Ideas for Reusable Materials
ACTIVITY TEMPLATES – Photocopy classroom sets of blank game boards
(Battleship, Bingo, Scrabble), graphic organizers, oral presentation evaluation
rubrics, peer editing checklists, and other such worksheets. File them in
alphabetical order in labeled manila folders and put them in a folder box on
your desk. These make great fillers for those leftover minutes at the end of
class and allow for flexibility if a lesson plan isn’t working.
BALL OF YARN - Tie various lengths of different colors of yarn together
until you have a large ball of yarn. Students talk about an experience,
respond to a question, or tell part of a story as they unravel the ball. When
they get to the next piece of yarn, it is someone else's turn.
BEAN BAGS, DICE, FLYSWATTERS, GAME PIECES - Useful for many games once
you've made (or purchased) them.
BINGO BAGGIES – Fill Ziploc baggies with bingo chips (or dried beans) so that
they can be quickly distributed should you decide to play bingo.
BULLETIN BOARDS - Leaf through a copy of your textbook. Look at the
concepts and vocabulary contained therein and develop bulletin boards
that would reinforce it or that you could use as learning centers for your
students. If they are based on topics that interest you, you'll be more likely to
use them in your teaching.
COLOR TRANSPARENCIES – Prepare color transparencies of artwork, charts,
diagrams, graphic organizers, tables, warm-up or writing prompts, or other
materials that would be useful to you in class.
DIE CUTS – These can be made at the ISC, kept in a baggie, and used in
conjunction with the overhead as shadow puppets for various activities.
GENERIC GAME BOARDS – Make up 6 generic game boards on poster board
(enough to accommodate 6 groups of students). Put together a set of
question cards for each chapter that can be photocopied and distributed
for students to use in conjunction with the game boards as a review of the
chapter.
GROUPING CARDS - These can be made using clip art, magazine photos,
stickers, or even photos and diagrams from sample textbooks.
JEOPARDY BOARD - This can be made out of a single sheet of poster board
using library pockets (available at school supply stores) or out of a tri-fold
piece of cardboard or foam core board. You could also attach cards using
Velcro or use pegboard and put the cards on hooks.
Effective Recordkeeping & Organizational Techniques ♦ 2003 ♦ Cherice Montgomery
Ideas for Reusable Materials
LIVING SENTENCES – Make (in banner format)gigantic strips containing words
or pictures that represent different parts of speech in a sentence, different
elements of an equation, or various stages in a process or cycle. Distribute
one to each student, call out a clue, and ask students to put themselves in
the proper order.
MAGIC SLATES OR WHITE BOARDS – These can be made by purchasing dry
erase contact paper and affixing it to heavy cardboard squares, or by
purchasing shower board that has been cut into large squares from home
improvement stores like Home Depot. They are useful for practicing any
number of concepts. Students can use them as signal cards (by writing
down the answer to a question or problem you give them and then holding it
up for you to check), to play various review games, or to brainstorm in small
groups. You might consider collecting old, clean socks or rags and bundling
them with a marker in a small, Ziploc baggie so that it is easy to use them with
students.
MANIPULATIVES - The kids like self-checking exercises. They can be good
activities to leave out for students who finish their work before the rest of the
class has finished, or you can prepare one or two of each of these items to
review a specific concept in a unit or a chapter, then distribute one item to
each student, seat students in a large circle, give them 1-3 minutes to “play”
with the item, and then, when time is up, have them pass it to the next
person.
Hole In One Cards - The same thing works for plain old index cards. You put a
sentence on the card and then leave a blank in it. Give 3-4 multiple choice
options (in the form of words or pictures) below the sentence. Each option
has a hole above it. Students stick their pencils (or a golf tee) through the
right hole and then flip the card over to see if the pencil is going through the
hole that has a sticker or colored mark around it. (This idea comes to me by
way of Dee Friel.)
Lightboard - My students’ favorite is the lightboard. They put the leads on
two different screws. If the word matches the picture, the little light lights up.
(Thanks Dee Friel for this one too!)
Magnetic Folders - Another one I stole from an elementary teacher is to put
metal washers onto a board or folder with hot glue. Put vocabulary words
under them. Then print out definition cards. Affix self-adhesive magnets to
the backs of the cards and laminate them for durability. Kids must attach the
right definition card to the right vocabulary word. You could do this with selfstick Velcro too.
Effective Recordkeeping & Organizational Techniques ♦ 2003 ♦ Cherice Montgomery
Ideas for Reusable Materials
Sorting - Put stickers on some library pockets that represent specific
categories and then glue them to a three-sided display board. On index
cards, write words, phrases, or definitions for concepts, items, processes, or
terms that belong to each category. Students sort the cards appropriately
and check their work by looking at the backs to see that each card in
pocket number 1 (which is colored red, for example) has a red sticker. Each
card in number 2 has a blue one, etc.
Wrap-ups - You could also set up little worksheets where students match
words or verb forms to stickers or sentences using yarn. The yarn could be
pulled through the back of the tri-fold board and knotted on one side. The
kids match by dragging the free end of the string to the right sticker and
putting the loop over those little plastic hooks with adhesive backing that you
can get at teacher supply stores.
PERSONAL ADDRESS LABELS OR STAMP THAT SAYS "PERSONAL PROPERTY OF
(YOUR NAME)" - These can be used to label all of the books, videos,
cassettes, and other materials that you purchase with personal funds.
PICTURE FILE - Collect large photos that clearly illustrate concepts or
vocabulary from your subject area. Be sure to include unusual pictures (a
man trying to stuff a chair into a washing machine or an ice cream cone
made out of broccoli, for example)--magazine advertisements are the best
source for these and pictures of famous people. Make sure that they are
large enough to be seen from the back of a classroom (if it isn't at least 8½
by 11, it isn't large enough to be seen in a room of 35 kids). Mount them on
construction paper and laminate them for use as the basis for warm-up
activities, for writing or discussion prompts, etc.
POSTERS – Make and laminate posters that show key formulas, outline
important concepts, depict critical processes, or define key terms for your
subject area. You can make these interactive using Velcro and index cards
so that students can try to put them in the correct spots on the poster.
PROP & COSTUME LIBRARY – Collect a library of props that would be
appropriate for use in your subject area. Such a library might include
costuming accessories such as aprons, policeman’s badges, capes, glasses,
hats, jackets, purses, scarves, ties; props such as play money, items that might
represent various professions (stethoscope, newspaper, magnifying glass,
briefcase); generic items (play telephones, toy dishes, etc.); and subject
specific items (models of the brain, play food, cultural artifacts, or other
realia).
Effective Recordkeeping & Organizational Techniques ♦ 2003 ♦ Cherice Montgomery
Ideas for Reusable Materials
PUPPET THEATERS - You can take refrigerator boxes, cut square holes in the
top third of the front sides of them, spray paint them, attach a little curtain
behind the square windows, cut a person hole in the back and voila!
PUPPETS – Consider making them out of felt, socks, or paper bags. [There are
several neat books at Superior School Supply that have patterns for puppets
that can be made out of paper lunch sacks. Patterns can be cut out,
colored, and glued to the sacks. Once the sacks have been laminated, you
can cut the bottom off so that you can get your hand inside. You can then
use a razor blade to slice around the mouth part so that the puppet can still
"talk" after lamination.] These can be used for skits and are one good way to
encourage timid students to perform in front of the class.
REALIA – Collect items that represent various concepts in your subject area.
Organize them for use with specific units.
SETS OF NUMBERS - Print a single set of these out on your computer and then
photocopy them onto colored paper or cardstock. Your students or your
T.A.s can cut them up (store them in envelopes or Ziploc baggies) and then
you can use them for grouping, for peer editing, to designate learning
stations, and for any number of other things.
SIGNAL CARDS – Photocopy signal cards appropriate for your subject area
onto colored paper or cardstock, laminate them, and have your T.A.s cut
them apart. You can also use colored index cards, colored dots placed on
white index cards, or have your students draw pre-determined symbols onto
individual sets of index cards (and then collect them for use with other
classes at a later date). These can be used for comprehension checks, as
flashcards, or as prompts for numerous games (such as bingo calling cards,
concentration, flyswatters, or spoons).
STUDENT SUPPLIES - Collect items like scissors, glue, crayons, rulers, felt, ribbon,
yarn, popsicle sticks, and glitter at garage sales, organize them in empty
greeting card boxes or plastic microwave dinner trays, and put them in a
cabinet so that students have easy access to them for various classroom
projects.
TRANSPARENCIES – Prepare various transparency-related activities (such as
templates for games like Group Pictionary, Scattergories, or Tic Tac Toe;
transparencies of charts, diagrams, graphs, or pictures from your textbook
that could be cut up and used in a game of “What’s missing?”; or
transparency strips and slick sheets that can be used when you want to have
small groups report out to the entire class.
Effective Recordkeeping & Organizational Techniques ♦ 2003 ♦ Cherice Montgomery
Ideas for Reusable Materials
Other Hints:
Start small. Try to "jazz up" the presentation or practice activity for just one
lesson per chapter—more than that can become overwhelming. Do the
same the following year—one additional lesson per chapter. Eventually, you
will have at least one interesting element to add to every lesson.
If you get stuck for ideas, go observe in an elementary classroom preferably
3rd or 4th grade where the kids are old enough to read). Most of those
teachers have great ideas for learning games and activities that can easily
be adapted to the secondary classroom.
Effective Recordkeeping & Organizational Techniques ♦ 2003 ♦ Cherice Montgomery