Get Students Moving

One of my favorite classroom initiatives is to get students up and moving! I loathe seeing blank stares on students’ faces as I present the same ole presentation. I’ve found that one way to engage my high school students is to get them up and moving.

A few of my favorite ways to execute this are:

• Gallery Walks
• QR Code Web Quests
• QR Code Scavenger Hunts
• Chat or Task-based Stations
• Using Easel Paper posted on a wall
• Escape Activities

The easiest options to implement are the easel paper and gallery walks. I love gallery walks so much I even designed an exclusive freebie on the topic, that you can grab here. The other options require a little extra planning. Never fear, if you’d love to try one of these types activities, the Business Girl store has you covered with all kind of options.

My favorite way to do a gallery walk is to have discussion questions posted around the room. Students rotate around to each question and leave a response on a sticky note. At the end, I have a student or small group select the best answer(s) for each question and share. We then discuss the responses. The Insurance Gallery Walk is one of my top sellers.

With a QR Code Web Quest, you create a question set designed from web links. Use a free QR code generator to make it easy for students to scan the code with a mobile device as they move around the room. Provide students with a question set to answer as they move. Snag the Consumerism QR Code Web Quest to give it a try.

QR Code Scavenger Hunts bring a bit of competition to the classroom. With this activity, you provide clues, which can be as simple as definitions or more advanced with application-based questions/ problems, as QR codes around the room. Again, you can utilize a free QR code generator to create the codes. I then put the answer to the clue on the NEXT card so that as they solve each clue they move on to the next code in the sequence. You could also do this with a word bank, should you not want to provide the leading around the room experience.

Chat stations are fairly similar to a gallery walk, but may only require a “chat” instead of a written answer. I think this works best when you have specific prompts for students based on a provided written scenario. One of my best-selling resources is the Business Ethics (Ethical Dilemmas) Chat Stations. Students rotate through different stations to address a prompt based on an ethical dilemma. Alternatively, you can also do task-based stations where students complete a specific task at the station that creates a full activity.

Want to mix up a written activity? Add easel paper. Stick this to the wall and have students complete any assignment or project of your creation. I use this with my Food Truck Sales Promotion Project and it’s a good way to get students up, while still completing an assignment.

Students can really get into escape activities. While I’ve adapted these for digital as well, I’m still a fan of the around the room version for an out of seat experience. It’s more or less like setting up stations around the room with different tasks. The only difference is that the tasks string together to create codes and you need to get all the codes to escape. The way I do escape activities is with a Google Form so that no actual locks are required. Try out the Business Ownership Escape Activity for a rigorous and collaborative classroom experience.

What other ways to you get students up and moving? Drop your ideas below.