You’ve worked hard to build classroom routines that support student learning and convey a sense of purpose every day. Maybe you’ve even perfected your routines so much, your classes could almost teach themselves. These routines are what keep you going every day, even when the school year gets tough. They’re a safety net for both you and your students, providing reassurance that no one will be caught off guard or unprepared for the day ahead.
But as much as you take comfort in your orderly classroom, sometimes the activities that anchor you can start to feel like they’re weighing you down. Things can quickly go from fun to formulaic, putting all your best-intentioned lesson plans at risk of boredom. You want to relinquish some of your control over activities, without throwing your classroom into chaos. And your students want ownership of their learning without overwhelm. You and your students crave a greater balance between structure and surprise in your day-to-day activities.
How can you keep your students on their toes in class—without making them want to run?
Erasable Cool Cubes™ are the simple tools that shake up your teaching repertoire. These versatile, customizable dice inject just the right amount of variability into your existing routines without upending your classroom management. Use these Cool Cube adaptations to make language learning in your classroom bounce back to life:
Grammar Drills
Let students work with a partner, and give each partner one Cool Cube and a marker. Instruct one student to fill their cube with six verbs that your class is currently working on, and tell the other to fill theirs with six subject pronouns and/or nouns in the target language. Have students roll their cubes and work together to figure out the correct conjugation. Add some accountability by asking students to write down each subject and verb combination and the resulting conjugation on a sheet of paper. Add a little competition by having students race their partners to determine the correct conjugation first. Or make it more challenging by adding in a third variable, such as an adjective or adverb, and have students create sentences with the words on their cubes.
Storyasking
Getting to decide the fate of fictitious characters energizes Acquisition-Driven Instruction, but managing all those enthusiastic student suggestions can be draining. The next time you ask a story, divide your class into groups and give each group one Cool Cube and a marker. Tell each group that they will be responsible for determining one detail in the story. Give each group a prompt, ad-libs style, such as “a girl’s name,” “an animal,” a city,” “a type of transportation,” or whatever your story script necessitates. Have students work together as a group to fill their cube with six possible outcomes for that detail. When your story comes to that detail, have a representative from that group roll the Cool Cube to determine which option will become canon in your class story.
Numbers Practice
Bring a predetermined amount of Cool Cubes to a prominent spot at the front of the classroom so that each cube represents a place value in the numbers you are practicing (So, for example, if you are practicing hundreds, use three cubes; if you are practicing thousands, use four cubes). Have your students call out random numbers between zero and nine as you write these numerals on the cubes. Then have one student volunteer per cube come up to the front of the room, stand in a row, and roll their cubes at the same time. Once the cubes are rolled, have these students hold them up in order and ask the rest of the class to determine how to say the resulting number in the target language. For added accountability, have students write the numbers in words on dry-erase boards and hold them up for you to check.
Brain Breaks
When it comes time to take a Brain Break, ask six students to volunteer their favorite activity. Write the name of each activity on a Cool Cube, then ask a seventh volunteer to roll the cube to decide which Brain Break your class will do. Students will appreciate the autonomy of getting to help choose the Brain Break and will secretly (or not so secretly) cheer for their favorite to roll face up on the cube!
Erasable Cool Cubes™ make your go-to classroom activities feel new and exciting—without having to reinvent them or relinquish order in your classroom. Just write, roll, and reuse to fill your classroom with variety and fun!
