Sponge Activities for Kindergarten

Sponge activities help absorb time with games and activities.

Sponge activities are activities that take up students' time. Sponge activities soak up time often at the end of class when there is not enough time for a learning project or for times when the teacher needs to work alone. For kindergarten-aged students, sponge activities need to be simple, easy to understand and suited to a short attention span.

Draw It

Make a drawing where each student adds a part. The teacher will begin the drawing by putting a straight line or some simple shape on the board. Students will take turns going to the board and adding to the drawing until all have gone. Picking a topic for the drawing, such as an animal, person or thing can make the activity more fun.

What Is This?

Have on hand a few objects that the students are not apt to have seen before. These might be a tool, a type of art supply like a protractor, or a grooming object like a cuticle nipper. The teacher then gives the object to the first student who will guess what it is used for. That student will then pass it on to the next student who will then make a guess, passing it along until all have made up a use.

What Did You Say?

Play "gossip" by first having the students sit in a circle on the floor. The teacher whispers something simple in the first student's ear. That student in turn whispers to the next student and so on around the circle. The last student to receive the message tells it aloud to the class. You can be sure it will be nothing like that original whisper.

Simon Says

The teacher will make a command such as, "Simon Says... Touch your nose." The students will obey. Often the teacher will make the pose as he or she makes the command. The students shouldn't change their pose unless the teacher precedes the command with "Simon Says." Anyone who changes poses without hearing the "Simon Says" command has to sit down until one student remains as the winner.

What's This?

Put something in an opaque bag. Have students sit in a circle and pass the bag around the circle, letting students feel the object without looking at it. After everyone has had a chance to think what the object might be, write the guesses on the chalkboard.

Beanbag Toss

Have the students stand in a circle. The teacher calls out a word (such as "dog") and then throws the beanbag to a second student. This student then quickly calls out a word related to the first word (in this case perhaps "cat") and then throws the beanbag to another student who adds another word.

Charades

The teacher writes on slips of paper the names of books, movies or people and puts these slips in a box or hat. The items can be from recent topics covered in class for learning reinforcement. The student pulls out a paper and acts out the words on the paper without speaking, attempting to have the other students guess what the paper said.

References

• Educational Sponge Activities
• Everday Teaching

Resources

• 100 Sponge Activities
• More Sponge Activities for the Classroo