Ep 48: 5 Minutes Fillers was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the latest audio-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors. Sonix is the best audio automated transcription service in 2020. Our automated transcription algorithms works with many of the popular audio file formats.
Hey, teachers, if you have a classroom and a commute, you're in the right place. I'm your host, Rachael, and I want to ride along with you each week on your ride into school. This podcast is the place for busy teachers who want actionable tips, simple strategies, and just want to enjoy their job more. Let's go.
Hey there, welcome back to another episode of The Classroom Commute Podcast, I am Rachael your host. I am so thrilled that you decided to spend a few minutes with me today, whether that is in your car, in the gym or at home around the house, wherever you are tuning in from today. If you've been with me for a while, you know that I am big on short, sweet, simple, and right to the point. Today's episode is going to be no different because I know, as busy teachers, you are short on time. You are likely slipping in this episode in between activities or tasks that you need to be attending to, either personally or professionally. I don't want to waste your time, but ironically, today's episode is about what to do when you have extra time on your hands in the classroom.
Let me set the scene. It's almost time for lunch, and you've just finished up your math lesson. Your students miraculously put away all their materials, just as you asked, and now they're sitting with their hands crossed, sitting straight and waiting for your next direction. OK, that last part about the hands crossed and waiting for your directions might be a bit of a stretch. But let's just fantasize here for a moment, OK? What I'm trying to say is that you have found yourself with five extra minutes at the end of your math lesson before lunch and you have five minutes to spare. You know that if you allow your students to turn and talk, it's only a matter of time before you're scraping students off the ceiling and putting out small fires. Am I right? Ever have a class like that? The kind that if you give an inch, they take a mile? Well, in cases like that, it's always good to have a few ready to go five minute fillers that can be pulled out at a moment's notice. In today's episode, I'm going to share with you five constructive, no prep activities that you can do when you have five, six, or seven minutes to spare after a lesson, before a transition or even at the end of the day. Let's dive right in.
The first five minute filler is to read a poem. I'm a big fan of reading poetry all year, not just in April during National Poetry Month. I always like to have a poetry book to pull out for a quick read aloud when it's time to use up five minutes. When time is limited, poems often work better than a full novel read aloud, since you might not be able to get through a full chapter in five minutes. You can use the poem for a quick poetry lesson. For example, when you read the poem, have students listen for a specific poetry element like personification, hyperbole, onomatopoeia and so on. It also makes for a quick fluency model. You can try reading a portion of the poem and then have students recite it back to you in a fun little chant. You can make it fun by having them practice reciting that portion in different voices to practice tone and mood.
The second five minute filler is to play a game called "2 Truths and a Lie". Have you ever played this game with friends? It's exactly how it sounds. You tell a group of people 2 truthful facts about yourself and one believable but false lie. Your friends try to guess which is the lie. It's super simple, easy and often surprising that your students would get such a kick out of it. It's a great way to build classroom community by sharing a little bit about yourself. You could also make it educational by taking a topic that they've been learning about, like, say, multiplication, and have them pick out the false math fact. For example, you might say 5x4=20, 3x3=6, and 12x3=36. You would pick a student to correctly pick out the multiplication math sentence that is false. Which would be in this case 3x3=6. Of course this would work for any content area. You can also have students do this in partners and make it so that everyone can participate and come up with the 2 truths and a lie for whatever your chosen topic is. Really simple, right? The best part, it comes with no prep involved.
Another five minute filler that I like to use is called "Show What You know", I've mentioned this resource a few times over on my website and on the podcast, and I will link to a post in the show notes all about how to use these cards. In short, students have a set of cue cards with several answers on them. You ask them a question and students put their finger over the right answer on the card to show you what they know. For example, if you've been studying the three states of matter, you would have a "show what you know" card with the words 'solid, liquid and gas' on it. Then you would ask a series of questions that had the answer to either be solid, liquid, or gas. You might say, what state of matter is ice found in? The students would put their finger next to solid. You would repeat this with several questions and students would respond by putting their finger over the correct answer. Now, I have a set of free "show what you know" cards over in our Members Resource Library. If you are not yet a member, you can sign up to become a member for free. I will link to it in the show notes and you can grab those free "show what you know", cards with a variety of topics. I also have a complete set of "show what you know", cards covering 40 topics that you can grab over at my Teachers Pay Teacher store and I will link to those as well. It makes for a very quick and easy way to assess your students understanding of a particular topic. What I have done, is I have students each have their own set of "show what you know" cards, I put them on a little ring and I have them keep them in their desk or in a cubby wherever you might have students access it quickly. Whenever I'm ready to quickly "show what you know", I have them pull out their ring, turn to a certain card that reflects what we've been talking about and we use it for "show what you know". It's a great five minute filler.
The fourth five minute filler is tell a story on the fly. I love this one. It can be so fun and hilarious. Here's what you do. You hold some sort of ball like a koosh ball, beach ball, bouncy ball, whatever you have on hand. You or a student will start a story with just three words. Then the person that started the story tosses the ball to another student who continues that same story with the next three words. You can keep this going for as long as you want, for as much time as you have. When you're ready for the story to end and you're ready to head off to lunch, specials, or wherever you're going, just announce 'last toss'. The person who gets the ball last must wrap up the story with the final three words. These come out to be such silly stories and students find it hilarious. Here's a way that you can make it more challenging, especially if you're working with older students. You can give the story a specific character or plot line that the students have to build their story upon. For example, you might say, let's tell a story about a boy named Mike on his way to school. I'll begin, "One Monday morning," and then I would pass the ball to another student to pick up where I left off. Of course, if you think three words is too limiting, you could do five words, however many you think would be comfortable for your students. And of course, if you have some apprehensive students, you can always give them the option to pass if they want to, especially with those students who don't do well on the spot. Before long, you might see them joining in when they realize that it's just for fun, no pressure, and definitely make it just for fun.
All right, the fifth and final five minute filler is to take the ABC challenge. This one is fun and again requires zero prep. First, you're going to pick a topic that you and your students have been studying, say, animals, and start with the letter A. For each letter you're trying to have students come up with a related word or the name of an animal that begins with each letter of the alphabet. So A for alligator, B, beluga whale, C, cheetah. Of course, it wouldn't have to be just animals. It could be something related to the animal that begins with their letter. Now, here's a fun extension to this activity. If you come to a letter and nobody can think of a word to go along with that letter, just skip it and challenge students to find a word for that letter in their spare time and share it back with the class. This is a great review for anything that you might be learning.
Well, there you have it. Five minute fillers that aren't just a waste of time, they're constructive and your students would actually have fun doing these. Let's run through them one more time and maybe you can even use one today in your classroom. The first one is to read a poem. The second is to play "2 Truths and a Lie". The third is to use "show what you know" cards. Again, you can grab a free set over in the show notes at classroomnook.com/podcast/48. The fourth one is to tell a story on the fly and the fifth one is to take the ABC challenge. There you go, I always try to make our podcasts actionable so that you can run into your classroom with a new idea or a tip or two.
Hopefully this episode has given you a quick inspiration for something to do the next time you find yourself with an extra five minutes. Thank you so much for joining me today. If you are listening to this episode at the time that it is released, you know that we are nearing the end of 2020 and about to launch 2021, which is crazy to say. Next week on the podcast, I want to help you think about how to plan for the rest of the school year, specifically how to curriculum map the second half of the school year. Stay tuned. Next week, we're going to get into all the details and give you some helpful tips for how to do that without feeling overwhelmed so stay tuned for that. I'll be back again next week. Bye for now.
Sonix uses cutting-edge artificial intelligence to convert your mp3 files to text.
Get the most out of your audio content with Sonix. Make your audio files more accessible with Sonix's automated transcription algorithms. Transcription is now more accurate and more affordable. Sonix converts audio to text in minutes, not hours. Automated algorithms have improved a lot over the past decade. Journalists worldwide transcribe their interviews and short audio segments with Sonix.
Sonix can make your life a whole lot easier. Easily share and publish transcripts that were automatically transcribed by Sonix. Rapid advancements in speech-to-text technology has made transcription a whole lot easier. Automated transcription is much more accurate if you upload high quality audio. Here's how to capture high quality audio.
Sonix is the best online audio transcription software in 2020—it's fast, easy, and affordable.
If you are looking for a great way to convert your audio to text, try Sonix today.
