Quick Tip: Making the Most of Restroom Breaks

As you can see from my Classroom Schedule post, we take a LOT of restroom breaks as a class. I don't like for kiddos to be gone during instructional time and it really bothers me when they ask to go only because someone else did. The ideal situation would be to have a RR in our room, but that's only for K at my school. So the next best thing is class RR breaks. I try to do them when we are already out of the classroom to save on time. To help make them not be a complete waste of time, I have a series of games I play with my students.

1. "I'm thinking of a number between __ and __." Students will then raise their hand to guess my number and I'll tell them 'too high' or 'too low'. Sometimes I'll throw in odd/even or place value.

2. Spell a sight word and the students have to tell me the sight word.

3. Say a sight word and the students have to spell it.

4. Number combinations/hiding fingers behind my back.

5. Word problems with simple addition/subtraction.

6. "I'm thinking of a word that starts with __ and rhymes with __."

The best part is that the kids LOVE doing this. On the few times we don't play, they are begging me to play! I also like that I don't have to bring anything with me- so it's absolutely no prep work!