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Showing posts with label problem solving. Show all posts
Showing posts with label problem solving. Show all posts

Thursday, March 9, 2023

IT'S ABOUT TIME for EGG-CITING SPRING RESOURCES!

 

It's about time to get your classroom ready for spring with these EGG-citing resources:

FREEBIE

Students will create and illustrate an idiom booklet with up to 15 EGG idioms.  

CRITICAL THINKING

These differentiated, square, logic puzzles must be reconstructed so that the images match on every interior side.  Perfect for problem solving and perseverance.

MATH & LITERACY

This resource provides materials for at least 18 centers.  Included are word work, subitizing, counting, addition, subtraction, patterns, and more!

Word work and computation are combined with friendly competition in this immensely popular activity.  Students readily learn to strategize and employ more complex vocabulary.  They will want to do it again and again.

This math center is EGG-cellent for practicing and mastering basic math facts.  Differentiation is built into the activity.

Made for TPT Easel, Bunny Magic Squares are digital learning only.  That means NO PREP for you.

The spring edition of Vocabulary Fractions is EGGS-actly what you need to challenge your learners' reasoning, flexibility, vocabulary, and fractions.  

Easter Hink Pinks & Hinky Pinkies are riddles that EGGS-ercise vocabulary skills and problem solving.  Your learners will be EGG-cited when you break out these task cards.

To crack these riddles, your learners must practice addition within 100 without regrouping.  The riddles make computation EGG-citing.





















Friday, January 13, 2023

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.















Wednesday, December 14, 2022

NEW DIGITAL RESOURCES

 

  

I'm proud to announce the launch of 3 new digital products for teachers of grades 3-6.  THINKING CORNER will provided daily brain challenges to your students. They require higher order thinking skills and perserverance to solve.

THINKING CORNER slides are wonderful for:

  • daily bell ringer activity
  • distance learning
  • computer laboratory lessons
  • technology center activities
  • fast finishers
  • enrichment/differentiation challenges

Each slide requires learners to solve 5 puzzles:

  • Hink Pinks or Hinky Pinkies
  • Mystery Math or Monster Math
  • Triads
  • Word Ladders
  • Word Winkers


Try it before you buy it.  There is a free version that provides 1 week of challenges as a preview.


THINKING CORNER Vol. 1 provides a full semester of daily challenges.  


Vol. 2 of THINKING CORNER supplies another semester of them.


These resources are available digitally on TPT's Easel platform.  No print product is available.  THINKING CORNER is CCSS aligned.

These resources are no prep.  That's a win for teachers!!  Students find them to be fun and engaging.  A win for students!!




Sunday, November 13, 2022

THANKSGIVING TEACHING RESOURCES

 It's about time, teachers, for all things TURKEY!

Get lots of turkey resources with these bundles:



Here's what is included in the primary bundle:









Here's what is included in the intermediate bundle:


When you buy these bundles, you will save 30% off of the list prices.




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