Educational starter activities

•  Blink Blink!

Ask the Class to blink if they know the name of a famous Artist

Advantages – Quick, easy, full participation guaranteed

Disadvantages – May not be considered educationally sound

•  Lego Name

Give each member of the class Lego bricks. Each brick should have a letter on it, and the letters should make up the name of an Author. Pupils have to stick the Lego together in the right order to form the Author’s name. The child with the tallest tower is the one with the longest Author’s name, and is therefore the winner, probably.

Advantages – Everyone loves Lego

Disadvantages – Possible choking hazard

•  Skittles

Put the faces of 10 famous world leaders on 10 skittles. Line the skittles up on a windowsill. Stand your class along the opposite wall with a tennis ball each. The teacher should shout out the name of one of the world leaders. The first to knock down the correct skittle wins

Advantages – Good exercise, and differentiation can be easily introduced by giving Special Needs children a basketball rather than tennis ball

Disadvantages – all the schools tennis balls are on the roof of the Maths block.

•  It’s a Knockout!

Each child takes the name of a famous scientist. The pupils then have a series of fights in a cup knockout style. The winning pupil announces the name of their scientist, thus putting to bed the long running argument of who the hardest scientist of all time is.

Advantages – Educationally sound

Disadvantages – First Aid Kit and Ambulance on stand-by required

•  Pin the Tail on the Donkey

Very similar to the old parlour game of the same name, except that instead of a donkey, it’s a businesses organisation chart, instead of a tail, its job roles within the business and instead of ‘pinning’ its writing about.

Advantages – Can last a couple of lessons

Disadvantages – Not strictly speaking a starter activity

•  Take-Over!

Each pupil pretends to be a business. They then pair up and show each other how much money they have on them. The one with the most money ‘takes over’ the poorer business and takes their money. Successful businesses go through to the next round whereas bankrupt businesses become derelict and lie on the floor. The game continues until only one child remains with all the money. They are declared to have monopoly status and are therefore the winner.

Advantages – Develops numeracy skills.