Five Flexible Resources All Teachers Shouldn't Be Without!

Teachers workload is too much. One contributing factor to this is that they tend to spend more time creating content and resources than actually teaching the children. Too much planning effects teacher wellbeing. We always strive to make sure our lessons are as engaging as possible but finding the happy medium between engaging resource lessons and a work life balance can be challenging.
 
Flexible resources can be used in a variety of creative ways across subjects and the curriculum. By creating a bank of flexible resources overtime, you build a toolbox of engaging activities that can be used in all areas of the curriculum - saving you both time and printing credits! So here are my top five flexible resources that all teachers should have in their resource toolbox.

Buzzers!

Buzzers make any activity more fun - fact! Simple recall activities and quizzes can instantly become more engaging by adding buzzers for each group or child to use. They can also be used to guide group discussions by allowing children to speak only when they press the buzzer. They are also a great behaviour management tool to ensure children are not shouting out in class, but are still allowed to communicate that they have answer to share.

Whiteboard Paint or Rolls

​Being an ex art student, I think whiteboard paint or rolls are my favourite resource. You can turn any surface or wall into a creative space for children to think, develop ideas and share their thoughts and feelings.

By adding whiteboard patches to your tables, you instantly give children the ability to make notes and jot down ideas. As mentioned in my Reluctant Writers Publication, for children who fear failure, this is a great way of allowing children to make mistakes and play around with ideas before writing in their exercise book.

​Not to mention, they make simple but effective displays within your classroom and the ultimate working walls.

Magnetic Spin Wheels

​Why not to turn your classroom into a game show? A magnetic wheel of fortune is a great but simple way of livening up any question-based activity. Instead of asking children to complete a number of listed questions or problems, add them to this wheel of fortune and ask children to complete the question the wheel lands on.

If adding the questions to the wheel is too much, simply add numbers that correlate to a question on a worksheet. Either way, for children who lack stamina in lessons, a wheel of fortune is a great way to reward them when completing questions by breaking them up with a small physical activity.
 
They also work great as a name selector when picking children to answer questions and create a fair way of picking who will be the classroom monitor for the week.

Spinners!

​Spinners are a great alternative to the spin the wheel and again can be adapted and used in a variety of ways. Spinners can be placed on tables for individual students or groups to use. When placed on a whiteboard, children and teachers can create their own categories or questions for the spinner to land on.

​Spinners are great way of generating random numbers to work with in mathematics and they are fun way of engaging children with probability.

​However, once again that can be used in all areas of the curriculum and should be a part of any teachers resource toolbox.

Large Blank Dice

​If there was one resource that I probably use the most as a teacher, it is the blank dice. Because the sides have whiteboard surfaces you can use the dice for a full range of different activities.

By adding vocabulary, colours, pictures or traditional digits, you can allow children to lead activities independently or within groups. Many resource companies sell dice focused on a whole range of different subjects and themes, but by purchasing a set of blank dice they can be used in many different contexts and are a far more flexible resource.

And so...

By building a bank of flexible resources and activities, you save yourself time in the long run. Not only will it save you planning time, but the children will be familiar with activities and so you spend far less time explaining activities and giving instructions.

Eventually, you will get to the point where thinking of activities from what you already have becomes second nature. Remember, this does not have to be physical resources either, it could be paper based activities too. Here are a few free downloadable resources to get you started! Remember the motto - Minimum Effort, Maximum Impact!

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Your Turn...

Comment below and share your flexible resources that you can't live without!