Warm Up Activities for the Classroom

Warm Up Activities for the Classroom

A good warm-up activity is a key to begin your class on a good note. Warm up activity in the classroom is one of the important ways to initiate your lesson plan in a classroom. It brings energy and stimulates the child for the upcoming lesson or activity. There are times when the child is in no mood to study and it becomes really challenging to gain their attention. Things become haywire especially after a lunch break or recess or an outdoor activity.  By planning out simple warm-up session or icebreakers at any interval, conducting your lesson plan becomes easy. Warm up activities makes the child ready to focus on the following lesson planned by the teacher. Let us have a look at some quick warm activities that can be done with preschoolers.

Pass the Ball
Make a circle of all the children facing each other. Start the game by passing off a ball or any object in the circle and asking a question at the same time. Questions can be very simple.

Did you take a bath today?

Did you brush your teeth?
Did you drink milk?
What’s your name?
What is your favorite color?

If someone cannot answer, that person is out of the circle. The pace of the throwing should be quick.
You can use another variation in this game. You can play music in the background and pass the ball. Stop the music and the person who holds the ball is suppose to answer a question. Instead of a question, they can be asked to do anything like sing, dance or act.

Obey the Teacher
In this activity, the children are asked to form a circle. This can also be done in the regular classroom. The teacher has to give instructions. All they have to do is obey the commands the teacher gives. The last one to obey the command is out of the game.

For example, the teacher commands touch right toe, cycle, skip etc. all the children in the circle have to follow the command and enact. The last one to do so will be out until one remains who will be the winner. This is an interesting way to bring physical movements in the child and begin their day.

Imaginary Energy Ball
Energy ball is an imaginary ball in which teacher throws the ball towards the class using hand gestures. The size of the ball keeps increasing. This is demonstrated by the hands.

The energy ball has to pass to each of the students and they have to throw randomly and quickly. Then the energy ball can reduce in size and it has to be given back to the teacher. This is a fun activity to energize the children in the classroom.

Tell me a Story
This is the most interesting warm-up activity. You can greet the class and ask the kids to form a circle. Or they can also this activity sitting at their desk table. All you have to do is begin an imaginary story with simple four words.

E.g. Once upon a time... The next student will add to the story with his own version and add just words that he knows.
Child 1: Once upon a time
Child 2: there lived a girl
Child 3: with golden hair
Child 4: and a witch
Child 5: who loved to eat strawberries
Keep continuing this. In case if the flow breaks, begin another story again.
This is a fun activity and it enables the child to speak and think.

Mime Out
The teacher brings some flashcards with different facial expression mentioned along with smileys. You need to call one child at a time randomly. You have to show this flashcard to the child.

The child has to mime it out in front of the entire classroom. You can keep three to four such flash cards and ask the classroom to guess the emotion. Mime is an interesting way to engage your classroom and make them into thinking mode.

Enact eating Biscuit
This is a fun and innovative activity that can be done as a warm-up or ice breaking session for your classroom. All you have to do is take a packet of biscuit, anything that is loved by the children. Place one biscuit on the forehead of the child. They should eat the biscuit with some creative skills. For e.g. you can set some rules and different variations. The first case, they are not allowed to touch the biscuit. They need to slide the biscuit on their face until it reaches the chin. The first child to slide the biscuit on the chin wins.

In another variation, they can enact funny way how they eat their favorite biscuit. They can roll the biscuit on their hands and play like a car and show the classroom innovative ways of eating their favorite biscuit. This warm-up session will spark creativity and the kids would love to enact.

Click here to check lesson plan for means of transport.

Sing Aloud
The teacher has to start with a letter phonetically. E.g d,d, d
The classroom copies the sound and repeats in a chorus. Change the song with another letter, s, s, s, s, s, s. The classroom has to follow the sequence.
Now you can create a funny sound line. The classroom has to hear clearly and follow.
E.g. d – p – j – l
k - m – r – o
j - p – x- y

Say once slowly and once fast. Let the classroom follow. The one who says correctly becomes the leader of the class for that day. This activity is helpful to create energy and warm up the children for a new lesson.

Shake Your Energy Out
Children stand on the spot singing and shaking their arms and legs:
Shake, shake, shake your energy out,
Shake, shake, shake your energy out,
Shake, shake, shake your energy out,
And jiggle your worries away.

Bring variations by singing the song with different words and changing the action and the movement.
For example:
Skip, skip, skip your energy out
Run, run, run your energy out
Bring, bring, and bring your smile out
And leave your worries away.

With a good warm-up activity, you can always bring in the mood of your students to pay attention to your lessons. They will have a great time in learning with you throughout the year. They will always look forward to your new ideas and games to keep them on toes.

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