Did you know being excited about learning actually increases students’ learning? Of course, it makes total sense, the brain releases some fabulous chemicals that make it easy to remember and learn when we’re having fun! If you are looking to make learning activities easy and fun, just take a look at this list for some easy classroom learning activities, math activities, and of course, some fun! Read on for 25 fun classroom activities to increase student learning!
25 Classroom Activities For Students
These classroom activities will not only help students learn. But will help engage them and excite them. Plus, they’ll even learn skills that can be used outside of the classroom.
Acts of Kindness Activities
When the class is a loving and kind place, everyone will learn better! Try out some acts of kindness like morning meetings or a kindness challenge. Better yet, grab the Spider Craftivity from my TpT store and celebrate acts of kindness. The Spider Craftivity is adorable, fun, and easy to do! Students can decorate their spiders (perfect for a non-spooky Halloween board) and add “Caught Being Kind” posters to celebrate all the kindness in your classroom. Looking for more? Check out this blog on building a positive classroom culture and this blog on ways to build kindness in your classroom!
Friendship Game Activities
These easy learning activities not only build friendships that lead to learning but also are a ton of fun! Grab a big sheet of butcher paper or chart paper and draw a container, whichever shape you choose, and see if you can fill it up with acts of kindness! Another one is Brown Bag Show and Tell. Then you can send home some brown bags that students can fill with 5 things that they love! They can then share it with the class! Fun and easy activities that require little prep but build that positive learning classroom!
Heartfulness Bracelets
A growth mindset is a huge part of increasing student learning. One really exciting activity is Heartfulness Bracelets. This can be done as a station or all together. Students choose beads for mindful words that describe themselves and then build a bracelet! Grab the details here and check out my huge bundle of Growth Mindset activities to grow our student learning with easy and fun activities!
Subtraction War
Let’s talk about math activities! Subtraction War is super easy to set up and play; just grab some playing cards! Following the same concept as the card game War, students throw down two cards and will subtract to see what number they have. The player with the largest difference wins! If a war is declared (meaning a tie), each player throws down two more, and the winner takes all! If you love this activity and are looking for a few more fun math activities, check them out here!
Adjective Stories
Working on those descriptions and vocabulary, or just building knowledge of parts of speech? Here is another great activity to increase student learning. Super easy and fun are Adjective Stories. This is similar to Mad Libs, but we’re just focusing on adjectives here! The three themes are pencil case, show and tell, and field trip day. Spice up student writing with this engaging, no-prep activity. Grab it now!
Reading Groups!
Yes, reading groups can be fun! Students love to meet up with their group and get the teacher’s attention, but they also work with friends! This is a tremendous way to increase motivation to read on the student’s reading level or based on their interest! If you need more information on reading groups, I have a great blog on guided reading groups vs. strategy groups ready for you to dive into right now!
Shape Games Online!
Let the students play games online! This easy classroom activity is fun, accessible, and literally zero prep! Math online gives students tons of practice! Kids learn when having fun, so throw PBS Kids or Khan Academy at them for learning math shapes and more! Check out some more totally FREE, totally fun, and educational resource websites here!
Sight Word Activity- Parking Lot
Sight words are life. Sight words are a cornerstone of reading, so here’s another easy, fun activity that you can put together to increase student learning today! Laminate some sight words, but make these look like a parking lot! Then get some toy cars and have students partner up, play teacher and student and drive that toy car to the correct sight word! Fun and easy, and lots of student learning is happening here. Want more sight word activities? Click here now!
Writer’s Workshop
Writer’s Workshop is this really amazing opportunity to grow a classroom full of students into a classroom full of writers. Watch amazing growth in writing through the workshop model, and kids have fun doing it! This blog has all of the details to get your writer’s workshop up and running in no time! Another blog to help you with your writing instruction is ready for you here too!
Funny Read Alouds
What is more fun than funny books? Of course, this had to make a list because laughter is so integral to learning. Engaging students in a funny read aloud will open them up to so many teachable moments! My list of funny read alouds is ready for you. Check it out!
Journal Prompts
Journaling is such a great classroom activity because it is low-pressure for students. Students can pick a journal prompt that interests them or respond to one as a class and share their thoughts. Students love fun journal prompts to keep their thoughts flowing! Looking for journal prompt ideas? I’ve got you covered right here!
Opinion Writing
Hook students in with opinion writing! All kids have some strong opinions, and this is a great way to get students to work through the writing process! Better yet, I have a super fun opinion writing activity and craft ready for you to use! Come see it here!
Brain Boomer Activities
Puzzles! Tracing! Coloring and more! Do you have early finishers or need something for indoor recess? These Brain Boomer activities are perfect for flexing those brain muscles and giving kids some fun! Have students get creative, practice math activities, and keep learning. I have over 60 Brain Boomers available for you today!
Digital Writing
Students love to get onto Chromebooks or iPads. Give them some tech time with these go-to digital writing prompts. They are perfect for morning work. Use them for writing feedback, for journaling, and choice boards! Digital Writing Prompts are a perfect no-prep fun classroom activity! Grab your set of 160 digital prompts here!
Digital Theme Days
Love the idea of theme days but don’t want to spend all of the money to decorate your classroom? Go digital! This is a fun activity, low-prep, and gives you the theme without all the work! These are perfect for before vacations or end-of-the-year planning! Explore anything with Digital Themes, and the kids will have a blast. Want to check out some more ideas? They’re right here!
Digital Riddles
We may not be working mostly digitally anymore, but digital riddles are still so worth it! Do students need a break, a Friday incentive, or need to work on problem-solving? Riddles are so exciting. Combine riddles with doodling, and let the creativity roll! Increase student learning with a challenge. Grab your digital riddles and some more great ideas here!
Digital Field Trips
Did you just finish reading about Washington, D.C., or ancient Egypt? A digital field trip is definitely in order, then! National Geographic has some interesting places to visit! If you are looking for some more free websites to grab your students’ attention and really increase learning, come see this blog post on other free websites!
Spring Writing Prompts
With the weather changing, flowers blooming, and baby animals everywhere, spring is the perfect time for writing! Let your students explore the changing season by writing about it. Bring in some similes and metaphors about all that rain or an acrostic poem to stretch those brains! Grab your copy of spring writing prompts ideas and more by clicking here!
Writing Portfolio
Writing portfolios not only show writing growth, but they show students their growth. That is a powerful tool in helping students understand why they are writing and how they are improving. It can also become a game changer with goal setting for future writing. Portfolios are really easy to create, and students have fun working on them and seeing their progress through the year! Need more? I have you covered here!
Writing Crafts
Writing crafts make great bulletin boards and help students show off their hard work! One of my favorite writing crafts is Smart Cookie, and it is perfect all year long! Every time students meet a growth goal, they can add a smart cookie explanation to the board! This is the perfect combination of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Get some more details here!
Glow Day and Ocean Day Theme Days
Who doesn’t love a good theme day? Students will be thrilled to enjoy a classroom activity that is fun and exciting. Glow Day and Ocean Day are two theme days that I have prepared for you already! Start an Amazon wish list because these are theme days you know you will want to try! They are so much easy fun for your classroom any time of the year.
Digital Field Day
Music, games, choice boards, friendly competition, oh yes! Digital Field Day is perfect for a reward day or if a traditional field day can’t be done. Why not have a digital classroom field day. Students can participate in all the great field day activities; the best part is it is already made for you! Grab the details here.
Doodle Art
Doodling as a comprehension activity! Of course, this fun, easy classroom activity is perfect for all subjects, including science and social studies! Doodling is actually a super powerful tool in your tool belt, as it is super helpful in getting students to comprehend and retain information. Take a look for more information and grab some Doodle Art no-prep activities too!
Math Bodies in Motion
One more math activity that is super fun and easy for the classroom is getting those little bodies moving when learning math facts! Students sometimes need the physical, and kinesthetic connection to math facts, and skip counting and jumping or multiplying squats is a fun way to incorporate math facts and math activities into your day. Even more math activities like this one are described here.
STEAM Challenges
Incorporate problem-solving, math, science, analysis, and more with STEAM and STEM challenges! One of my favorites (and the kids, too) is S’mores with No Fire! This is one where you give all of the ingredients for S’mores and then challenge the students to problem solve in different ways with them! Like this idea? I have this one and more for you to explore here!
Fun and learning go hand in hand. Increase student engagement, attention, retention, comprehension, and overall learning with these 25 classroom activities. These 25 fun classroom activities to increase student learning have it all! Math activities, STEM, doodling, kinesthetic, puzzles, and lots of writing activities. Bookmark this list to save for later! Make sure to check out the links for more information and to get yourself a copy of some of these easy activities to use today! Thompson’s Teaching is here for you with these 25 fun classroom activities to increase student learning!