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
Here’s an event you’ll want to share with your students before the holiday break! On December 21st, Jupiter and Saturn will appear as a double planet! Their orbits will bring them closer together than they’ve been in centuries. This phenomenon is called a conjunction, and when it involves the two largest planets in our solar … Read more
When I think about the holidays in my classroom, many things come to mind: Snowflake Sudoku, The 12 Days of Christmas problem solving, and reading aloud the classic short story “The Gift of the Magi.” I bought the book shown here when my own children were little, but I used it more often in my … Read more
by Candace Coffee I first reached out to Candace Coffee back in the spring of 2020, when the pandemic hit and she generously shared some fabulous choice boards (find them HERE). Candace is the GT Educator/Specialist for Princeton ISD in Texas, and when she recently shared this holiday STEAM activity via social media, I reached … Read more
If you’re a fan of special “academic” days of celebration such as Pi Day, Powers of Ten Day, and Fibonacci Day, celebrated on November 23rd, then we have something in common! What student isn’t interested in anything that involves “celebration?” It can be a good thing to set aside whatever studies are happening at the … Read more
One of my favorite puzzles at Brainzilla is called LOGIC EQUATIONS. This type of puzzle combines algebraic equations with a logic grid, so it’s a fantastic complement to Hands-On Equations™! If you’re short on time, here’s a quick tutorial! In just over two minutes your students can learn how to solve these. You can find … Read more
Few language exercises provide as much bang for the buck as analogy challenges do! Students learn to think critically and logically as they evaluate word meanings, connotations, characteristics, parts of speech, and many other possible relationships connecting words and ideas. With more advanced analogies, students engage in verbal reasoning that requires an extensive vocabulary and … Read more
