Freeze Dance

Sometimes the simplest ideas work the best.  Yesterday we played freeze dance at ASP, and it was a huge hit. 

One thing I've learned is when I announce, "okay, everyone, we're going to play a game called freeze dance!" (or whatever the activity is), I get a lot of groans. No matter WHAT the activity is.  But if I just start it, with one or two kids, more are sure to join in if they want to. And if they don't, they are the ones missing out. That is how it worked yesterday with freeze dance. 

I turned on a Pandora Kidzbop station on my phone and plugged it into my loud speakers. I started the music, and grabbed the two kids who were buzzing around me with nothing to do, and we just started dancing. Within seconds, most of the group was dancing, too, including the middle schoolers and the boys.  One of the kids shouted, "what are we doing??" and I said, "Freeze dance!" and then I went and paused the music. During the pause I said "we're playing freeze dance! Anytime the music is on, dance! But when it stops, you have to freeze!"

You can call kids out if they move during the freeze time, but I didn't really, because I didn't feel the need for an elimination game. I would just say, "Ishrak, I see you moving!!" but the moving kids could keep dancing when the music came back on.

Honestly, they liked it so much, they asked if we could do it again today.  Freeze dance! The easiest thing!

Whisper Phones

I've known about whisper phones for a long time, but this is the first time I've made them or used them.  

Whisper phones are just short pieces of PVC pipe with PVC elbow joints attached to either end. When a kid puts one up to their ear, like a phone, they can whisper into it and hear themselves loud and clear. These are great for reading, especially kids who still read out loud but don't want everyone to hear them or in loud classrooms. 

This year in ASP (After School Program) I decided to put a much heavier emphasis on reading. I really believe the only way to get better at reading is to do a lot of it. And the students' reading scores from this past year didn't reach our expectations. So every day, for half an hour or more, it's pretty dedicated reading time. 

Ashmita using a whisper phone to read a book on her phone

But kids do not love to read, so I am working on making things more fun, and whisper phones are one way to do that. Typically they are used in classrooms of very young children learning to read, but I've found that here, kids of all ages like using them, and because they are neat and fun, it's not embarrassing for older kids to read out loud to themselves if they need to.  

I just found the instructions online, google "whisper phone instructions".  I think I got 3/4" PVC and they folks at ACE cut it into sections for me for free. I think the sections were like, 3 1/2" long, and then I bought a bag of 10 3/4" elbow joins. Popped them together, and wrapped some colorful duct tape around the center section for flair.

My whisper phones, with scissors for size reference.