Golden Thread of Fun

This is a great reminder: always weave the golden thread of fun through each day and students will be engaged, active learners who are having fun:) Since school started, on the scoreboard, my students were playing for talking time. In the beginning, this was exciting to them, but now we are at the end of first quarter and they are ready for something new. That something new will be MIND SOCCER! Now that I am ready to add mind soccer to the mix, I am spending my weekend refreshing myself on the ins and outs of the game, so this REF is ready to go! I have watched the WBT TV 507 broadcast, as well as, watched the YouTube video by Chris Rekstad. I now feel even more prepared than ever to begin next week! Last week, my students began asking about mind soccer and I followed Chris Rekstad's advice. The first day they asked, "What is mind soccer?" I replied, "I will tell you at the end of the day!" Well, the end of the day came, the bell rang, and my kids were like "What about mind soccer?" I simply stated, "Oh, it looks like we ran out of time for today, but we will learn more tomorrow!" (heeheehee)....At the end of the second day, I put our mind soccer field on the SMARTboard, but once again at the end of the day, we were so busy with teacher read aloud and packing up, that time flew, the bell rang, and we once again left without a full explanation. Finally, at the end of the fourth day, the kids were introduced to the game of mind soccer, but still we have not played!

After viewing the WBT TV 507 segment, I now have all the tools that I need. Here are some highlights: mind soccer is flexible and the ref needs to have about 50-60 questions ready to go. Select a captain, flip a coin, and the winners' team begins. When the answers are fast, loud, accurate, and the whole team is answering, move the ball. The teams will cheer/groan and if there is a wrong answer yell STEAL! If teams complain, blow the whistle and shout PENALTY! Use a timer and for the first time playing set it for one to two minutes! The one rule for the game is KEEP THE REF HAPPY!

Teachers should have the scoreboard for short term rewards and mind soccer for long term rewards. Once the class earns 10 stars, they will play Mind Soccer Fridays! As the year progresses variations to add: freeball (both teams answer...ref says..I'm thinking of a weather tool (or any topic)...the team to answer first wins), shoot-out (5 member kickers and team captain blocker), and the one that makes me laugh when Coach B modeled MONKEY DEFENSE (when one team answers, the other team makes monkey noises to distract)! For more information, please visit http://www.wholebrainteaching.com/

Remember it's a loonnnggg year, so save the good stuff ,and LEARNING should be FUN!

Laura Caisse
WBT Intern, 2011-2012