Fun English Activities for Every Classroom — Hawker Brownlow Digital — CARS & STARS — Reading Comprehension

Fun English Activities for Every Classroom

As every teacher knows, sometimes just getting your students engaged is half the battle. The following are some tried and tested activities for English classrooms – or remote learning experiences, with some slight modifications – that should wake up your students and get their creative juices flowing.

  • In Charades, the teacher writes down a couple of words and divides the class into two teams. One person from each team will choose a word and act it out. A team receives a point for every correctly guessed word. A variation of this – that might work better over Zoom – is Pictionary, where students draw the word instead of acting it out.

  • Board Race is a fun game for revising vocabulary. Divide the class into two teams. Draw a line down the middle of the board and write a topic at the top. Students must write as many words related to the topic as they can in a relay. The first student writes the first word and passes to the next. Each team gets a point for each correct and legible word.

  • With Taboo Words, create a PowerPoint presentation with a familiar noun on each slide. Have one student come to the front of the room and sit with their back to the screen. The rest of the students take turns describing the words on the slides, and the student at the front must guess what they are. 

  • A favourite game among teachers for generations, Hangman can be used at the start of a class to warm up students and get them active. Think of a word and outline the number of letters in it on the board using dashes. Then, ask students to guess a letter. If it appears in the word, write it in all the correct spaces. If the letter does not appear in the word, write it off to the side and begin drawing the image of a hanging man. Keep going until students have collectively guessed the word, or the poor man has been hanged!

These activities should warm up your class and get them ready for thinking about words in a new way.

With CARS & STARS Online, you can have every student in a class working on improving their reading comprehension, in the same program, but at the specific level appropriate to them. Students move to the next level when they have proven themselves proficient in one, and students struggling with understanding a certain level can move down to the level beneath that to hone their skills at the teacher’s discretion. All this is facilitated by instantly updating, easily accessible data about student progress.

If you are interested in learning more about the CARS & STARS Online subscriptions and how they can help children to achieve better results, then sign up for a free trial to be an integral part of your child’s reading success.

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WHAT PRINCIPALS, TEACHERS AND PARENTS ARE SAYING

This differentiated program allows students to read texts which are at a level suitable for their current ability and leads to students being more engaged in reading lessons. As a result, they can experience success and improve their reading and comprehension abilities. CARS & STARS Online is an important part of the English program and we are seeing fantastic improvement across all years in students' reading and comprehension abilities.

Linda Samardali
Head of Department from Kinross College

I've found CARS & STARS Online has really helped in improving my children's reading skills. The skills were all clearly presented with a lot of samples and practice opportunities. The student report also gives the parents a clear guide as to which areas need reinforcement and which areas each child is strong in.

Shannon Zhao
Parent from Sydney

I have found CARS & STARS Online very beneficial, especially during our time teaching and learning remotely. The ability to track live what the students are doing was helpful to ensure that they were remaining on task and to provide feedback.

Brent Ritchie
Teacher from Haileybury

Now that I understand how to use the online program and utilise the tools correctly, I am enjoying using CARS & STARS Online. The ability to locate and download the different reports is phenomenal!

Amber Rains
Teacher from Kambala

I am a bit of a technophobe but using CARS & STARS Online has certainly made life easier and the kids have found it easy to navigate.

Jo Oram
Teacher from Prescott College Southern

CARS & STARS Online has become a very useful tool for my staff to implement effective teaching and learning programs. Having a tool that gives timely assessment results, meets students at their level of need and allows them to see exactly what students are working on in real-time is time effective and impacts on future goals.

The detailed assessment data generated by CARS & STARS Online informs the specific direction of their reading and comprehension teaching. Students report they enjoy the tasks and feel a real sense of accomplishment as they work through the lessons and assessments at their own pace.

Craig Brown
Principal from Toongabbie Public School

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