Categories Inspiration, Literacy

Classroom Engagement: The Price Is Right In The Classroom

Growing up, a sick day from school meant one thing: The Price Is Right and Bob Barker reminding us to help control the pet population. I mean, who doesn’t love The Price Is Right? I have been thinking about bringing this experience to the classroom but wasn’t sure how until our nighbor made us a Plinko board for the classroom! Keep reading to see how we set up this classroom transformation and practiced content!

Classroom Engagement: The Price Is Right Set Up

I know there is a lot of information and opinions out there on classroom transformations. In our classroom, I always want to keep things simple and real, and that’s what I love about this transformation. I also believe transformations should be RARE in the classroom and not the norm. A transformation should be special, and if we do them all the time, it becomes just another day. We do 1-2 transformations a year.

It took me an hour of my planning time to prep and less than $20. Note: our Plinko game was built by our neighbor, and the spinner wheel was a previous purchase!

We used Solo cups, poster board, masking tape, tissue paper, rubber bands, and brass brads to make the Punch A Bunch game.

To make this game, I traced a paper plate onto tissue paper and cut out the circles. In the bottom of each solo cup I poked a hole. Then I poked a hole in the poster board. We inserted the brass brad through the hole in the cup and the board. That secures the cup to the board. Next, I dropped in a piece of paper with a letter written on it. Finally, we placed the tissue paper over the cup and secured with a rubber band. After finishing, I realized it was flimsy so I stapled 3 pieces of poster board and that worked great!

The Price Is Right: The Content

The content for this classroom game was Letters and Sounds since we just finished ABC BOOTCAMP. So I wrote uppercase and lowercase letters on colored paper. The colors match the colors on the spinning wheel and Plinko. I also printed pictures for beginning sounds in the same colors. After we finished today, I placed all of these materials into a bag, labeled it Price Is Right, and put it in the closet. Now we can use it next year. And here’s the beauty of this transformation: we can use it for any math and phonics skills!

For The Price Is Right, you need a Contestants Row. We simply used a poster board and masking tape.

classroom transformations set the stage to engage kindergarten classroom

And finally we had to have our official The Price Is Right name tags! I simply printed these on yellow cardstock and wrote names with a marker!

The Price Is Right: How To Play

For our transformation, we had three games: Plinko, Punch A Bunch, and the big wheel. Four students were chosen to come to Contestant’s Row. I chose the four so they would have similar abilities. I showed the contestants a letter. The first one to say the letter and sound got to come on stage and choose a game to play. The remaining contestants stay on the contestant’s row. We continue until all four have been on stage to play a game. Then we choose four more contestants. This continues until all students have played.

If a student chose Plinko, they dropped the puck. When the puck lands in a color at the bottom, I choose a piece of paper of that same color. I show it to the students, and they identify the letter, the sound, and write the letter. They also tell me words that start with the sound.

For Punch A Bunch, they punched the cup and pulled out the paper. Students identified the letter, the sound, and words for the sound. They also write the letter on their dry-erase board.

If they chose to spin the wheel, they did. Whatever color the wheel stops in is the color of the paper I pick up. Again, we identify the letter, sound, and words and write the letter.