One More Time
Repetition Made FUN!
One More Time
Repetition is important, but you have to keep it interesting to maintain children’s attention. You can “wake up the brain” with these playful “state changes.” Use these strategies for choral reading, repeating poems, reading word wall words, counting, doing flash cards, and so forth. If you go to my website, click on free activities, and scroll down you can download these little cards called “fluency cards.” I’d suggest downloading them on cardstock and then putting them in a bag or little box called the “Voice Box.” Let several children choose cards and then use those strategies for repeating information.
*You can watch me demonstrate these on this video:
Link for video.
Three Bears – Read papa bear style (with a deep voice), mama bear style (with a prissy voice), and baby bear style (with a wee voice).
Emotions – Read text with different emotions, such as happy, sad, angry, sleepy, etc. Which one fits the text best?
Rainbow – Open hands and place on the left side of your body. Swing up and across the body in an arc as you read each line.
Rock and Roll – Pretend to hold guitar and dance and sing.
Rap – Let the children teach YOU how to do this one.
Opera – Extend arms and sing words dramatically.
Underwater – Put pointer between lips and vibrate as you read or talk.
With a cold – Hold nose and talk or read.
Robot – Stick out arms and pretend to read with a monotonous
voice
King and Queen – Put a pretend crown on your head and read with a “royal” tone.
Martian – Make antennae with index fingers over your head. “Beep” for the syllables in the words.
Loud and Soft – Read loud or soft. Teacher sticks thumbs up and children read louder. Thumbs down and children get softer.
Fast and Slow – Read slowly like the tortoise (slow) or fast like the rabbit.
Animal Voices – “Meow” each syllable like a cat, “bark” like a dog, or make other animal sounds.
Football Player and Cheerleaders – Boys read each line with a gruff voice like a football player. Bend over after each line and go, “Hut! Hut!” Girls read each line like a cheer leader and go, “Rah! Rah!” at the end of each line.
Lip Sync - Mouth the words.
News - Read like a news reporter “on the street.”
Pirate - Put on hand over your eye and talk out of the side of your mouth. Say, “Grrr!” at the end of each sentence.
Typewriter - Pretend to type with your fingers as you move eyes from left to right. Ding, and then “return the carriage” when you get to the end of the line.
Cartoon Characters - Read like “Fred Flintstone” (bounce up and down),
Scooby Doo (Ruff! Ruff!), Charlie Brown’s teacher, and other characters children suggest.
Teacher Style – Children pretend they are the teacher and read like YOU!
How about one of these strategies?
Shadow Reading – Teacher reads a line and then students repeat.
Choral Reading – Children read together.
Make a Turn - Divide children into groups and each section reads a different line. (Let boys and girls alternate reading lines.)
Magic Word – Choose a “magic word” (high frequency word) in the text. Every time you come to that word, the children get to clap, jump up, snap, etc.
Say What? Read the wrong way and have children correct you by shouting out, “Say what?”
Missing Word – Omit a word and have the children fill it in.
Here are some other simple things you can do to create interest:
Sit Like a Boss – Children cross arms, lean back, and put feet up on their desk.
Backwards – Turn chairs around and face the back of the room.
Change seats – Children exchange seats with a classmate.
Down Low – Lay on the floor and read, write, and work.
Lighting – Turn off the lights
Gum – Chewing gum constricts blood vessels and pumps blood to the brain.