Musical Chairs

It's not just for birthday parties or church functions!  Musical chairs is a sure way to get kids up and moving, jamming to some Lady Gaga Up-tempo Jazz, all while practicing a skill of your choice.  All you need are chairs, music and white boards with markers.  Just this week, we practiced our phonograms with Musical Chairs.  Everyone has a chair, because the goal is to PRACTICE, not body slam your classmates to get a chair!  So, I played the music, everyone scattered to find a seat once the music stopped.  Then it was pure silence and eyes on me as they waited to hear the sound(s) I was about to say.  I'd say 'ed',  'd',  't' for example, and they quickly wrote down  "ed" and held up their white boards for a quick thumbs up from me! We do not move on until every student has something on their white board.  Towards the end of the session, we write words using those phonograms.  So, I would say write a word using the 1st sound of "ed".  I have used this activity when practicing fact families, money, vocabulary words etc.  It's pretty much adaptable to any concept you are working on.  The kids love it!!  I included a couple of pics from the other day.