Here are some great games and activities for those times when you just have a few extra minutes to fill.
Silent ball
This is a great game that all the students I have taught love to play. Students sit on their desks and silently throw a ball around the classroom. You have to make eye contact before throwing and silently get the person's attention that you want to throw to. If you talk, you're out. If you make a bad throw or miss catching a good throw, then you're out.
Once you're out there are varying rules about what happens next.
Option 1: students have to do 5 or 10 jumping jacks, or push-ups, or other physical activity before they can join back in. *This is my personal favourite way to play.
Option 2: students are out and can't get back in until there is one person left or the teacher says 'jail break'. Then all students can re-join the game.
Option 3: students who are out, then move to their chairs and place them in different spots around the room. If they can catch the ball without getting out of their seats they can get back in the game. Students are not allowed to move their chair once they have placed it in a certain spot.
Option 4: once the student who caused you to be out gets out, you can re-enter the game.
Any way you play it, your students are sure to enjoy it and you might be getting in a little DPA too.
Simon Says
Most people know how to play. 'Simon' says to do various activities, but if 'Simon' doesn't say, then you are not supposed to follow the direction. The younger kids really love this, especially if you can get the actions going really quickly and throw in some tricks along the way.
Heads-up 7-up
The favourite game to play when a substitute is there. 7 students come up to the front of the room. The rest of the students put their heads down on their desks and put their thumbs up. The 7 students go around and each taps one person on the thumb and returns to the front of the room. That person puts their thumb down. Once all 7 students have returned to the front the rest of the students put their heads up and the 7 chosen students stand up. The 7 chosen students then try and guess which of the 7 students at the front chose them. If they are correct, they change places with the student at the front.
4 Corners
Each corner of the room is given a number. One student is chosen to be the counter. He or she sits at their desk with their head down and counts to 20. The rest of the students move around the room and by the time the counter gets to 0 they must be in one of the 4 corners. The counter then calls out one corner of the room and all students in that corner are out.
Variations to this game to use it as DPA include:
1. students must balance in a yoga pose in the corner while the counter is counting.
2. students in the chosen corner are not out, but have to do a certain number of jumping jacks, push-up, sit-ups, or other activities and then can continue playing.
Word Brain Teasers
I keep a sheet of these to pass out in my substitute binder, and I've also used these as a team game. I wrote them on the board and the first team to figure them out won.
Here is a website of tons of brain teasers.
http://www.billsgames.com/brain-teasers/
Sudoku
For older kids this is a good way to keep their brains working. Lots of puzzles can be found online.
Dot-to-dot
For the little-ones these are great to help with the order of the alphabet and numbers. You can also find ones that have skip counting. Plus, when they're finished connecting the dots they can colour the pictures.
Brain Breaks
These are a great quick break for students, or you can do many at a time for part of your DPA time. They are just a whole bunch of activities on sticks that you can pick out of a jar and then complete. For example, downward facing dog pose, jumping jacks, the hand jive, etc.
You can make your own, or you can buy it here from TpT. I didn't create this one, but I've seen this one used in several classrooms and I think it's worth the money to buy it, instead of spending all the time creating your own. Plus this one comes with a list of what you're supposed to do with each stick in case you're unfamiliar with the movement, which is so perfect when you're a substitute.
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Brain-Breaks-for-the-Classroom-229497
