Emergency Sponge Activities

December 14th, 2009 By: Diane Trim in Articles, Classroom Management, Lesson Planning

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College teacher preparation classes and years of classroom experience still haven’t taught me how to cope with the unexpected things that might crop up in the classroom. However, when a student has a seizure, when a visitor comes to the door, or when we have extra time, I always have a spare emergency sponge activity to soak up the unplanned time and use it toward learning.

Have these activities prepared in advance, complete with instructions. I put mine on the overhead projector, but you can store them on your computer to project or pass out in a handout, too. If you have a guest or substitute teacher, include a few of these in your substitute teacher binder. He’ll appreciate the help.

Pass the chicken. I’d love to take credit for this, but this sponge activity comes from Education World. At the top of an overhead, write Give Me 5. Create a list of categories from your subject matter. It could be parts of speech, European nations, Spanish irregular verbs, trigonometry formulas, or phyla. Students pass a rubber chicken up and down the rows. Whoever starts the chicken passing must list five things in the first category before the chicken comes back to them. The turn passes to the person who is holding the chicken when the player gives all five answers.

Mad Lib. Mad Libs are the popular children’s word game where players supply parts of speech that fill in blanks in a story. Hand them out to pairs with the instruction to keep the words clean.

Would you rather paragraph. Would you rather graph an equation to solve it or figure it out on paper? Would you rather be a farmer in the 1800’s or a modern-day farmer? Would you rather have a work by DaVinci or a Picasso in your home? You can pose these questions to your class either verbally or on a transparency and ask them to write a paragraph about their choice.

T-chart. You can whip up a good T-chart at a moment’s notice. A T-chart is a classic cross with a subject on each side of the vertical line. Under each subject, students should list qualities that are found in each subject. For example, I might make a T-chart that lists the Capulets on one side and the Montagues on the other. Another possibility might be molds and fungus.

Pipe cleaners. My high school students and I love pipe cleaner sculptures. They’re creative and fun, which makes for a very engaging sponge activity. In an emergency situation, I’d grab the tub of pipe cleaners and toss out an abstract concept that’s linked to the day’s lesson. If I were teaching Romeo and Juliet my concept might be fate. Students model fate using pipe cleaners. Democracy, equality, growth, justice, and strength are all possible concepts. When you’re done dealing with the emergency, a quick show-and-tell of the students’ models can lead to a discussion that links to the lesson. Students, even high school students, love to see their sculptures hang from the ceiling.

Quote. There art two cardinal sins from which all others spring: Impatience and Laziness – Franz Kafka. Does your discipline have some great thinkers? Write a few quotes on an overhead transparency. Ask your students to discuss the quote in pairs and then write a paragraph about the quote. The paragraph should include the quote’s literal meaning, the quote’s figurative meaning (if any), why the quote is important to the subject matter, and the student’s opinion of the quote.

Supply the punchline. Clip out interesting one-panel cartoons from the daily newspaper and cut off the punchline from the bottom of the cartoon. With the unit of study in mind, ask students to supply their own punchlines (clean, of course).

SOAP a political cartoon. Clip out political cartoon and ask students to SOAP it – identify the Subject, Occasion, Audience, and Purpose.

Tweet. Twitter limits users to 140 characters – letters, spaces, and punctuation – per tweet. Students tweet, adults tweet, and businesspersons tweet. But what would Shakespeare tweet? How about Abraham Lincoln? Newton? Ask students to tweet in character. Example from www.historicaltweets.com: Accomplishments just earned me title “Alexander the Good.” Must work harder. -11:01 AM August 14, 344 BC from gritter

Art/photos. Artists and photographers show us their view of history through their brushes and lenses. Select a piece of art or photography and display it for the class. What’s happening in the picture? What time period is it from? Why would the artist or photographer select this scene? What comment is the artist or photographer making on society? Do you like the picture? Why/why not?

Ethical question/central question. Every discipline has its debates and ethical concerns. Are text messages and tweets ruining students’ writing and reading skills? Does the use of calculators in math class constitute cheating? Should the United States continue to fund a space program? Pose one of these questions and ask students to discuss it with a partner. Share ideas when the emergency is finished.

Do you have an emergency sponge? Share it in the comments!

Tags: activity, guest teacher, sponge, substitute teacher

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