Unbearably Cute Critical Thinking Puzzles

It's about time, teachers, for a new product.

If you are looking for a challenge that is beary good for promoting problem solving, honing critical thinking skills, and increasing stamina, this is it!

Bears Square Puzzlers are unbearably cute and differentiated. They are perfect for enrichment, fast finishers, centers, and are especially helpful at times when the class may be restless (think end of the year, holidays, field trips, etc.). The attention and concentration required to solve these puzzles will settle any group.

WHAT YOU GET
✔ Three bear themed Square Puzzlers
    ✓ The 2x2 square is perfect for introducing the task. It is also most appropriate for K - 2nd grade students. 

    ✓The 3x3 square is quite challenging and can be used successfully with 2nd – 5th grade students.

      ✓ The 4x4 square is for experts! 

✔ Labels for your center storage envelopes.

HOW TO USE SQUARE PUZZLERS
✔ Centers or work stations
✔ Fast finishers' challenge
✔ Enrichment
✔ G/T students
✔ Critical thinking exercise
✔ Differentiation
✔ Individual, partner, or small group collaboration

And, for the first 48 hours, Bears Square Puzzlers are 50% off!  So hurry on over and scoop it up.

In case you find these brain teasers as engaging as I think you will, I have just finished updating and refreshing all of the square puzzlers in my TpT store.  There are square puzzlers for most holidays (the Christmas version is FREE).  Moreover, there are square puzzlers for each season, a bundle of the season puzzles, and several square puzzlers that pertain to a theme.

Remember, square puzzlers require time and concentration to solve.  They are the perfect activity to settle a restless class as the end of the year.

Update 5/12/18:

I just completed a bundle of the Holiday Square Puzzlers.  It is now available in my store at 50% off through Sunday night (5/13/18).  

The Great $1 Word Challenge

This is one of the best teaching challenges I have ever used!  Year after year my students beg to do this and they have a voracious appetite for it.  Such enthusiasm warms my teacher's heart!

So, what is The Great $1 Word Challenge?  The simple answer is it's a quest for words that equal exactly $1 when the letters are valued like this:

Most $1 Word Challenges ask the students to discover words with no parameters; no clues.  How daunting is that?  So, I created clues that will lead students to such words.  Along the way, they practice computation, calculator skills, dictionary & thesaurus skills, parts of speech, vocabulary development, prefixes, suffixes, verb tenses, plurals, spelling, editing, proof-reading, critical thinking, and problem solving.  Talk about BANG FOR YOUR BUCK!  

I'm a visual learner, so I created a series of visuals to explain these awesome challenges.

If your kiddos enjoy them as much as mine do, you will be grabbing more clues as fast as you can.  You may be relieved to know that these clues are available in money saving bundles.

Did you notice that my images failed to include $1 Words 1.0?  That's because I saved the best for last!  The first unit is FREE!

You can try $1 Words before you buy them.

You don't have to take my word for how fun this project is.  Read what your comrades have said:

Head here to find all of the $1 Word products.

Kick Off Critical Thinking

It's about time, teachers to kick off your students' critical thinking!

Critical thinking skills are a crucial part of any child's education.  To get your students off on the right foot, try these HINK PINKS & HINKY PINKIES - Foot Edition.

If you have never tried HINK PINKS, et al., you are in for a real treat. These riddles are wonderful for developing vocabulary, synonyms, grammar, and rimes; all worthwhile pursuits. But, even better, HINK PINKS, et al. require your students to analyze data, evaluate their conclusions, and create rhyming word pairs as answers. (Bloom would be so proud!) The very best part, however, is that your kiddos will love them. My students literally beg for more HINK PINKS. I love watching the gears move in their brains. You will, too.

Never give up.  Great things take time.

You may also like:

12 Days of Christmas -- Day 5

Today's 12 Days of Christmas gift is Christmas Hink Pinks, et al. These vocabulary riddles are wildly popular with teachers and students alike.  My kiddos literally beg to do more Hink Pinks!

Christmas Hink Pinks, Hinky Pinkies, Hinkity Pinkities, and Hitinkity Pitinkities are not only great for exercising critical thinking, but are perfect for corralling some of that holiday excitement. When you share Hink Pinks, et al., with your class, you will be giving them learning disguised as fun. They will work on vocabulary, parts of speech, synonyms, rimes, making inferences, and interpreting data. That hits a lot of CCS Standards.

If you are not familiar with Hink Pinks, et al., here's an explanation of them:

You can unwrap this gift for free, but only for 48 hours.  So follow this link to my TPT store and download your copy.

Check out these Hink Pink products, too:

12 Days of Christmas -- Day 2

I am just sooooo excited to release my new product, Vocabulary Fractions, Christmas Edition!

This critical thinking activity asks students to combine fractional parts of words to create Christmas vocabulary.  For example:

The task gradually increases in difficulty, transitioning from 2 part clues with pictures and words to 4 part clues with just pictures.

Students must deduce the correct words from the pictures. This requires them to exercise flexibility in their thinking.  For example:

At the same time, they must be careful to use correct spelling. Solving equivalent fractions provides even more challenge! 

I urge you to solve several of these task cards together. By "thinking out loud," you will model the problem solving that is required.

In the spirit of the season, this product is my gift to you. This is day 2 of my 12 days of Christmas. 

Stop by often to score more seasonal gifts.

  

You may be interested in these Vocabulary Fractions, too:

It's About Time for Summer Centers

It's also about time for summer school, not to mention year round schools. And, thus, it's about time for summer centers. Check out these:

Picnic ANTonyms literacy center focuses on antonyms. It includes 2 versions; 1 for grades 1-2, another for grades 3-5.

Watermelon Words challenges primary students to match the 2 parts of a watermelon slice to make a compound word. All of the words follow a summer theme.

Summer Square Puzzlers are great for all ages as they provide 3 levels of difficulty. These puzzles exercise critical thinking and HOTS.

The Patriotic Edition of Scrattle is perfect for all grade levels and combines math and word work. Students use a set of letters to create words, then calculate their value using Scrabble(TM) values. Finally, they compare their word values to another student's in a friendly competition. The recording sheets present increasing levels of computation difficulty. Best yet, this center is FREE!

Also known as Latin Squares, Patriotic Squares exercise HOTS. The challenge is to fill these square arrays so that no item is used more than once in each row and column. (Think Sudoku.) This center, too, is differentiated; providing 4 increasingly difficult arrays.

 
I host 10 Pinterest boards for teachers. I would love for you to join these boards as a collaborator.