Card

Snap, Clap, Pop

This strategy can be used as an icebreaker or get to know you activity to establish community in a classroom, or can be used with content to incorporate physical movement into a formative assessment. For younger grades it can be used to teach simple vocabulary or topics. For older grades, it can be used to aid in with memory of abstract concepts because of the active engagement along with physical movement.

Snap, Clap, Pop

Summary

Prepare statements that you can either read aloud or feature on a PowerPoint or other presentation platform. Assign each statement a physical movement, even if just standing, that students can perform when answering.

Procedure

As an icebreaker or get to know you activity: The teacher creates statements that they know will apply to some of their students or that they are interested in knowing about their students. For example, "If you traveled somewhere on vacation, stand and call out where"; "If basketball is your favorite sport, stand up and pretend to shoot a free-throw."; "If you play a musical instrument, stand up and air play."
As a content prior knowledge assessment or review: "If you know what a right angle looks like, stand up and make it with your arms."; "If you know what laissez-faire means, stand up and show me with your hands."; "If you know how heat affects the speed of molecules, stand up and demonstrate."
You can vary the statements with some calling for a physical movement, and some simply asking students to stand and call out the answer. This allows peers to help in the review process and students to hear or see answers in a new way.

Adapted from the Clap, Click, and Pop strategy featured in "Energize!: Energizers and Other Great Cooperative Activities for All Ages." (1991) Quest International.