Every teacher tries their best to help their students learn. I am no exception. When I was teaching preschool, I wanted to be able to review what they learned in a fun way. That is how I tried to teach everything--masked in fun. You have to with a special needs preschooler just to keep their attention. Anyway, we were studying the letter F and I came up with the idea of Flashlight Derby! We reviewed colors, shapes, numbers, and letters. It was a wonderful success in preschool and the idea stayed with me.
Now that I teach elementary school, I wondered if I could make it work for my guys now. So we tried it. I still had the same cards I used with preschool, plus I added words and names, since all of them are reading! We tried this in May, so we had lots of material we could use. Here's what you need:
Flashlights (I asked the students to bring their own, and I had ones from the dollar store just in case)Masking tape
Bold marker (I used a black Marks alot)
Paper/Index cards (I used 1/2 sheets of recycled copy paper or construction paper for the colors)
A bit of time to put it up
The premise is simple. Make the sheets/cards using what you want to review, and tape them to the ceiling. Put them randomly in one area (across the room is hard to see) where the students can be on the ground. Then make sure everyone has a flashlight. Have everyone lay down on the floor (YES, Teachers too!!) and turn off the lights! I was the caller, and I would say, "Find the number 30." The students would have to shine their flashlights on the number. Do this for all of the items, or until you run out of time or patience. My boys found this extremely relaxing and fun. They were really good at it too! We put all of their names up there, as well as the teachers, principals, and their sight words. It was loads of fun. In preschool as a prize to the "winner," (they all did well) I let them pick from the treasure box. My elementary class was happy with just playing it. Here is what my ceiling looked like.
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