Partner Hunt!

Hello!

This is a great icebreaker for introducing many grammar topics like masculine-feminine, singular-plural, synonyms-antonyms and so on. 

It's called Partner Hunt! It's fun and a lot of learning happens at the same time. I used this game for introducing Nouns - gender. 

The instructions are simple - look for your partner, find a spot and sit with your partner. 

If you want this activity to be less noisy then you could challenge your kids to look for their partners by walking towards each other and whispering the nouns mentioned in their slips of paper.

We were 5 teachers so it was easier to organise and conduct the game. If you are the only teacher in class then you may have to prepare a little in advance. Although, I feel, if teachers become a part of this activity then, a lot of variation is possible and you also get a lot of help from them.

Planning:

• Have slips of papers with feminine and masculine nouns like: uncle - aunt, lion - lioness, father - mother, etc, each written on an individual slip of paper.
• Make sure each set is complete otherwise a child may end up with no partner at the end of the game.  
• Fold them and keep them ready. 
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      How to play:

• Have the nouns in a bowl
• Pass the bowl around and ask the students to pick up only one slip of paper each
• Once everybody has a slip ask them to walk around the class and look for their partners
• As soon as they find their partners they must find a place and sit together 

Once everybody has a partner ask them to call out the nouns from their slips. As they call out make a list on the board having the set of nouns (masculine-feminine) written together. You could also have them write down a few of the nouns in their notebooks towards the end of the class. 

I personally like this activity as kids have a lot of fun while hunting for their partners and it requires very simple preparation.

Enjoy!

P.S. If you are playing the game say with Std. 03 kids then have nouns which they are familiar with from previous classes. This will keep them engaged and they will enjoy the activity even more. Later, you could build up from there and introduce newer nouns as per the class level. 

Baking Fractions!

Hello!

This activity is my personal favourite as we don't just learn about fractions as equal parts of a whole but we also get to eat them!!

This is a follow-up activity on the topic and kids should be familiar with simple vocabulary like whole, halves and quarters. 

You could also take this opportunity to revisit 'Time Words' while talking about the steps for baking a pizza. 

You will need:

• pizza base (preferably wheat base)
• pizza sauce
• veggies (I used onions, bell peppers, tomatoes and corn)
• lots and lots of cheese
• oregano seasoning (optional)

Set up stations for the activity and divide your class into teams/groups. Have a teacher at each station.

Station 1 - First, the kids will come and pick up a pizza base (the teacher should remind them that the pizza base is a whole)

They will also spread some sauce on it. 

Station 2 - Next, the team will move to station 2 to place veggies on the pizza.

Station 3 - Then, the group will spread some cheese and add oregano seasoning.

Station 4 - After that, the teams will take the prepared pizza to the kitchen to be baked in the oven with the help of their teacher. 

While the baking happens, you could play a quick quiz to recap the lesson. You could ask questions like:

1. How many halves make a whole?

2. How many quarters make a whole?

3. How many quarters make a half?

4. If I eat 2 out of 4 slices of pizza then, what fraction of the pizza did I eat?

5. If you ate 1 out of 4 slices then, what fraction of pizza you did not eat?

Finally, once we smell some freshly melted cheese we can take out the pizza and show it to the kids. 

This is the most important part of the activity as the fractions will appear now! 

With the help of a pizza cutter, divide the pizza into two equal halves (showing the two halves to the class) and then further divide the halves into quarters(again, show the 4 equal parts) 

Now comes the most awaited part - Eating the Fractions!

Ready to eat??

Students will be super thrilled to eat the pizza. This activity will make the unit most interesting and memorable not just for kids but also for you. At last, ask the kids to write and draw the fraction of pizza they ate. 

P.S. If you do not have access to kitchen in school then, the same activity can be done using paper plates (as pizza base) and colourful chips of paper (as toppings).