IT'S ABOUT TIME, TEACHERS, for SPIRALED CURRICULA - Critical Thinking

In 1960, Jerome Bruner advanced the theory of The Spiral Curriculum. His hypothesis was that "any subject can be taught in some intellectually honest form to any child at any stage of development*." The key tenets of his theory are:

1. "The student revisits a topic, theme, or subject several times throughout their school career;

2. The complexity of the topic or theme increases with each revisit;

3. New learning has a relationship with old learning and is put in context with the old information."*

*https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED538282

In this modern era of instant information, with or without citation, I firmly believe our learners must become critical thinkers. So, in accord with Bruner's theory, I have created bundles of products that provide ample material for spiraled learning of higher order thinking skills. Even kindergarteners can exercise these skills.

A perennial favorite with my students is HINK PINKS, et al. These word riddles help children learn to problem solve, analyze, and create while exercising vocabulary skills (definitions, synonyms, parts of speech, rimes, syllables, ...).

SQUARE PUZZLERS are wildly popular in my classes. Like Scrambled Squares(TM), these differentiated, logic puzzles must be reconstructed so the images match on every interior side. They exercise critical thinking and problem solving, build perseverance and stamina, and stimulate the brain while disguising it all as fun!

TRIADS are fun-filled vocabulary developers that engage pupils' critical thinking while exercising the higher levels of Bloom's Taxonomy - analysis, evaluation, and creation. At the same time, your students will be forming word relationships.

ONE DOLLAR WORDS provide a lot of bang for the buck! Learners work on vocabulary development, computation/calculator skills, traditional and/or internet research, and grammar, while exercising critical thinking. Moreover, these products provide a wonderful extension to Rob Buyea's book series about Mr. Terupt.

With STORY SLEUTHS, students will enjoy great literature, learn about artistic media, and participate in collaborative thinking. The IDIOMS bundle provides frequent and enduring practice with vocabulary, figurative language, and critical thinking. The bundle of PUN TASK CARDS will provide lots of humor as your pupils learn about these literary devices.

I've spent the time creating these products to provide frequent and enduring practice with critical thinking for my learners. Save your precious time by sharing them with your students. As always, bundles from my store save you 30%.

IT'S ABOUT TIME for a BIRTHDAY SALE-EBRATION!

 

It's my birthday week! To celebrate, I've discounted all of my BUNDLES 50% off. That's 50 bundles at half price from 6/17/23 - 6/24/23. Find all of my bundles here.

Bundled products include:

• classroom decor
• thematic units
• hink pinks, et al.
• triads
• kangaroo words
• square puzzlers
• one dollar words
• Scrattle
• idioms
• phonics centers
• vocabulary fractions
• sight words
• poetry
• holidays
• tangrams
• math centers
• literacy centers

Help me celebrate!

IT'S ABOUT TIME for BECAUSE OF MR. TERUPT and ONE DOLLAR WORDS

 

Have you ever shared Because of Mr. Terupt, by Rob Buyea, with your class?  If you haven't, I beg you to try it. Intermediate students will enjoy the novel because of its authentic characters and realistic action.  Year after year, my learners sprint to the library to secure the sequels; Mr. Terupt Falls Again, Saving Mr. Terupt, and Goodbye Mr. Terupt.  It warms my teacher's heart to see these tweens have such enthusiasm for reading.

(I'm not an affliate receiving compensation for Mr. Buyea's book sales.  I just love them!)

Mr. Terupt introduces his students (and mine) to ONE DOLLAR WORDS. So fascinating is this concept that I embraced the challenge to find words worth exactly $1 and promptly found more than 600! (Full disclosure: my tech mogul son wrote a program for me, but he was fast.) The challenge is to find words worth exactly $1 when the letters are added together using these values:

Lots of teachers throw this challenge out to their learners.  So, give it a try.  Can you find a ONE DOLLAR WORD?  I'll wait...

Frustrating, isn't it?  Just think up a word, calculate its value, and determine that it does NOT equal $1. After several attempts, you lose interest and turn to some other endeavor. 

BUT, I have a solution for that!  And, as a result, year after year after year, my students cannot get enough of ONE DOLLAR WORDS.

My solution was to write clues (>450) that will lead to the words.

In doing this (frantically, to stay ahead of my enrichment students), I discovered that ONE DOLLAR WORDS can incorporate myriad skills and learning in several disciplines.

MATH

Obviously addition computation is a necessary skill. But the math work does not end there.

• Allowing your charges to use calculators will hone their proficiency with those tools.
• Children will quickly determine whether their word is greater than or less than $1 in value.
• Astute learners will recognize that common prefixes and suffixes have a specific value. They can quickly compute the change in a word's value by adding or subtracting that value. Some of my students even created an anchor chart for quick reference.

• Some learners will employ multiplication when they recognize that a possible word uses a letter multiple times.

LANGUAGE ARTS

Vocabulary is clearly key in this pursuit. Your pupils will search for synonyms and may be introduced to new and novel words. There is so much more involved, however, once your scholars begin paying close attention to the clues.

• Answers should match the clues in tense, singular/plural, and parts of speech.
• Base words, prefixes, and suffixes will quickly seize the focus of the word sleuths.
• Some clues offer a hint; the answer is a compound word.

RESEARCH

A variety of research tools will help your pupils.

• dictionary
• thesaurus
• internet resources

Not only will these tools offer tremendous help in finding the target words, but they will also assist with correct spelling.

CRITICAL THINKING

The problem solving, reasoning, and strategic planning involved in decrypting the clues rank high on Bloom's Taxonomy and Webb's Depth of Knowledge.

Because I conduct a pull-out program for 3rd  - 5th grade enrichment students, I employ a friendly competition.  Pitting each grade level class against the others brings out a flurry of activity that makes the rest of the school stand back in awe. My students beg their classroom teachers to allow them to come to me for another clue as soon as they solve one. This is spurred on, of course, by my public display of each team's score on a daily basis.

You can read more about THE GREAT $1 WORD CHALLENGE in the products available in my TPT Store. TRY IT BEFORE YOU BUY IT! with the free version.

If you love ONE DOLLAR WORDS, you can find 10 products in my store.

IT'S ABOUT TIME for a HASHTAG SALE!

 

You don't want to miss this hashtag sale on TPT! #NEWSTART23 will bring you $1 deals to start your new year off right. The sale is just 2 days - 12/31 & 1/1 so don't delay.

My offerings are:
PRESIDENTIAL TRIVIA TASK CARDS

ONE DOLLAR WORDS 3.0 

Both resources are perfect for your intermediate students.