Friday was our first speaker of the year. I thought I would do a little prep work to see if we could cut down on the story telling and really ask questions. I got this idea from Kristin @ A Teeny Tiny Teacher, but turned it into my own.
First, I taught students the Question Song which you sing to the tune of "He's got the whole world in His Hands." They love it when we sing. I gave 6 students the question words to the song & they held them up like cheerleaders at a football game as we sang the song.
After learning the song, we made an anchor chart about Reasons we may ask questions:
Then, students were ready for some practice. We played the game Headbandz in small groups. In this game, one student wears a headband with a picture on it. They cannot see the picture but must ask questions to figure it out.
After playing the game, I checked students understanding by giving each student a strip of paper. On it, they had to ask me a question about myself or my family.
Did this help! Yes! Not a single one of my students told a story during our time with the speaker. If they raised their hands, they asked questions!
You can also make your own Headbandz game. Make 6 headbands out of sentence strips. Cut a library pocket a little short & glue on to the middle of the strip. Have students illustrate objects, animals, people, etc on index cards. Presto! You have the pieces to the game.
