Choice Boards and Menus ~ Sample Activities Ready to Share

Many teachers are creating CHOICE BOARDS and MENUS for their students during this time of school closures. If you’ve never created one, there are several different ways you can do it, depending on how you’d like to share it with your students. For example, this video shows how to create one in Google Docs to share through SeeSaw. The one shown here to the left was created and kindly shared by Buffy Taylor (click on the photo or here to make a copy.) And thank you to Candace Coffee, who also agreed to share two fantastic Choice Boards she created for her gifted students (2nd-5th grade). You can make copies here and here!

The style and the number of tasks included are determined by your goals and timeframe, but the key ingredient is choice. Your lists of choices can accomplish the same goals, as in the Summer Reading menu shown below. Students choose one of two “side dishes,” but either choice involves reading some nonfiction.

Several previous posts have ideas for more open-ended challenges that would work well on choice boards including Kid-Created Logic Puzzles and Student-Created Escape Games. Teachers’ needs for activities vary, so I’ve decided to focus on one discipline at a time.

Here are some MATH CHALLENGES you can share with your 2nd – 5th grade G/T or advanced students. These would work well as tasks on a menu OR as independent assignments.

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OPEN-ENDED PROBLEMS

NRich Maths is a great source of “low threshold/ high ceiling” problems. The low threshold means “everyone can get started” and the high ceiling means it should not limit more advanced students. Even in an advanced class, differentiation is needed. Here are two I’ve prepared for inclusion in choice boards:

REACH 100

MAGIC CROSSES

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MATH CRAFT / ART PROJECTS

Another type of math activity that would work well for a choice board is a Math Craft or other hands-on activity that incorporates math into an art or craft.

Here are two that use limited materials:

CREATE PARABOLIC CURVES USING STRAIGHT LINES – pencil, paper and a ruler are the only materials needed

USING GRIDS TO “BUILD” SIDEWALK ART – students could choose ANY famous landmark for this one.

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MATH REASONING

The Critical Thinking Company offers free samples of pages from their publications. Some of their workbooks are listed in the resources for each grade level on this site. They also send out weekly puzzles to those who subscribe. Here are two ready-to-share samples involving creative math problem solving:

BALANCE BENDERS (Level 1)

INSIDE-OUT MATH – ready to share; students can digitally fill in their answers if you make each student a copy.

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ADDITIONAL SOURCES

Prufrock Press is currently offering a FREE E-BOOK which includes Math Bafflers: Logic Puzzles that Use Real-World Math

SIDEWAYS MATH – the “Letter Land” problem would be a good challenge. Then, send the video as an explanation of how to solve it.

LEARN A CARD TRICK ~ EXPLAIN THE MATH – students could share their experiences performing the tricks on parents or other family members.

If you can share additional ideas or sources of great math challenges that can be linked to a choice board or menu, or even a readymade menu, you’d be helping hundreds of other teachers by mentioning it in the comments. Watch for future posts with challenges for SCIENCE, LANGUAGE ARTS and SOCIAL STUDIES, or better yet- subscribe to the blog and you’ll be notified of updates each week.