Teacher: Emeri K.
Activity: The Tens Game
Value: Focus, fun, inclusion
- Students stand in a circle.
- Using the Qball, students count by tens one at a time (each student says one number). For example, I would say 10 and pass to Miranda, Miranda would say 20 and pass to Lori, Lori would say 30, and so on.
- If a student says the wrong number, they are out and sit down for the rest of the game.
- The students continue counting until they get to 100. The student who says 100 is out (surprise!) and they sit down for the rest of the game.
- The winning student is the one who is left standing at the end!
- As we got better, I threw in twists like speed rounds. As a class, we decided a student would be out if they talked when it wasn’t their turn because it was getting hard to hear.
“This game not only focuses the class immediately when we start Morning Meeting, but it also includes all students and allows for a fun way to practice subject matter. Many of my kindergarteners struggled with counting by tens (and some were lacking the motivation to even try), but once we started playing this game, my ENTIRE class mastered counting by tens in no time! It was incredible to watch my nonverbal student grow and become more comfortable each day. Even though success in this game highly depends on paying attention, there is still a factor that is out of anyone’s control. This made the game exciting, engaging, and kept my students on their toes! Even though we played it every morning, my students were always begging to play and even taught it to our substitutes!!”
