15 Easy Ways to Make Learning Fun!

The truth is learning AND teaching are way more enjoyable when the FUN factor is turned up!  Check out some super easy ways to make learning fun!

1.  Get out the crayons and colored pencils and let students draw to show their understanding.  Have students sketch the main events of a reading passage.  Or, challenge students to draw a comic to showcase a concept they're learning, like theme.

2.  Create hands-on learning experiences for your kinesthetic and naturalistic learners.  Take students on a walk and have them write descriptively about what they see, hear, and feel. 

3.  Design group activities for students with strong interpersonal intelligence.  Have students work together to give powerful feedback during peer conferencing or work on large-group projects like creating a newspaper for a book the class has read.

4.  Let students connect to who they are and how they feel by tapping into the intrapersonal learning style.  Give students an opportunity to study alone anywhere in the classroom, school library or even auditorium.  Make it a practice for students to reflect on what they learned.

5.  Encourage students to sit on their desks while learning new ideas or sharing thoughts with classmates.  Or, have students sit on their desks when they "spirit read" a short story or novel.  Explain that "spirit reading" means that they will each read from the chapter whenever they feel like it.  You, as the teacher, won't cue them when to read, instead they'll need to chime in when they feel ready.

6.  Throw things all around the classroom.  Make learning fun by having students respond to comprehension questions on a worksheet and then fold their answers into a paper airplane.  Next, challenge students to launch their airplanes...the furthest flight (with the most right answers) wins!  Or, have a classroom ball that you toss around the room when asking students questions.  

7.  Break the "no talking" in class rule and let students chat up their classmates.  Pose a challenging question to students and have them call out their opinions and thoughts.  Let students pick their own seats so that they can talk to their friends about what they are learning and thinking.

8.  Instead of having students read quietly, have them read in silly voices.  Challenge students to read passages like a pirate or as if they are underwater.  Find more FREE fun ways to read aloud HERE.

9.  Pass out gum in class instead of taking it away.  Gum has actually been proven to stimulate thinking, so it's a great idea to hand out gum during standardized assessments.

10.  Instead of requiring students to learn from you, have them learn from each other.  Have the class design a learning unit or lesson plan for a new concept.  You could assign small groups a type of figurative language, and require them to teach a lesson to the class about each.

11.  Give students choice.  When students get to make choices about their learning, the lesson is instantly more fun.  You could have students choose their daily warm-ups, their independent reading books, and even projects during school break.

12.  Get students moving.  One of the best ways to craft engaging lessons is with learning stations.  Set up centers of activities that students can rotate through to make learning a ton more fun! 

13.  Provide opportunities for students to share.  Book talks are a great way for students to report out on the books that they read. Or, set up a Literacy Café in your classroom with hot cocoa.  Then, after students complete a piece of writing they can share it with the class "open mic" style.

14.  Create an integrated study. In the real world, subjects overlap.  That's why creating lessons that integrate multiple subjects makes learning more fun!  Check out this integrated Ancient Greece unit or this study of Famous Women across content areas.

15.  Keep students guessing.  Designing activities that keep learning novel really gets students excited about learning.  Try this with homework assignments.  Instead of having students turn in a regular assignment, give that same assignment a twist.  Tell students that they need to write all their answers upside-down or in secret code. Find 25 more homework twists HERE.

BONUS!  I've compiled a list of 15 MORE ways to make learning fun. Plus, there's a link to an exclusive FREE resource in the post. Just click HERE!

Thanks for stopping by!

Mary Beth