Make Learning More Fun

Do you get bogged down wanting your child to acquire knowledge that you don’t make learning as enjoyable as it should be? Today’s academic pressures can quickly squeeze the fun out of learning. Yet ‘fun’ is an important ingredient for learning to take place. These four ideas will rekindle the fun and boost learning at the same time.

Active Education Techniques Increase Learning

In order for learning to occur it has to be pleasurable. According to Judy Willis, author of How Your Child Learns Best, the brain has a filtering system for information. If your child is frustrated, bored or confused her brain responds to these stresses by going into survival mode and blocking information to the thinking brain and memory. (So that’s what happens to all those math facts!)

To increase attention and memory formation, Judy suggests using learning activities that include physical movement, personal interest, choice and play to create pleasurable learning experiences. Use these four activities to ignite learning while having fun.

1. Act it out.
When introducing or reviewing a concept, ask yourself, “how can we act this out?” Role playing gets the body moving, adding action to otherwise 2-D subjects. Your child will gain new insights by being inside the topic.

Reenact historical events or be a historical figure. Act out math story problems and science processes such as photosynthesis.

2. Build a model.
What part of your lesson can be constructed? Building is not only fun, it draws on your child’s knowledge and skills to create something out of nothing. It can reveal the depth of your child’s knowledge more accurately than a worksheet or multiple-choice quiz.

Build a 3-D map (or historical structure) with salt dough, create plant cells with Jello™ and dried fruit bits, earth layers with Play Doh™, and a model of the solar system with craft balls.

3. Create an art project.
When Mrs. Hall, third grade teacher extraordinaire, wants her students to remember something she does an art project. (Click to read her ideas for integrating art in all subjects.)

Grab your art supplies and create paper dolls of historical people, draw scenes from historical events, reproduce historical art pieces, and draw diagrams of science concepts. Make it more challenging by using different mediums (such as oil pastels or chalk) and techniques (like shading, realism, or impressionism)

4. Real-life experiences.
Real-life experiences are especially powerful when introducing new concepts or units. If you will be learning about the 1800′s, churning butter and spending a day without electricity will prime the brain with pegs in which to hang future learning.

Cook historical food, live a “day in the life of (insert historical person)”, plant a garden, collect and press plants, star gaze, and observe and record wildlife.  Half or double recipes, build a birdhouse, or rearrange a room using scale drawings.

Keep these ideas in your teaching toolbox and pull them out when you find the academic pressures building. Remember; FUN = LEARNING.