Making school fun can give kids a lifelong love of learning. To keep your students engaged and motivated, throw in some fun variety. Here are 10 ways you can make learning and education more fun and interesting for your students.

1. Break up Your Lessons

Many lessons, especially when you’re introducing a new topic, involve a lecture. But you can’t expect young kids to stay engaged as they sit still listening to you talk. Breaking up your lesson adds excitement and keeps your students interested.

Give an introduction, then try an activity. Go back to talking, then pull out another group exercise or get students out of their seats for a round of jumping jacks. Finish the class with a discussion. Even a 30-second break every six minutes or so will do wonders. Try to vary what you do for every lesson and how you teach every day. Learning in new ways and doing new things can help kids pay attention to the material.

2. Give Your Students Choices

Kids don’t get lots of choices in their daily routine, either at school or at home. Sometimes all they want is to have a say. When kids have the power to choose, it helps them become more engaged and buy into what happens next. Try letting them pick the activity that goes along with your lesson or what homework assignment they will work on that night. Giving kids choices will make lessons more fun, all while instilling them with decision-making skills.

3. Incorporate Games

Games are an incredible way to add instant engagement to your lesson plan. They make learning more fun, from review time to memorization drills. Games don’t need to require a lot of prep time or expense, as there are thousands of free educational games online. Students will look forward to review days and other lessons if they know it’s game on.

4. Create Group Time

When you allow students to work together, they retain information quicker and longer. Cooperation also helps develop critical thinking and communication skills. Group time breaks up the same routine, making learning and your lesson much more enjoyable.

5. Get up and Move

Most elementary school kids don’t like to sit still for very long. Your kids deserve a break, and so do you. It’s time to get up and get moving.

If you see your kids lagging, give them a brain break or incorporate movement into your lesson to make it more fun and engaging. These breaks are a great way to give your students a quick two minutes of downtime. Make sure you offer ample opportunities for movement. When they know a mini-break is on the horizon, your kids will stay more engaged and have much more fun.

6. Incorporate Hands-On Learning

Teachers have used hands-on activities for a long time as a way to make lessons fun and engaging. Apply these activities to almost any subject, from a preschool alphabet lesson to math, English and geography. An action-oriented assignment, like an arts and crafts project, is more meaningful to students and will likely be the lesson they remember most.

Learn About Sensory Play Equipment

7. Be Open to Creativity

It’s easy to teach from the same lesson plans year after year. Once you have something that works, you may be a little nervous about trying something new. But remember — each year, you’ve got a new batch of students with various interests. Variety and creativity are the best ways to ensure learning stays fun.

Be open to your students’ creativity. Give your class the freedom to modify assignments and projects as long as they run the changes by you first. You may find that their ideas give a unique twist to a lesson. Plus, when students come up with something on their own, it’s more meaningful to them and they can develop confidence in their decision-making skills.

8. Schedule Field Trips

Who doesn’t have fond memories of their class field trips? These treks outside the classroom are an ideal way for your students to connect to the outside world and engage with what they’re learning. From plays and museum exhibits to historical places, these and other field trips will be more memorable than a classroom lecture.

If your school has cut the field trip budget, try taking an online virtual field trip. Or, maybe there’s a cool opportunity within walking distance of your building. No matter how you offer a trip to your students, it’ll be a fun way to learn.

9. Make Technology a Part of Your Lesson

Technology is a given in today’s world. From tablets and laptops to YouTube and Netflix, your kids experience an endless stream of devices, sites and software every day. Use technology as a tool to make learning more fun, familiar and accessible.

Stock your classroom with tablets that have exciting educational apps. Or show your kids a short clip on YouTube or TeacherTube. You can even create a PowerPoint or a video of your own. Technology is a great way to meet some of your students’ instructional needs.

10. Take the Fun Outside

Recess — is there any word that brings more joy to a student’s heart? Looking forward to these outdoor excursions can make their in-class time more fun and engaging.

Kids need a break, yet many schools are doing away with recess in favor of academics. However, research shows that getting outdoors, playing on the playground and engaging with friends primes their brains for learning. Along with that, you and your students could enjoy these additional benefits of having class outside.

• Learning about different subjects: Of course, outdoor lessons can be ideal for science classes. But you could also go outside to supplement a reading class focusing on nature or an art class exploring landscapes.
• Improving grades: Taking lessons outside can boost grades. Kids can become more engaged with learning and grow their critical thinking skills, increasing their chances of doing well on tests and assignments.
• Reducing stress: You and your students deserve the chance to relax. Take a break from tests and lectures to spend some time outside and reduce everyone’s stress.

By https://www.miracle-recreation.com/

Students’ personality is an essential component in order to plan and teach physical education (PE) lessons according to students’ individual needs. Additionally, personality formation in general is part of the educational mandate and student personality development specifically is considered as an elementary goal of PE. Although student personality is a central topic in the PE context, the state of research, especially regarding the underlying personality understandings, is diverse and hard to capture. Therefore, this scoping review aims to (I) describe the underlying personality understandings and (II) analyze research questions and results of studies examining students’ personality in PE. We conducted a scoping review. Eleven databases were chosen because of their specification within the field of education, sports and health sciences. We included references if they empirically examined students’ personality in PE and were published in German or English. Twenty-four studies were included in the review. Fifteen of the included studies were cross-sectional, nine longitudinal. Regarding aim I), the underlying personality understandings were inconsistent across the studies but most of the studies followed trait theory. Considering aim II), the included studies investigated relationships between students’ personality and either (a) students’ achievement in PE, (b) students’ psychological determinants of PE participation (e.g., motivation, anxiety), or (c) a school sports intervention. Results indicated that e.g., extraverted students tend to enjoy PE more and obtain less anxiety in PE. The review showed that students’ personality in PE is empirically examined but the studies’ underlying personality understandings, research questions and results are diverse. Findings highlight that PE contributes to students’ personality development. Additionally, the review showed that results of personality research in PE context can be used in order to teach PE in a student-centered way (e.g., by deducing the detected relationships considering extraversion) and by this support students’ lifelong physical activity. Further and targeted research in this field can help PE teachers to tailor their teaching to their students’ needs. This increases the chances to achieve PE’s two main goals—“educating to sports (e.g., personality-aligned lessons addressing different motives)” and “educating through sports (e.g., personality development)” in the long term.

By https://www.frontiersin.org/

1. 1. Good Practice Encourages Student – Faculty Contact
      Frequent student-faculty contact in and out of classes is the most important factor in student motivation and involvement. Faculty concern helps students get through rough times and keep on working. Knowing a few faculty members well enhances students’ intellectual commitment and encourages them to think about their own values and future plans.

1. 1. Good Practice Encourages Cooperation Among Students
      Learning is enhanced when it is more like a team effort than a solo race. Good learning, like good work, is collaborative and social, not competitive and isolated. Working with others often increases involvement in learning. Sharing one’s own ideas and responding to others’ reactions improves thinking and deepens understanding.

1. 1. Good Practice Encourages Active Learning
      Learning is not a spectator sport. Students do not learn much just sitting in classes listening to teachers, memorizing pre-packaged assignments, and spitting out answers. They must talk about what they are learning, write about it, relate it to past experiences, and apply it to their daily lives. They must make what they learn part of themselves.

1. 1. Good Practice Gives Prompt Feedback
      Knowing what you know and don’t know focuses learning. Students need appropriate feedback on performance to benefit from courses. In getting started, students need help in assessing existing knowledge and competence. In classes, students need frequent opportunities to perform and receive suggestions for improvement. At various points during university, and at the end, students need chances to reflect on what they have learned, what they still need to know, and how to assess themselves.

1. 1. Good Practice Emphasizes Time on Task
      Time plus energy equals learning. There is no substitute for time on task. Learning to use one’s time well is critical for students and professionals alike. Students need help in learning effective time management. Allocating realistic amounts of time means effective learning for students and effective teaching for faculty. How an institution defines time expectations for students, faculty, administrators, and other professional staff can establish the basis for high performance for all.

1. 1. Good Practice Communicates High Expectations
      Expect more and you will get it. High expectations are important for everyone-for the poorly prepared, for those unwilling to exert themselves, and for the bright and well motivated. Expecting students to perform well becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy when teachers and institutions hold high expectations for themselves and make extra efforts.

1. Good Practice Respects Diverse Talents and Ways of Learning
   There are many roads to learning. People bring different talents and types of learning to college. Brilliant students in the seminar room may be all thumbs in the lab or art studio. Students rich in hands-on experience may not do so well with theory. Students need the opportunity to show their talents and learn in ways that work for them. Then they can be pushed to learning in new ways that do not come so easily.

By https://www.uu.edu/