Ways to Make a Worksheet Fun

Worksheets in the classroom can get a bad wrap and the reason is that they are boring for many students. But they do play a key role in practice for students. Fun worksheets can be accomplished easily! 

Does everything need to be engaging and fun? No. But sometimes is it good to add a little engagement to the day, yes!! Today I am going to share some ideas you can use with ANY worksheet to make it more engaging! 

The Idea Behind a FUN Worksheet

Worksheets in themselves are just practice sheets and oftentimes students don’t take them as seriously. So, by doing a FUN worksheet, students are going to want to get the answers correct to win or get to the next level of the worksheet. This means that they tend to take it a little more seriously and work a little harder at practicing and mastering the skills. 

Snowball FUN Worksheet

This one is SIMPLE. When doing a snowball worksheet you would be doing the worksheet as a whole class. Or doing the practice worksheet and then going over the problems together.

You give the students a worksheet and they answer whatever questions you want them to. I typically would do 1-3 questions. Then, as a class, you go over them. When done, you ask them to crinkle up the worksheet into a ball and give them one minute to have a snowball fight. Now you have a fun worksheet! When you say the magic word they are to find a snowball, pick it up, and head back to their seat to start the next set of problems. 

Each time they will be writing on a different piece of paper, so this cannot be something you are grading.

While they are working on their problems I walk around and do assessments/mini-conferences.

Left, Right, Center Worksheet Style

Have you ever played the game LRC? Well, add that to your worksheet and change it into a fun worksheet!

This game is the same as above where students will be working on different worksheets.

The students answer a question and then you have someone in the class roll the dice. If it says left they pass it to the left, right to the right, and center they throw their paper in the center of the table. The twist? When it says center they get one minute of an activity before going to a random seat. They could just chat for a minute, do an exercise, a GoNoodle, etc!

If you grab my review games here I have activities ready for you to print and add to this game! You can also grab a few more games! 

Shoot Off

Grab a trash can or a hoop. Put kids in partners. They complete several problems. Then, they go over the answers together. If they have different answers they come up to you and you tell them which one is right and do a mini-lesson for whoever got it wrong. Once they have all the questions right they both get to shoot. If they make it they get a point. The one with the most points at the end wins.

Holiday FUN Worksheet Ideas

In the fall you can grab some pumpkins and a cauldron. Each time a student does a problem they check it with you. If they are correct you let them shoot the pumpkin. If they make it they get candy or another easy free prize!

During Christmas, I do the same things as above but with my moose antlers. 

Anytime you are adding a holiday twist it adds all kinds of excitement.

The Word Problem Race

Word problems seem to be something that always makes my students not want to work. Am I alone in this?

So, every holiday we do a word problem race to practice word problems in an engaging way.

How does this work?

Basically, they are answering the word problems to get some sort of prize.

For winter, they are earning their ticket to the North Pole.

For St. Patrick’s Day, they are earning letters to a code that tells them we are making leprechaun traps.

I have so many of these for free! Click on the links below to find them!

North Pole Word Problem Race

Valentine’s Day Word Problem Race

St. Patrick’s Day Word Problem Race

I hope some of these simple ideas can make worksheets more fun for you in the future!