Sometimes it really feels boring in our classroom, doesn't it? And we always try to search for something that can spice things up a bit to create a fun and enjoyable environment for students where they can engage more.

It's a tough task to keep students focused inside the classroom. When we really notice it closely, there are only a few students in a class who pays attention in a classroom and some students just lose their way to keep their attention intact in a classroom. Some students are already doing their favorite things back home in their minds when they are still in the school. But we must always keep in mind that better the communication inside a classroom, better will be the intellectual growth of the students.

Even though it might seem like there is no solution by which you can help all the students focus in the classroom, there are certain activities that can actually help students stay engaged to a great extend.

But how do you ensure that? How do you make sure that the students are growing intellectually in the right track? How do you ensure that they are paying attention?

There are a lot of methods which can be used to increase the attention of students that can help them in the growth of their mind. A lot of classroom activities are there that act as tools making the classroom exciting and a space for the growth and intellectual development of the students.

This article goes through some of the proven classroom activities that will ensure the focus and growth of students mind. Here are few of the most effective classroom activities for the students that will enhance their minds.

1. Enjoying together with songs and dance

This is an effective strategy for younger students as singing and dancing together are easy ways to instantly make the class interesting for children. Ask the students to hold hands together with each other and move around singing their favourite poems or rhymes and encourage them to sing along. This activity will not only promote memory but also word identification. Additionally, dancing improves the flexibility and physical strength of children resulting in a greater mind growth. This activity effectively empowers them to initiate the process of rapport building faster, which is the same reason why most of us like singing and dancing.

2. Communication and social skills classes

Communication and social skills are good to teach at an early age as most of these skills are needed all through the life. Good communication and social skills are not something everyone is good at. Communicating well means a healthy understanding between the communicators. And a healthy communication means a better and thoughtful mindset. But how do you do that? Worry not, because you can do this in a fun way and effectively build a good communication and social skills in the students. Start with teaching new words and use it often while conversation with the children. For younger children you can enact each new word you teach them while they say along with you. Visuals are always extremely pleasing for children. You can always show some pictures related to those words to make it more interesting. For social skills to grow , teach the children to greet people whenever they meet by keeping a smile in their lips. Maintaining eye contact is always great and these just takes a few seconds and people might already be pleased with your personality.

3. Throwing down a challenge 

When children are thrown a challenge upon them, they most certainly try to complete it anyhow. Tell them that they can never do this particular work or plead them not to do a particular work in a playful way or by using negative psychology.

Students would end up doing exactly that in most cases and as a result, the primary task gets completed. However, this could also have an adverse effect, at times. However, teachers must strategize this in their own way to make things work out. Through this strategy there is always a scope for children to learn something extra which they might have never tried to learn or understand otherwise.

4. Relaxing

This is a strategy that even my teachers used for us. Simply tell students to relax by keeping their eyes closed and start counting the numbers. Ask them to open their eyes as soon as you stop counting the numbers. And if there is any student who opened their eyes before, tell them they lose and make them do the activity all over again. When you count the numbers, start counting backward from 10 to 1, 20 to 1, 30 to 1 or reach 100 to 1. This will result in an increase of the power of concentration and also a bit of relaxation for students. This will help them on focusing on one thing at a time more.

5. Create a competitive atmosphere

Creating a competitive atmosphere among the students might sound a little different but it's a very effective strategy. Always try to inculcate team games to enable students to give their best in whatever they are supposed to learn in the classroom. When children compete with their own friends, the game becomes a lot of fun and the students also start to learn a lot more than they do usually. As an example, you can divide students into two teams. Give rubber bands of around one packet to one team and newspapers of about fifteen to the other. Keep a one-liter water bottle in the center of the room and give the teams 10 minutes to lift the bottle from the ground using the given props and see the result from this activity. This strategy helps in improving the team's functioning together to succeed in a group task.

6. Group Activity

Group activities are always the best to keep the learning mode of a classroom flow accordingly. Grouping participants according to their birth months and encouraging them to share an important event that has happened in that particular month or the favorite present that they received can be a very fun and engaging as well as enjoyable activity among the students in a classroom.

Or there is always an alternative like to ask them or share few words about what they think about a great personality born in the same month as them. Even as a teacher or mentor, you can always share your fun moments with them to encourage them to share more.

This activity would give the required break from routine work and imparts a good feeling to the children in the classroom. As a result, the good feeling will keep a healthy mind of the students that will help them to learn things better with a positive mind.

7. Ask open-ended questions

Keep asking open-ended questions to the students in the classroom. This would rekindle their thinking. And always use the seven means of intelligence – What, Why, How, Where, Which, Who and Whom. The aim in this activity or strategy is to enable them to ask open-ended questions to develop their intellect. For example, ask them who their favorite star is or where did they go on the last vacation. Asking them who their favorite superhero and why do they love them can be very thought provoking for students. You can always add and highlight the good points while they speak about their favourites.

As mentor and guides to young children, continuous noticing and monitoring is extremely essential for the intellectual development of students and accordingly change strategies to improve the learning arch for the young children.

We must be ready all the time to celebrate the winners and also train the children who could not win to handle their emotions at particular times or often in their lives. We must teach them that they as students should also learn to celebrate their friend’s success as their own success.

Additionally, we need to be prudent as to what works best for whom and shuffle the activities time to time so that there is holistic learning amongst all in a classroom.