to something else.

I know my activities were by far more than just these top 10 on my list, however reflecting back I truly believe that these TOP 10 gave me time to explore beyond my horizon. Giving room for learning is always a priority in my books and I am looking forward so eagerly to see what is next for me in the upcoming scholastic year!

Bring on 2022-2023