IT'S ABOUT TIME, TEACHERS, for ANCHOR ACTIVITIES!

 

It's about time, teachers, for ANCHOR ACTIVITIES! Also known as warm-ups or bell ringers, once you implement anchor activities in your classroom, you'll wonder why you didn't do it sooner.

Like many educators, I use these activities to engage students upon entering the classroom, thereby settling them while I attend to other tasks. My learners are also trained to turn to the anchor activities when they finish ahead of the other students or while waiting for individual help from the instructor. This is why I prefer to call them anchor activities.

Having anchor activities in place gives learners meaningful engagement during transitional or awkward interludes. They provide opportunities to practice multidisciplinary skills. My goal is to challenge my learners without adding to MY workload. Thus, I have created an entire year's worth of brain stimulating pursuits; THINKING CORNER (Free, Vol. 1, Vol. 2). They are all digital and thus, require no preparation. Designed for upper elementary and middle school students, the tasks are intriguing and entertaining. Learners WANT to do them!

Take a peek:

You are invited to try them before you buy them with this FREE set:

Once you fall in love with them, as I'm certain you will, there are 2 sets available in my store:

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 to SNEAK INTO A NEW SCHOOL YEAR!

 

Sneak into the new school year with these resources, guaranteed to save you time!

First, a FREEBIE...

This ALL ABOUT ME poster will give you a SNEAK PEEK into your new students. By completing and sharing the posters, your learners will get to know each other and conquer some of those first day jitters. Once finished, the posters make an easy and colorful bulleting board display. You may enjoy creating a thematic first day; a SNEAKER DAY. This product will guide you through one sole-full day of sneaker activities.

After you enjoy all of this sneaker fun, extend the learning to all things pertaining to shoes, socks, and feet.

Buy the bundle and save 30%!

IT'S ABOUT TIME for TRIADS!

 

If you are not familiar with TRIADS, let me introduce you to your newest addiction. LOL TRIADS combine critical thinking with vocabulary development, while building word relationships. Teach your students to use Bloom’s upper level thinking skills –analysis, synthesis, and evaluation – while having fun!

Here's how TRIADS work: Find a word that can be added to each of the words on the TRIAD. The common word comes before or after each of the 3 words to make a familiar phrase or a compound word. 

For example: the common word for the TRIAD of litter, nap, and black is CAT -- CAT litter, CATnap, and black CAT. You will absolutely love watching your students' "light bulb" moments.

Here's a FREEBIE to let you try them:

If you like love them, as I'm sure you will, I have a plethora of TRIAD task cards ready for you and your learners to enjoy.

My GATE/enrichment students can't get enough of these word relationships. They love them so much, they started creating their own to challenge me!