aubree teaches: Favorite Concept Game - POP! (freebie included)

IT IS FEBRUARY!
That is just so crazy to me.

Happy Thursday guys! Today, I wanted to share a game used regularly in my class. This is one of those games that rocks because you can use it for pretty much any concept, any subject.
I don't recommend using this game to introduce or teach the concept. This is the game I pull out after the anchor charts have been made, the practice has been done, and kids just need to PRACTICE.

It's tried and true POP! There are so many names for this game but I used POP when I taught kinder because...easy CVC. Then, when I moved up it was to hard for me to get used to another name so it stuck.
With POP, you create cards with whatever concept you want kids to practice. In kinder, I had sight word cards. In 3rd, I have fact & opinion cards, cause & effect, fractions, multiplication problems, seriously ANYTHING. You show one card to each kid and if they get it, they keep the card. If they don't, they return it. They collect cards until they pull a POP card at which point they get POPPED.

But what I've done is made my POP games digital. I turned them into slides and now we can easily play as a whole class.

I have all my kids stand up. I start with number 1 (class numbers) and display the slide for them. They answer, stay up if they're right, sit if they're wrong. If a POP slide comes up on their turn, they sit. Kids stay pretty engaged because the slides will loop around again.

Sometimes I will mix this up in a variety of ways. One way to do this is to do random "back from the dead" slides. Pick someone who was out but was paying great attention, sitting nicely, etc. and tell them they get a chance to POP back in. If they answer their slide correctly, they stand back up. (I try to do this with ANY kids that get POPPED without answering a question - that way everyone answers).

Another thing I will do is play in teams. In this variation, the two teams sit in a circle. Pick a team and have them pick someone to start, they stand up first. They answer, with the help of their team. If they are POPPED, they sit at their seat. The next person in the circle from the other team stands up. You alternate questions with teams. The last team to have members WINS. This way is great if you have students you don't want embarrassed by the 1 on 1 nature. They can still participate but they get team help.

I hope you will try POP in your classroom sometime soon! My kids even love doing a round during inside recess.

And just because it's FEBRUARY and I know things are CRAZY - here is a freebie of the POP we did in my class TODAY. It is Fact and Opinion.