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 … Read more
Breakouts and Escape Rooms! Scavenger and Treasure Hunts! Have you tried these kinds of learning experiences in your classroom yet? Many teachers are now creating their own online escape experiences for students using Google Forms. Here’s one example, created and generously shared by Amy van Dyk, and here’s another one, created by Librarian Sydney Krawiec. … Read more
I’m sure you’ve done it. You remember it. At some point in your school career, you had to stand before the class and teach a lesson or share something you had learned. Our teachers, and their teachers before them, knew what we still know: “Those who know, do. Those that understand, teach.” – Aristotle “While … Read more
Teachers, if you cannot access the puzzles or tutorials, please contact your district about approving this website or access through a personal Gmail account. Even if you “request access,” some of the school servers block access. MESSAGE if you have a question! HERE’S A CHALLENGE! How many words with five or more letters can you … Read more
Teachers, if you cannot access the puzzles or tutorials, please contact your district about approving this website or access through a personal Gmail account. Even if you “request access,” some of the school servers block access. MESSAGE if you have a question! It’s been a couple of decades since Sudoku first appeared in newspapers in … Read more
Have you ever played a trick on your students? I mean a benign prank- an activity or lesson that ended with you saying, “Gotcha!” Here’s a lesson I’ve used for years with students from 5th to 8th grade and I’ve never had a student catch on to the “trick” until I began giving hints toward … Read more
This virus simulation has been part of my 5th graders’ first-day experiences for years, long before the 2020 world pandemic. This post was written on February 4, 2020. This hands-on science and math lesson is an activity my fifth-grade GT students remember and one that seems to always be relevant. As I write this, the … Read more
I always say a little prayer before reading this story to my fourth and fifth-grade gifted students. It’s one that I’ve seen almost drive kids to tears. Fair warning! If you’re familiar with the Sideways Stories series, but unfamiliar with Sideways Arithmetic (affiliate links), you need to know that the latter goes beyond offbeat and … Read more
Because I love etymology, I’ve always introduced philosophy to my gifted students as a “love of wisdom” (Greek ~philos and sophos). We spent some time exploring words related to those roots. My students especially loved the origin of the word “sophomore!” (see also “A Greek Root is Worth 1,000 Words”) If you work with intellectually … Read more
Did you know that if you learn just 14 Greek and Latin roots, you can unlock the meanings of hundreds of words, maybe thousands? Clearly, students of all ages benefit from vocabulary instruction that includes Greek and Latin instruction, and there are so many great resources and methods. I’ve tried different approaches over the years, … Read more
