Making Learning Fun!

The summer I rediscovered how fun learning can be, and learning to play.

One summer, I had the honour of tutoring two very smart, funny, and energetic young students. I started out the summer with traditional teaching methods: worksheets, blocks, index cards, etc. I soon noticed that the students were not engaged with the material; they were looking wistfully out the window at the summer sunshine. I couldn't blame them. It was calling us outside. A new approach was definitely needed, and that's when I decided that this would be the summer of fun learning! I would bring learning outside, I would take traditional games and add a math or language spin to them, I would become the Ms. Frizzle of their world!

“Sometimes, math needs to be learned with water balloons and a hot summer day.”

Knowing The Student

This is the summer that I came to realize that in order to get students to learn, I had to take to the time to get to know them: to discover how they learn, what they like, and what things they get excited about. These kids had tons of energy, and loved to move. I realized that in order for them to grasp the information, I had to plan activities that allowed them to move while they learned. Enter: word twister!

Word Twister

I used sight word cards and foam squares

from the dollar store to create my own

version of twister. First, we reviewed all

of the words and practiced the different sounds. Then I gave my student instructions, "Right hand on 'get'." Then it was my term and my student got to call out instructions for me. They had a lot of fun trying to get me twisted up in knots, and, as you can see, my cat loves it too! I also used this activity with French words, and used directions in French. The best part is that we were able to bring this activity outside to enjoy the sunshine!

Water Balloon Math and Language

This activity is such a wonderful summer time activity and it incorporates math, aiming, and of course, tons of fun! The hardest part was the prep: filling water balloons, writing equations on them, and then carefully transporting them to my tutoring site. I still can't believe none of them burst in my car! I set up "targets" outside (written on construction paper) with the answers to different equations. If you wanted a longer lasting version, you could laminate your targets, but I just recycled mine after they got wet. The student would pick a water balloon, read out the equation (eg. 4+6=), and then find the target that they needed to hit (10). They absolutely LOVED being outside, and practicing their math skills while getting to burst water balloons. We had a talk at the beginning of safe water balloon use, and that they were only for throwing at targets, and not each other. We also made sure to clean up all of the balloon pieces so that no animals would eat them and get sick! What's wonderful about this activity is that you can adapt it for language as well!

The targets were now letters, and the balloons were endings to words. Students would pick up a water balloon, sound it out, hold it up to different targets, sound out that word, and see if it was correct. We had a lot of fun sounding out words (is sug a word?!) and of course, taking aim and firing those water balloons!

Chasing Butterflies

I loved chasing butterflies when I was a kid; it's something I equate with hot summer afternoons. I wanted to bring learning into this chase. Instead of catching butterflies, we were catching "language-flies" (okay, I'm still working on the name!) I used tissue paper and wrote words on them. Using a butterfly net from the dollar store, I used a hand held fan (also from the dollar store) to scatter the butterflies in the yard. The students used the net to run around and catch their "language-flies". They brought in their catch and we read them to see what they caught! It's important to have a discussion with the kids about safety in their surroundings. Even though they are focused on catching something, it's important to know where is safe to run (the grass) and where is not safe (the road, the garden). The sound of the kids laughing as they were running around the garden, and their excitement to see which words they were able to catch reminds me of the reasons why I want to teach: to create a love of learning.

Final Thoughts

I was so lucky to get to experience this one-on-one time with students. It really allowed me the time and opportunity to develop and implement these types of activities. I recognize that in a classroom, these might not work. Working with two students is very different to working with 30 students. The lesson that I took from that summer is that I always need to remember to get to know my students, and to pay attention to how they are learning, and what is engaging them. For students to learn, they need to care about the material, and sometimes, adjusting how they learn material will get them to care about it. That summer also reminded me the importance of having fun while learning. If we want to nurture this desire to learn for the sake of learning, we need to make it fun. We need to show students the fun and excitement that comes from discovery. We need to instill a love of learning.