Time fillers, warm-ups and games

Last updated 8th October 2006

Timefilling ideas
Puzzles
Word games
Fun
Other Ideas

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Some of the best time-fillers from teachingideas.co.uk

• 20 questions - give each child a noun in secret and they have to ask each other questions to work out what they are.


• I like to - one person (A) tells the rest of the group something that they like to do. The next person (B) says "A likes to and I like to".


• Get children to estimate the length of a minute - they should do this with their eyes shut and sit down quietly when they think the time is up.


• Just a minute - like the famous radio show. Pupils must speak for one minute without hesitating, repeating a word or deviating from the topic.


• Newspaper - sensationalize a mundane event around school. For example "Mrs Smith tragically runs out of rice pudding".


• Getting to know you - throw a ball of wool at a named individual. You keep hold of part of it and eventually there should be a spider's web in the circle.


• One child has to describe a picture to the rest of the class who have to draw it.


• Compete with the class for a really engaging reading comprehension exercise. The class are all Team X and the teacher is Team Y. They have to listen for 5-10 minutes and they win a point for every question they can answer correctly but the teacher gets one for every question that they can't answer correctly.


• Heads down, thumbs up - two children stand up and the rest of the class sit with their heads down and thumbs up. The two standing children touch the thumbs of sitting children and they have to guess who touched their thumb. Pupils swap after guessing successfully.


• Create a timeline for the class. This could relate to the current year or the previous one.


• TOAST - "Think Of A Sentence Together": teacher or pupil writes a series of letters on the board and children have to create a sentence using the initial letters. For example BFASF becomes "Big fish always swim fast".

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Puzzles

discovery.com/brainboosters - On the website of the popular TV channel, this page offers lateral thinking, logic, spatial awareness, word and letter play and reasoning problems.

puzzlesineducation.com - As you might guess, this site holds educational puzzles. Most are suitable for use on the IWB.

TES Brainteasers - Mixed bag of puzzles with a maths focus.

Sudoku for children - Dozens of archived sudokus to download and a new one each day.

Puzzle Maker - All sorts of puzzles including wordsearches, cryptograms, hidden message and more.

puzzlesoup.com - Rebus puzzles (Dingbats) and links to puzzle websites.

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Word Games

wordsmith.org - Anagrams, word play plus dictionary and thesaurus by email.

funwithwords.com - Every conceivable type of wordplay. From online hangman to puns, anagrams, definitions for every type of "nym" words and a lot more.

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Fun Stuff

janbrett.com - Games, activities, colouring, "how to draw" videos and more.

Magic Kaleidoscope Painter - Amazes children of all ages; just move the mouse around the screen and create your own patterns.

Virtual Drumkit - A lot of fun!

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Other Stuff

teachingideas.co.uk/timefillers - Timefilling whole-class, group and individual activities.

theboredombuster.co.uk - Games, classroom activities, stories, articles and reviews - well worth a look.

Free (and very professional-looking) quiz generator

Random Bingo card generator - To make up to 35 unique cards with up to 20 different words, phrases or numbers.

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