The Caring Classroom Approach: Experiential Education
Resources:
Journey Toward the Caring Classroom by Laurie S. Frank
Quick Silver by Karl Rohnke
Games (and other stuff) for Teachers Classroom Activities that Promote Pro-Social Skills by Chris Cavert and Laurie Frank
Teachable Moments
Concentric Circles: An inner circle and an outer circle….participants paired in the circle greet each other and engage in a fun activity together, like “finger fencing” or “one hand tying shoe”and then answer a question that the facilitator asks about the activity or experience the group is processing. After these partners visit, everyone switches by moving the inner or outer circle to share again with anew partner. Use it as an icebreaker, a debriefing circle or excellent closing activity.
All My Neighbors Who.. Each participant needs a spot marker. One person in the middle calls out, “”All my neighbors who..(had fun today, learned something new today,etc.) all those who can say yes leave their spot, give high fives in the center and then find a new spot. Person left without a spot asks the next question.
Handshakes
High 5 low 5 ankle shaker: partners lean and greet a partner by shaking their ankle. Cappucino handshake-hold imaginary coffee in left hand, high five overhead with right hand, bend over and shake raise foot of partner without spilling! Lumber jack handshake-partners create the lumberjack saw with their thumbs. One person gives a thumb, grab thumb, grab thumb, grab thumb.. then repeat each others in a low, lumberjack voices 2-3 times. Crab handshake- standing close together, partners reach hand behind and through their legs to shake hands.
Face to Face Have participants find partners and stand back to back. When Face to Face is called out each person finds a new partner and begins discussing the questions that is asked. (ie What is your favorite holiday?) When Back to Back is called the partners turn and place backs together. It is amazing how the talking will stop as soon as people are not facing one another! Then Front to Front, each person finds a new partner and begins a new discussion.
Index Card Castle Give each group a stack of index cards. Have them write their foundation of learning on th cards. Use these cards to build a card castle. Each castle must connect with at least two other castles. The global village effect takes place.
Another idea: hand out one index card to each student, have each student write an interesting word on the card(assign verbs, nouns, adjectives). Collect the cards. Spread them out onto the floor. Challenge your class to create a poem from the cards.
Well oiled Machine: Have each participant come up with a sound and an action. Start with one noise and action, have everyone connect somewhere to the machine. In the end you will have a bustling well oiled machine.
Domino Debrief
Give each participant a domino. Ask them to get into groups of 2 or 3 by matching the numbers they have on their domino. For example, if I have the 4-3 domino, match with someone that had a 4 or 3 on their domino. Ask appropriate questions so each person has a chance to answer the question in their small groups. Getting individuals comfortable sharing in small groups will help them when it comes time to share in a large group.
Celebrations: This is a great icebreaker idea to celebrate achievements and highlights from the day. We use it in our classroom to celebrate a great activity, overall great behavior in the day or just something fun that happened. Since our kids are young we taught them the cheer….with older kids it might be fun to break into groups, have each group design a class cheer and then vote on the one to use (or just use them all at different points, one for behavior, one for academic goals, etc) We use the firecracker cheer.
Toothpick Icebreaker
Give table groups (2-6) 16 toothpicks in a pattern 1+ 11+ 111 = 1111. Ask students to move ONE toothpick to the left of the equation that will make the equation true, No toothpicks on the right including the equal sign may be touched ( =1111). Encourage groups to have each person attempt to move one toothpick to solve and to talk through their thinking process. After the puzzle has been solved, ask students to reflect on the activity.