1. Dance the Twist - We stand and do the twist to show our pleasure.
2. Clap High and Wide - Just as the title indicates. For an applause; this can be done sitting or standing with arms spread as high and wide as we can go.
3. The Silent Scream - To show how excited we are about learning. No sound comes out. We just make our faces contort like we were screaming. (They LOVE this!)
4. Hats Off - Just take one hand and pretend to lift off a hat and extend our arm toward the person we are congratulating.
5. Salute - Stand tall and give a salute to someone for a job well done.

Thanks so much... I have been wondering about getting more excitement in my class... these are innovative and fun!

A few of the ones my students came up with.

If a student responds verbally with a perfect answer or explanation we do a home run

Student throws a ball up in the air. Pretends to swing and makes a click as if the bat hit the ball then puts his hand over his eyes as if he is following the ball in the distance and says " Home run"

Teacher " superman"

Students " both fist out like they are flying and say " up up and away"

Teacher spiderman

Students wall crawl 3 times with a squish sound then make the web-shooter hand gesture and spray the teacher

Fire power
taken from the movie A night at the the museum 2

Right arm flex " boom" left arm flex " boom" arms right arm extends out in a upward
diagonal and kids say " firepower

Those are great - I know my 7th graders will love them, they are still pretty young at heart!!

Teacher: "One Second Party, Candystore!"

Student: "Sweet!"


Teacher: "One Second Party, Nemo....Sharkbait!"

Student: "Huhaha!"


Teacher: "One Second Party, Pirate Style!"

Student: "Arrrgh!" (hand over right eye for the patch, left index finger crooked for the hook.



Teacher: "One Second Party, Fireworks!"

Student: "Boom! (hands clap overhead, and fingers wiggle as you bring hands down far out to either side. As the hands come down the students say...) SSSSSSSSS!"

Here are some more

2 WWE style

" you cant see me" wave your 5 fingers infront of your face students say" you can't see me"

Ric Flair Class goes "whooooo"


Shaloin Monk Left hand open represents peace right hand a fist representing war. Put your left hand over your right " peace over war"

Boo Ya Cha Ching

Pull down your fist like you are pulling a chord once and for the first right answer. say Boo

If they get 2 in a row then Boo Ya

If 3 in a row Boo Ya Cha

If 4 in a row Boo Ya Cha Ching

If 5 right answers in a row the class says boo ya cha ching ah Cha Cha Cha Cha.

I do this when going over homework answers.

When playing superspeed math, if more than half of the group have improved their records, we all stand up, give a clap and say "¡Toma!" (in Spanish, something similar to "Yeah!") while giving a dancing spin.
If less than half of the class have improved, only the ones who have improved do so.

Best,

Edward

Thank you for the contribution.
They are very useful and I will use them with my pupils.

Lukas.

These are great, but I have a question. How do you introduce them to the class? Do you say "When someone does so and so, this is what you do?" or do you just demonstrate and they catch on or what?

Thanks!

Diane
"Cadenza"

Kind of both. I tell my kids "We are about to learn a new one second party, gimme an 'oh, yeah!'"

Then I explain what I expect and demonstrate it, and then we practice it a couple of times.

Thanks, Jeff, especially for giving me the exact words to say! That helps a lot. I try to do that for the teachers I work
with on how to talk to students so they will listen. A few key phrases can go a long way!

These are great! I had greaned a few from watching the videos but now I have more to add to my toolbox. My ESL kindergarteners loved doing them last year. They got to the point where they would do them without my prompts and usually at the appropriate times. This is a very effective way to recognize little accomplishments and to make kids feel good about learning. Everyone wants to and can participate.

I love the fireworks one! i didn't do the one second parties last year... maybe I'll have to start that this year.

We also use the Jazz "Oh Yeah". One finger snap with a Louie Armstrong forced whisper, "Oh, Yeah..." held out for a few extra nanoseconds.

We tried the fireworks this week. My students loved it!

These are all great ideas...It is so funny I teach kindergarten and within our "Classroom Helper" routine, we have built in a 10 finger wooooooo....I ask students when they are done with their class job what kind of a ten finger woo they would like and often times they make up their own...They love the Wooo's so much that they stand in the front of the room and wait patiently (if I forget) and then say to me, "I want a monkey one or dinosaur....

Some additional ideas for 10 finger woo's:

Monkey - hands in the pits and say OO - OO - OO

Dinosaur - hands out in front of body like a T-rex and say Stomp, stomp, stomp while stomping to their feet.

Cheerleader - hold fake pom-poms in hands and say, "Rah" (while extending right arm out from body), "Rah" (while extending left arm out from body) Sis-boom (rotate arms in a quick circle motion in from of the body) Bah! (both arms extended up and out in a Y above the head).

The more creative and personal it is the more fun we have!

Super fun! Thanks for all the ideas!

Some classics my kiddos and I made up:

ten finger moo....hands on head like horns on a bull

three stooges woo....any combo of mo, larry, and curly waving hands....no shemp please

walk like an egyptian woo.....

roller coaster woo.....arms go up and down like you're on a roller coaster ride.

sophisticated woo....using an accent of your choice....say woo my darling.

I use to let my students pick a word or short phrase of the day to cheer for their one second party. I would pick a new kid randomly each day or let whomever you feel did something great the day before choose one. This is nice because "Oh Yeah" gets old eventually and your parties start sounding boring.

Jeff, I loved your ideas and I tweaked them a little because I like to having a matching themed set of smiley and frownie gestures. Here's what I added:

Candy store:
Smiley: The kids say: Sweet and I reply: Totally
Frownie: The kids point their fingers at each other and say "No candy for you" a la the soup Nazi on Seinfeld

Nemo:
Smiley: The kids say: Sharkbait HuHaHa
Frownie: The kids say: Aw, you made me ink!

Fireworks:
Smiley: Boom....pshhhhhh (same as you described)
Frownie: Oh, it's a dud!