Starters and Plenaries
Some strategies for starter and plenary activities, if you like that kind of thing- some simple, some more difficult. This has been one of my informal targets over the last year.
| Strategy | Description | Download | Contributor |
| Content Generators | A must, easy to use, create and highly motivating, some generators are free, but Andrew's work is funded by the purchase of additional generators. Some examples here. | External Link | |
| Countdown Clock | Before Andrew's just a minute game I used this, can be inserted into PowerPoint. | 1 mb wmv | |
| Bingo | Everyone loves Bingo, yes they do, I print the first slide of the PowerPoint to give to students. Weather example here. | 85 kb ppt | |
| Starter for Ten | Posh name for ten questions on a PowerPoint linked to music, easy and effective. Drainage basin and hydrograph example here. | 65 kb ppt | |
| Dominoes | I love this strategy, be warned, it usually turns into a lesson. Rivers example here. | 35 kb doc | |
| Think of a question | I usually give students five answers and they have to suggest the questions. Antarctica example here. | 76 kb ppt | |
| Closed Exercise | Basically a closed exercise, but put it to music and animate it so students are against the clock and it becomes a little more interesting. Antarctica example here. | 162 kb ppt | |
| Spot the mistake | Basically a whole class AFL strategy...Antarctica example here. | 81 kb ppt | |
| Geog Man | Simple PowerPoint, with a western type theme, for playing hang man, just change the red dashes to the number of letters in your word. | 500 kb zip file | |
| Question of Sport Format | If you like that kind of thing, see example is about the course of a river. | 3.5 mb ppt | |
| Noughts and Crosses | This PowerPoint uses the drag and drop macro, please read the first slide carefully before adapting or using. Each square has a question, if answered correctly then students can drag the cross or the nought to cover the square chosen. | 1 mb ppt | |
| Weather word search starter | As in the title really, simple but effective. | 118 kb ppt | |
| Round Robin | A bit like a dominoes activity, but for the whole class. Each student has a question and answer, make sure they don't match! One student reads their question and another answers, they then read their question... Weather and climate example here. | 313 kb ppt | |
| Darts | I use this with a magnetic dartboard. Each sector of the board is hyperlinked to a question. Students win the number of points associated with the sector. The white box on the front slide allows an 'x' to be entered, to show the question has been answered. Useful as a revision strategy. | 289 kb ppt | |
| Text Speak Definitions | Starter activity PowerPoint, can students guess the correct terms from their text-speak definitions? Afraid you'll have to find your own message tone. Lingo to Word provides a conversion tool. | 126 kb pptx | |
| Who wants to be a millionaire? | The original PowerPoint was designed by Mark E Damon. A coastal example. | 2 mb zip | |
| Connect 4 | PowerPoint reworking of an old favourite. Click on the circle once for yellow, a second time for red. | 282 kb pps | |
| Snail Racing | Get ready to race, you know you want to... | 1.45 mb pps |