Have You Seen This Puzzle? Introducing Kyudoku Logic Puzzles

If your students have not yet tried Kyudoku, it’s a logic puzzle that reinforces strategies similar to those used in solving Sudoku but introduces new constraints and an entirely different goal. You can share the tutorial below with your students, and the Kyudoku puzzles can be found on Brainzilla. See also LOGIC EQUATIONS, BEYOND SUDOKU … Read more

Thinking Like a Lawyer: Teaching Students to Think Critically

WHO NEEDS TO READ THIS BOOK? Teachers and parents of K-12 students. That’s really all you need to know. Here’s why I so highly recommend this book. I taught 8th-grade English and Literature for three years, and -hands-down- my students’ favorite activity was a mock trial we did after a reading of the story “The … Read more

CONVERSATIONS with CLASS ~ Introducing Socratic Dialogue to Younger Scholars

Giggles, giggles, and more giggles. Students are often nervous the first time they circle up to participate in a formal Socratic dialogue. In a previous post, I discussed many different approaches to facilitating meaningful student dialogue including Shared Inquiry and Philosophical Chairs. Here are some ideas that can help you introduce student-led dialgoue, as well … Read more

How to Turn a Logic Puzzle into a 90-Minute Classroom Mystery

Here’s an activity that my 4th-grade students created for a MYSTERY DAY event they hosted in their homeroom classrooms at the end of each school year. I’ll spare you the details about the messy process we went through to figure this out and get right to the how-to. MISSION: To create a 90-minute “experience” in … Read more