You’re reading this because you’re a lot like me. You think worksheets are boring and you want some ways to a convert worksheet you already have into a fun activity! Over the years I’ve found some ways to take the resources you already have in your classroom and get them to be way more fun and engaging!
Turn it into a Race
You can either do this as a small group or individually. Think back to second and third grade when we were learning our times tables. Remember those quizzes! This is the same kind of idea. Obviously this is content specific. Some tasks and concepts work better than others. Have students race to see who finishes first (but make sure the winner has all the correct answers – otherwise this is pretty useless). You can use this large magnetic timer to keep track.
Silent Partner
This is one of my favorite ways to convert a worksheet into a fun activity. This strategy is especially good for classes that struggle with group work and staying focused. I prefer to use this on days where I’m really not feeling my best, maybe day 0 of a cold. Have students partner up, and work on a worksheet together, but with a catch. They’re not allowed to speak. They have to find other ways to communicate. (This works best if you DON’T let them type on the chromebooks, but you could use that too, if you like.)
Break out the Scissors and Glue
Print out just one copy of your worksheet and cut out all the questions. Then paste them down to index cards. Boom! You’ve now made task cards! I like to create color coded task cards. Each color would either represent a question type or a difficulty.
For example, if we were doing titration questions, maybe the pink cards would be 1:1s but green cards would be 2:1. Blue cards might detail the titration lab procedure instead of calculations.
I frequently turn my task cards into games, which you can read more about in this blog post.
Row Race or Note Passing
If your students sit in tables or rows, this is a great way to turn your worksheets into something more fun! Set a timer for 30 seconds. The first student in the group works on the sheet for those 30 seconds. When time’s up, the worksheet passes to another student in the group. They get 30 seconds to add to the work, or correct another student’s mistake. You can gamify this as well. The first group to finish or have the most correct answers when you decide time’s up is the winner! I like to have my students write in different colors: pencil, black pen, red pen and blue pen usually work just fine. Then when it’s turned in, I can see which student contributed to the worksheet and in what capacity.
Collect Pieces
As students complete the questions of a worksheet, they come to you to have their work checked. You can either give them a stamp or a bingo chip for their correct answers. If students work together, you can allow them to pool their stamps or chips. The group with the most wins! I use this in conjunction with task cards most often. I’ve even done a (certainly over the top) activity where students collected feathers and built a Thanksgiving Turkey…
Secret Square
Draw a grid on your board. I’d recommend an 8×8. You can label them A-H and 1-8. Secretly pick a specific box that determines a winner. When students or groups finish a specified number of questions, they get to come to your board and mark a square. By the end of class, announce which was the secret square and give the winner a prize. That could be bonus points, a piece of candy, a homework pass, or even a paperclip. I’ve said it a few times – my high school history teacher gave out paperclips to us and he convinced us it was the highest honor you could ever receive. It worked wonders.
You can do this same thing with student printouts. You can get a freebie of my secret square worksheet by signing up for my email list. Either individually or in groups, students can take turns claiming a square. At the end of class you reveal the secret square!
Magic Answer Checker Games
I have created a Magic Answer Checker. It’s a Google sheet where the teacher can plug in the answer key, then hide it. Students then use the Google Sheet to check their answers. I’ve paired this up with 6 games for students to play. As they answer questions from your regular ol’ worksheet, they check their answers in the Magic Answer Checker. If they get their answer right, they get to take a turn in one of the games. It’s a really easy way to gamify anything you’re already using in your classroom.
The thing I like most about the Magic Answer Checker is the aspect of self assessment. We do A LOT of self assessing in my chemistry classes. (Chemistry is hard – I like to make sure my students build confidence in low stakes, non graded practice a lot). This is one of many ways to provide that for students. And it sort of tricks them into having fun, too.
Use Game Boards
This one can get expensive. I’ve seen a bunch of REAL board games at the Dollar Tree and I picked up a few REAL board games from Target during Christmas shopping. I mean games for little kids, like Candy Land, Uno, Trouble, Battleship, Chutes and Ladders or a favorite of mine, Pretty Pretty Princess.
When kids get a question right, they get to take a turn in the game. You can do this by slowly announcing answers, releasing them on your board, creating a Google Form that checks answers for the students, or having students challenge each other. You can use the Magic Answer Checker for this too!
Two students do all questions, but they get to challenge each other. Student A gets to take turns on odd questions, but can challenge the answer of Student B on even questions if their answers don’t match. Have them confer with a neighboring group for the correct answer before coming to you to be the tie breaker.
Turn your worksheet into Finger Lights
Copy and paste your questions into Google Slides. Set the background to black. If it’s not already multiple choice, change that. Each answer should be color coordinated to the color of the finger lights. Turn off the lights in your classroom and have a Glow Party! (Now is a great time to turn on string lights, LEDs or break out that disco ball from your childhood bedroom.) Run through each slide one by one. When you make the call, students turn on the colored light that corresponds with their answer. Now this isn’t great for collecting work, and a formal grade, but it is a heck of a lot of fun!
Being Extra
There are plenty more ways to convert your worksheet into something more fun. You can convert into a digital activity like my Pixel Arts, or Secret Puzzles. There’s also more significant activities like labs or escape rooms that would work too. The idea of this post is to keep things simple. Well, because teaching is hard enough as it is! Start with some of these smaller ideas, and decide what works best for you and your students before diving into a big project. I sell my Pixel Art activities because figuring out how to set that up took me an entire weekend. Like actually a whole day Saturday and then Sunday. My Marie Curie interactive biography was the same way. These things are fun too, but many of us don’t have the time or the will to complete these mega projects! No matter what the activity is, if you show enthusiasm about the activity, I’m sure your students will moan and groan the whole time! 🙃
