Many of us have whiteboards around the house for family notes, calendar reminders and general usage, but don't overlook them as powerful educational tools! Whiteboards are key to many activities and games that help children learn.
- An Alternative to Paper/Pencil Practice : Want to go green with your educational efforts? Save paper by encouraging your children to practice writing, math facts and other drills on a whiteboard instead of paper. This works great for anything routine that you don't need to save for future reference. Also, the added advantage is more 'forgiving' than paper. No more eraser smudges or holes in the final product! Mistakes are easily wiped out with a quick pass of a paper towel or even finger. This can be a life-saver for students who are perfectionists and have difficulty committing words to paper for fear of misspellings.
- Helpful Memory Aid: Try this game to get kids memorizing passages of text, poetry, Scripture, and more! Write the text to be memorized on the whiteboard and read it out loud together. Have the kids close their eyes, and erase one word from the middle. Open eyes, reread the passage from the beginning, pointing to each word. When you come to the blank spot, simply recall the missing word and keep going. Repeat this procedure, erasing one random word at a time and rereading, until you are pointing to a blank board where the words USED to be. Everyone is quite likely to be able to recite the entire passage by this time.
- Colorful Spelling Practice: Spelling is a very visual skill. Most of us recall correct spellings if the visual mode-words simply 'look right' or not. You can tap into this powerful means of learning by using your whiteboard to practice troublesome spelling words. Grab brightly colored markers or even the new dry-erase crayons (available at discount and office supply stores), and start by writing the word correctly in black at the top of the board. Have your speller copy the word in multiple colors, and write it several times. The effect is quite pleasing, and it will burn itself into the visual memory.
- Encourage Clarity of Communication: Try this game to get kids thinking about how to communicate clearly and carefully. You'll need two whiteboards, colored markers, and two teams (or players). Team One begins by secretly creating a simple drawing or design on the whiteboard. The challenge is to create written or oral directions so clear that the opposing team can recreate the same design on their whiteboard without peeking. Award points to the original team for the accuracy and completeness of the duplicate drawing.
Photo by upsidedownsphere
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