Of all the mysteries of the world, the HUMAN BRAIN is one of the most fascinating, and it literally connects to all topics of study since it is the organ devoted to LEARNING. In my classroom, a study of the brain began in 3rd grade GT class as part of our year-long unit: SYSTEMS, which … Read more
Pi Day (3/14) is one of many math holidays you can celebrate with students! If you’ve never observed it, this Pi Day website is a great place to start. You will find teacher resources, math help, merchandise, and even a countdown to Pi Day. A simple search online will result in dozens of additional ideas! … Read more
I had no idea it was a thing. In researching the topic of creative constraint, I was led to this Wikipedia article, and proceeded down a rabbit hole! Writing “with limitations” is ubiquitous. Six-word memoirs, seven-word summaries, haiku poetry, and 280-character tweets are all examples of constrained writing. I became interested in exploring more about … Read more
In a previous post, I shared a fun way to introduce and explain the origin of the phrase “thinking outside the box.” I wonder if “thinking inside the box” could describe some of the brain-training exercises that promote thinking through the application of rules and constraints. A constraint is a limitation or restriction. Most of … Read more
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
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
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
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
x——————————-x In the U.S., most students have a holiday break at the end of December and return to school sometime in early January. With the long month of January ahead, many teachers and students struggle to chase away those January blues! The past few years have been unprecedented in their challenges for students and teachers, … Read more
Time and date patterns have gained in popularity in recent years and seem to pop up in my social media feeds almost every month. Every year, for example, on February 22nd at 10:22 p.m.(and 22 seconds), the date and time can be written as 2-22 22:22:22. And in the year 2022, the pattern increased by … Read more
