HOTS for Hats

It's about time, teachers, ... for Hat HOTS.

While this volcano hat is very nice, it's not exactly what I had in mind for HOTS - Higher Order Thinking Skills.

It is so fun and rewarding to challenge your children to use HOTS when studying hats.  I'm referring, of course, to Bloom's Taxonomy. Following are a few of the ways I exercise their brain power.

Analysis

Using my hat cards, I challenge the students to sort them in various ways:

• men's hats/women's hats/unisex
• safety/decorative/job identification
• historic/modern day
• similarities
• baseball cap, baby's bonnet, & cowboy hat = protection from the sun
• wizard's hat, witch's hat, & magician's hat = magic makers
• Pilgrim's hat & Santa's hat = holiday head gear
• jester's hat, crown, & knight's helmet = medieval hat wear

My enrichment students are asked to create their own sorts.    Then I require them to write about their thinking.  I up the ante for G/T students by asking them to create 3 to 5 different sorts with descriptions of their sorting properties.

Evaluation

Again using the hat cards, I challenge my students to make lists of hat opposites. Examples:

• astronaut's helmet and diving helmet
• mortar board and dunce's cap
• bridal veil and top hat

Students pick 2 cards and tell why the hats may go together. Examples:

• Top hat and fancy lady's hat - they might go to the symphony together
• football hat and stocking cap - you could find them both at a football game in November

Creation

Make "Hat Words."  We start by generating a list of -at words.  Then we turn them into 'Hat Words" and write clues to their meaning.  Examples:

• Hatmosphere - What do you call the blanket of air surrounding a hat?
• Hatlas - What do you call a book of maps that show you where head coverings may be found?
• Hattack - What do you call it when a hat tackles you?
• Hattic - What is the room at the very top of a hat building?

As you can tell, my students and I really get into hats.  So throw your hat in the ring and join me in teaching a hats unit.  My unit, Hats!  Hats!  Hooray for Hats!, is available on TpT and TN.  There are 55 pages to this unit, which includes printables, manipulatives, centers, and activities.  It even contains my original poem.  Be sure to get it's companion product, Hat Idioms Book.  Check it out because it is FREE and is being used by upper elementary and even middle school teachers.

  

Until next time,...