Activities & Games

Planet Poem
Kindergarten-5th Grade
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Allotted Time

15 minutes

Target Behavior

Learn to control yourself

Words to Live By

Life's full of surprises that make me feel different ways. If I can control myself, I'll have much better days.
Self-Management
Learn to control yourself

Children who control themselves can:

DEMONSTRATE patience in a variety of situations

IDENTIFY ways to calm themselves

PRACTICE self-talk as a way to calm themselves

DESCRIBE strategies for dealing with upsetting feelings

Description

Help your students practice their focus skills with this spaced-themed activity.

Supplies

  • No supplies needed

How to Play

  1. Split your students into teams.
  2. Read the space poem below two times.
  3. While reading, students listen closely because specific questions are asked after to see which team was listening and has the best memory.
  4. For each correct answer to a question, teams receive a point.
  5. At the end, the group with the most points wins.
    • Poem:

First is Mercury, hot and dry

Next is Venus, its temperature’s so high

Our planet is Earth, we think it’s pretty nice

Mars comes next, its water turned to ice

Jupiter’s large, no planet can match its size

Saturn’s pretty rings are treasures for your eyes

Uranus follows, it’s tipped on its side

Neptune has clouds over 100 miles wide!

We’ve listed all the planets.

Now I think we’re done.

  1. Follow Up Questions:
    • Our planet is…?
    • Which planet has rings?
    • How wide are Neptune’s clouds?
    • Which planet is the largest?
    • Does Mars contain water or ice?
    • Which planet is last/farthest from the sun?
    • Finish the line: First it’s Mercury, hot and…….

Activity Prompts for Reflection

  • What did you do well during this activity?
  • What was frustrating about this activity?
  • What helped you to remain focused during this activity?
  • Are there times during the day when it is hard for you to focus?

Other Ways to Play

  • Assign some students as “distractors” and have them talk/clap/ make noise to distract the teams who are trying to focus on the story.
  • Have a student who has the strength of reading, read the story to the teams.
  • If there is extra time, help teams make up their own poems to read to the rest of the group.
  • Instead of calling out answers, have the teams come together and discuss and write down their answer.  All teams reveal their written answer when you call time for each question.

Additional Notes

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