80 SPONGE ACTIVITIES

BRAIN BREAKS FOR THE CLASSROOM

ARTICLE TAKEN FROM: https://www.whatihavelearnedteaching.com/80-sponge-activities/

Do you ever have 5-10 minutes during the day that you just need to fill, but don’t know what to
do? We’ve had plenty of those moments lately and I’ve been resorting to playing too much
hangman. This afternoon, in the last five minutes of the day, I drew hangman on the board
and my students said, “I knew that was what she was gonna do!”

Ugh. I need some new sponge activities! So, I scoured my brain, my husband’s brain, and
the internet and came up with these 80 Sponge Activities that would work in my
classroom. Some of these I’ve used in the past and had forgotten about. Others are new to
me, but sound like so much fun!

Madeline Hunter created the term sponge activities to describe “learning activities that soak
up precious time that would otherwise be lost.” The best sponge activities are fun and
engaging, and have an academic component without seeming too “school-ish”. That’s my
favorite way to use an extra five minutes!

I have also seen some of these activities labeled as “Brain Breaks”. The basic idea is to keep
learning active while taking a break from the rigor of a specific subject matter and have a little
bit of fun!

Here are the activities in no specific order:

1. Storytelling: Sit in a circle. Using a ball, start a story with one or two sentences. Toss the
ball to another student. That student must continue the story with one more
sentence. Continue passing the ball and adding a sentence to the story. Record the story
on your iPad and have an older student type it up as a funny classroom book. Students
can illustrate the sentences.
2. The Price is Right: Post a picture of an object and in your head, determine a price for
it. Have students guess the price. Keep a record of the guesses and indicate if the guess
is too high or too low. Help students adjust their guess based on the chart of guesses.
3. Add it up: give students a simple addition problem. If the student can give you the correct
answer without fumbling or counting, accept it. Then select another student and have them
add another amount to the previous students’ sum. If the student says, “um” or counts
aloud, start back with a simple addition problem. The goal is to get to 100 without making
a mistake, counting aloud, or making other sounds.
4. Use the Kids Book of Questions: Have students choose a number, read the question, and
discuss responses. Table Topics offer another great source for questions.
5. Play Around the World with flashcards
6. Compliment Game: Write each student’s name on a strip of paper. Distribute each strip of
paper so that a student has someone else’s name. Sit in a circle and have students give
one compliment to the person whose name they have.
7. 20 Questions: choose a person, place or thing. Have students ask you questions to try and
guess the word.
8. Count by twos, fives, tens, etc. while sitting in a circle.
9. Start at a number, say 345 and count by 10s or 100s forward or backward.
10. Flashcards: The first to answer correctly then lines up first
11. Four basic shapes: Find an object in the room that represents each shape
12. Give a consonant blend and have students say a word that begins with that blend
13. Dismiss students by color of eyes, hair, month of birth, season of birth, beginning letter
of name, type of pet, etc.
14. Have students tell one thing they learned today using a complete sentences. Or tell
their partner one new thing that they learned today. Record it on chart paper or
have students write a journal entry about the one new thing they learned.
15. Tell one playground rule, one good health habit, one character trait, one doubles fact,
etc.
16. “I went to the grocery store and bought…” each student names an item, the next
student repeats the items and adds one more item.
17. Write a word on the board, have students write as many words as they can that rhyme
with it.
18. Name an animal that lives in the: jungle, zoo, farm, mountains, water, etc. List as many
as the class can figure out.
19. List things you can touch, smell, taste, hear, see
20. List the colors you are wearing
21. List the continents of the world, states, etc.
22. Create names for three rock groups or bands
23. Name as many types of natural disasters as you can
24. Think of a number, write it down on paper, make it into a face
25. Write the names of all the boys (or girls) in the room
26. Write the names of as many teachers in the school as you can remember
27. Write as many as you can: abbreviations, roman numerals, trademarks, etc.
28. How many cartoon characters (superheroes) can you name?
29. List as many kinds of flowers (trees, ice cream flavors, fruits, vegetables) as you can
30. List as many nouns as you can see in the room (repeat for verbs at recess, etc.)
31. Write numbers by fives as high as you can go (repeat with other patterns)
32. List as many models of cars as you can
33. Name all the colors you know, even the really odd ones!
34. Name as many countries (transportation types, breakfast cereals, etc.) as you can.
35. Scramble the letters in 10 spelling (vocabulary) words. Switch papers with a partner
and try to unscramble the letters
36. Create a word search using vocabulary or spelling words (hint: use grid paper)
37. Choose a category and brainstorm words associated with that category. To make it
more challenging, have students brainstorm a word for that category for each letter of the
alphabet.
38. Choose a category. One student says the name of something in that category. The
next student says the name of something else in that category, but it must start with the
 last letter of the previous word. For instance, if the category was food: orange – eggplant –
tomato, etc.
39. Create a spelling chain. All students stand. Give them a spelling word. The first person
says the first letter, the second gives the second letter, and so on. If a student gives the
wrong letter, he or she must sit down.
40. Play “guess the characteristic.” Ask several students who all have something in
common to stand. The class, must guess what they all have in common, such as they all
have shoes with no laces, they all walk to school, or they are all in the after-school
program.
41. Expand a Sentence. Give students a very simple sentence (e.g., The child ran.).
Include insert marks where you want students to add words and underline words that
they may change to something more exciting. Make it into a silly sentence.
42. Keep a supply of board and table games that require strategy and thinking.
Use them for special fill-in times like rainy day recess.
43. Collect word searches, crossword puzzles, kids’ pages from Sunday comics, and
Mad Libs. Laminate them for wipe-off and reuse.
44. Write a multi-syllabic word on the board. Ask students to write as many words
from the multisyllabic word as they can in a specified time. Only letters from the original
word may be used.
45. Set up a magnetic board. Divide the board into “yes” and “no” columns.
Prepare a magnetic name tag for each student by gluing tagboard squares with the
student’s name onto a piece of magnetic strip. On the board pose daily yes / no
questions or questions with two choices. Have students place their magnetic name tags
in the appropriate column. Discuss responses.
46. Line up in order of birthday (or other number or letter value) without talking.
47. Silent Ball
48. Spelling Bee
49. Heads Up 7 Up
50. Telephone
51. Simon Says
52. Play hangman with vocabulary or content area words. Play as either a whole
class or in table groups.
53. I Spy – who can find something in the room that has a short a sound, a long o
sound, etc.
54. Brainstorm ideas for class projects or something to study. Create a list on an
anchor chart.
55. Share weekend or holiday plans
56. Tell riddles or jokes
57. Play What’s in the Box: Similar to 20 questions, but with an actual object in a
box. This is a great game where students can bring in a mystery object for the teacher
to guess.
58. Clean up the classroom: Choose an item that is on the floor. Tell students that
you have picked an item that needs to be cleaned up. Not the student who picks that
item up and give them a prize.
59. Change in my Pocket: grab a handful of coins and students try to guess
the number and kinds of coins
60. ABCs: create a grid with a box for each letter of the alphabet. Name a category
and have students fill the grid with as many things that they can think about that topic,
one thing for each letter of the alphabet. To make it more challenging, add a time limit.
61. Ask students to name all the things that are a specific color.
62. Play Four Corners. Label each corner of your room, agree, disagree,
somewhat disagree, somewhat agree. Make a statement and have students move to
the corner that matches their response to the statement.
63. Problem Solving – Display a number of something and have students create a
word problem to go with the objects.
64. Sort the sentences. Create four or five sentences for a topic you are
studying. Write one word on an index card. Be sure that every word has an index
card. Have students find their group by creating an accurate sentence. For instance, a
sentence could be Giraffes are the tallest land mammals. Each index card has one
word: Giraffes – are – the – tallest – land – mammals. Students sort themselves to
create the sentences.
65. Create a problem solving box. When students have a problem, a question, or
an issue. Have them write it down and put it in the box. When you have time, draw out
a problem or two and discuss it as a class. Sometimes some distance from a problem
creates the best solutions.
66. Progressive Writing: Give each student a piece of paper and give them three
minutes to start a story. Some students may need some story starters, like, “Once up a
time”. After three minutes, have students pass their papers to another student. Or,
collect the papers and redistribute them to a different table group. Continue writing for
another three minutes. Repeat until the paper has writing from many students. Return
the paper to the original student.
67. Whiteboard Race: Divide the class into teams. Give one student from each team
a whiteboard marker. Send them to the whiteboard and in one minute, have them write
all the words associated with a certain category. Count the words, list the number of
words on a t-chart and switch students. Repeat with other pairs of students from the
two teams. Place this once, or keep a running total of the score
68. Keep a set of QR codes for books read aloud on YouTube. Pull one up to
watch and display it through the projector.
69. Pictionary – One student draws a picture while the rest try to guess it. Play as a
whole class or in teams.
70. Bingo – Have students write a list of words randomly in squares on their paper.
71. I’m going on a picnic – Say, “I’m going on a picnic and I’m going to bring ___”,
where the item name matches the first letter of your name. For instance Sara can bring
sandwiches. Don’t tell students the pattern. Have students ask if they can go on the
picnic. Answer yes or no, depending on whether or not they find the pattern.
72. Number Talks – These are great 10 minute fillers where you prompt students to
do some mental math and build their number sense. This is a great book of Number
Talks.
73. Scavenger hunt with iPads: photograph something for each letter of the
alphabet in order
74. Find Someone Who: create a someone who grid where students can
walk around and figure out who can go in each square. Some suggestions: Someone
who loves baseball, someone who goes to the after-school program. Someone who
has lived in a different state, etc.
75. Orange, Orange, Orange – each student is assigned a fruit or vegetable.
A student is chosen to go in the middle. He must say a fruit or vegetable three
times. The person who’s vegetable was called must interrupt the center student before
the third time. If the student is successful he can stay seated in the outer circle. If he is
unsuccessful, he must take the center student’s place.
76. Spy in the Camp – One person leaves the classroom. The rest of the class sits
in a circle. There’s one person in the circle that is the leader and starts a
movement. The spy comes back in and tries to guess the leader. The leader must
change movements.
77. Sneaky Statue – Students stay in one place. They can move when your back is
turned, but when you turn around, they have to stop moving. If you catch students
moving, they come join you. The last student left wins.
78. Have students arrange themselves in groups based on the pet they own or would
like to own, without using words.
79. Coin matching – provide each student with a see-through bag of coins. There
should be two bags with the same amount of coins, although not the same
denominations. Students must find their partner who has the same value. You can also
use pictures of coins instead.
80. Clock Partners – Give students a picture of a clock with spaces at 12:00, 3:00,
6:00, and 9:00 to write student names. Have students find a partner for 12:00, a
partner for 3:00, etc.. Be sure that students write down each other’s names for a time
slot. For instance, if Jessica is meeting with Sam during the 9:00 time slot, they should
have their respective names in that time slot. Use these partner sets to have students
meet and talk about any prompt.