7 Fun Classroom Activities You Can Do With an Interactive Display

‍

“How do I make my lessons more engaging without going too far from the syllabus?” If you are a school teacher, you might have asked this question to yourself at least once a week.    

With multiple responsibilities to manage, including lesson plans, tests, and students who get distracted easily, it is a challenge to keep them engaged while staying on track. 

Thankfully, technology is on your sid,e especially if you’ve got access to digital tools such as an interactive display for the classroom.

Today’s interactive flat panels are dynamic teaching hubs that support collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking. Whether you're teaching fractions to second graders or facilitating a class debate in high school, your touchscreen display can become your best assistant if you know how to use it to its full potential.  

In this blog post, we help you explore 7 interactive, classroom-tested smart board activities that can help make your lessons more fun, interactive, and engaging for your students.  

Why Interactive Displays Matter in Classrooms

Interactive flat panels (IFPs) combine the best of visual learning, real-time collaboration, and tech-savvy engagement. When students interact with digital content, they’re no longer passive consumers. Hands-on activities such as writing, highlighting, dragging, and presenting on a digital display help them become active participants in their learning. The possibilities are limitless. 

Now, let’s explore some easy-to-implement smart board activities that turn your touchscreen display into a dynamic teaching partner.

1. Interactive Quizzes & Polls

Best for: Quick checks for understanding of a specific concept and review sessions

One of the easiest ways to inject excitement into your lesson is by incorporating live polls or quizzes using your interactive flat panel.

Platforms like Kahoot, Quizizz, or even built-in polling tools allow you to host real-time quizzes where students can answer questions on their devices or directly on the display. Use the interactive screen to show leaderboards, countdowns, and even funny sound effects that gamify the experience.

Even your quietest students tend to engage more during these moments, especially when anonymity is built in. These are perfect for revisiting last week’s lessons or gathering quick feedback about what topics need revision. 

2. Digital Whiteboard Brainstorming

Best for: Group discussions, open-ended thinking, creative ideation

Think of this as the modern twist on chart paper and sticky notes. Open a blank screen on your interactive display and ask your class a big, interesting question to get them thinking.   

Want to know what your 5th graders think about recycling? Ask them to come up and jot down their ideas. Need 8th graders to brainstorm arguments for a debate? Use color-coded markers on the display to categorize points.

The visual and tactile nature of interactive flat panels for classrooms helps kids visualize connections between ideas. And the best part? You can save the board digitally, revisit it later, or even share it with parents and other teachers.

3. Story Sequencing & Visual Timelines

Best for: Language arts, history, reading comprehension

With the drag-and-drop capability of an interactive flat panel, storytelling and historical timelines come alive—literally.

In a language class, display jumbled-up story cards on your screen. Ask students to take turns arranging them in the correct order. For history lessons, drag images of events, dates, or artifacts into place to build a class-generated timeline.

These activities are great for reinforcing narrative structure or chronological thinking. And they also allow for collaborative storytelling, which is a powerful way to make learning more social and memorable.   

4. Live Annotation Over Videos

Best for: Science demonstrations, literature analysis, social studies

Pause that documentary. Highlight a term. Circle an image. Ask a question. There are almost endless possibilities when it comes to using the annotation feature to enhance teaching and learning. 

Your interactive panel isn’t just for watching videos. It’s for making them interactive. Tools like YouTube or educational platforms like National Geographic Kids can be paused mid-play, letting you annotate directly on the screen.

For example:

• In a science lesson, pause during a chemical reaction to label each substance.
• During a geography lesson, annotate over a map of tectonic plates.
• For a poem analysis, circle metaphors and color-code specific words used in the poem.

This kind of activity helps students pay attention and remember the lessons for a longer time.

5. Gamified Learning (Pictionary, Crossword, Bingo)

Best for: Vocabulary building, math fluency, review sessions

Don’t underestimate the power of games. Even academic ones. They make learning feel less like work and more like something students actually want to do. 

Use your interactive flat panel in the classroom to play:

• Pictionary (great for ELA or science terms)
• Math Bingo
• Crossword puzzles for new vocabulary

These games are especially effective with primary school students. Whether you’re introducing the water cycle or reviewing spelling rules, turning learning into a challenge makes subject classes more fun and memorable.

Pro tip: Let students take the lead by drawing or placing answers themselves on the board.

6. Drag-and-Drop Sorting Activities

Best for: Grammar, math, science classifications

Sorting is an essential skill, especially in elementary grades, and your touchscreen display makes it fun and interactive. It also helps young learners build early critical thinking and categorization abilities in a hands-on way. 

Create activities like:

• Matching synonyms to their meanings
• Categorizing animals (mammals, birds, reptiles)
• Sorting geometric shapes

Students can physically move digital cards around on the screen, either in teams or individually. This taps into kinesthetic learning styles and reinforces visual-spatial recognition.

Platforms like Google Slides, Canva for Education, or SMART Notebook can help you create reusable templates.

7. Student-Led Presentations

Best for: Public speaking, peer-to-peer learning, formative assessment

This might be the most transformative use of your interactive display in the classroom. 

Rather than guiding every part of the lesson, give your students a chance to take the lead during a portion of the class. Let them present their research, solve a math problem, or teach a grammar rule to the class using the display. This encourages ownership and helps them build valuable communication and thinking skills.

The touch interface empowers even younger students to move slides, draw diagrams, or write in real-time. It boosts confidence, builds speaking skills, and allows peers to learn from each other.    

As a teacher, you get to observe how well they’ve understood the lesson. 

How These Activities Align with NEP 2020 Goals

The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 encourages hands-on, skill-based, and tech-friendly learning. Digital classroom tools, including interactive displays, help make that happen easily.

Each activity listed above promotes:

• Active, student-centered learning
• Integration of digital classroom tools
• Critical thinking, communication, and collaboration skills

When used intentionally, interactive boards for schools can bring NEP 2020’s goals into everyday teaching practices, across all K–12 levels.

Conclusion: Unlock the Full Potential of Your Interactive Display

From visual brainstorming to student-led teaching, your interactive display for the classroom can be so much more than a glorified whiteboard.

These seven activities are just the beginning. They’re easy to implement, adaptable across subjects and grades, and—most importantly—they help your students engage meaningfully with different subjects.    

Classrooms today are no longer about passive absorption. They’re about dynamic participation. And the right technology makes that shift easier, not harder.

FAQs for Educators 

1. What is an interactive flat panel for classrooms?

An interactive flat panel is a large touchscreen display used in classrooms to support collaborative, multimedia-rich learning through apps, videos, annotations, and digital activities.

2. Can I use existing classroom software on an interactive display?

Yes, most interactive displays support common educational software like Google Classroom, Microsoft Office, and educational apps such as Kahoot or Jamboard.

3. Are interactive displays suitable for younger students in primary school?

Absolutely! Younger students enjoy the touch-based interaction and visual learning features, which support early literacy, motor skills, and group-based activities.

4. What’s the difference between a smart board and an interactive flat panel?

The terms are often used interchangeably, but there’s a difference. Smart boards may use projector systems, while interactive flat panels are all-in-one touchscreen displays offering higher resolution, longer lifespan, and better multitouch responsiveness.

5. Can interactive whiteboards be used for group work?

Yes, they’re ideal for group activities like brainstorming, quizzes, and collaborative games, encouraging teamwork and inclusive participation among students.

6. Is a 98-inch interactive display too big for standard classrooms?

Not necessarily. A 98-inch interactive display works well in larger classrooms or multi-grade setups where visibility matters. Roombr offers 120-inch and 200-inch interactive displays ideal for large classrooms, auditoriums, lecture halls, or collaborative learning spaces that demand maximum impact. Choosing the right size depends on your classroom dimensions, student seating arrangement, and teaching goals.       

7. Do interactive displays require the internet to work?

While many features benefit from connectivity, most interactive displays function offline too, supporting preloaded apps, saved lessons, and offline annotation tools.

Interactive Display for Classrooms with an All-in-One Solution

At Roombr, we believe that great technology should feel simple and genuinely useful in the hands of educators. That’s why our interactive flat panels come bundled with everything you need to make teaching smoother, smarter, and more engaging. From easy-to-follow training guides to a plug-and-play digital classroom solution, our all-in-one ecosystem is designed to support you every step of the way.        

We’re not just offering a screen, we’re offering a better way to teach and connect with students.

Request a demo for our AI-powered interactive display for classrooms and imagine what your class could feel like with Roombr by your side.