Pinteresting Boards for G/T & HOTS

Collaborative Pinterest boards for Gifted & Talented,  Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS), enrichment, and differentiated instruction!

If you follow my blog, you know that these topics are near and dear to my heart.  You also know that I have been posting lists of collaborative boards on specific topics; kindergarten and 1st grade, to date.  But when I tried to compile a list of Pinterest boards for G/T, HOTS, enrichment, and differentiation, I did not get very far.  Here's what I have been able to find:

• Teaching Critical Thinking & Problem Solving
• Critical Thinking Skills
• Creative & Critical Thinking Activities & Ideas
• Brain Teasers & Twisters
• Differentiation Ideas & Resources
• Gifted Education Ideas & Products
• Gifted Ed Resources & Info
• Gifted on TpT - K - 8
• Gifted on TpT - High School
• Gifted & Talented Teaching Resources
• Activities for Gifted & Talented Students
• Gifted and Talented teaching ideas K-8

So, I'm asking for your help.  If you know of any collaborative boards for G/T, enrichment, HOTS, and/or differentiation, will you please post the link in a comment?  Then I can expand this list to make it more comprehensive.   

Thanks!

Poetry Month Resources

Take time to celebrate National Poetry Month by checking out these resources:

• It's About Time for Poetry (in the classroom)
• Poetry Teaching Resources from TpT
• Poetry for Kids
• Teaching Poetry  
• Texting Poetry
• Poetry Teaching Resources   
• Simile Poetry
• 20 Terrific Ways to Celebrate National Poetry Month 
• 5 New Twists on Poetry Month  
• 10 Poetry Month Resources for Busy Teachers  
• Shel Silverstein 
• Poetry Anthologies
• Jack Prelutsky
• Hello National Poetry Month
• Poet-tree  
• Blackout Poetry  
• Scholastic Poetry  
• April is National Poetry Month
• National Poetry Month: Useful Resources for Teachers  
• The Poetry Party  
• Grades 6-8: Poetry Workshop 
• National Poetry Month Kidlitosphere Events
• Phone Number Poetry  
• Hands-on Poetry Projects  
• Poetically Speaking  
• Reading Rockets National Poetry Month
• Poetry Literacy Centers - Pt. 1  
• Poetry Literacy Centers - Pt. 2  
• National Poetry Month

                                                        

You may also be interested in a blog series I have written about poetry.  It is an 8 part series called "Using Poetry in the Classroom."  It starts here and goes forward.  

Finally, just a quick reminder that I'm having a National Poetry Month sale through April 30. You can save 20% on ALL of my poetry products on TpT.

Pinteresting Boards for First Grade

Collaborative boards dedicated to teaching abound on Pinterest. A few months ago, there were scores of them. Now there are hundreds of them. Some have 1000s of followers. Others are just getting started. If you teach first grade, you should check out these collaborative boards:

• It's About Time for Literacy Centers
• It's About Time for Math Centers
• Anything and Everything 1st Grade
• Flying in First
• First Grade Faculty
• 1st Grade Free Stuff
• FAB 1st Grade Favorites Under $5 
• 1st Grade Materials Under $3  
• Math for 1st Grade  
• Grades 1-2: Ideas and Resources  
• 1st Grade $5 and Under  
• Lower Elementary Literacy  
• Lower Elementary Math  
• Lower Elementary Other
• 1st Grade Friends  
• Primary Math Games and Centers  
• ELA - Letters and Letter Sounds  
• ELA - Sight Words, Word Families   
• ELA - Games!  
• ELA - Punctuation & Grammar  
• Early Literacy Activities & Ideas   
• Finally 1st Grade  
• K-1 Teacher Co-Op!  
• Treasures 1st Grade Collaborative  
• 1st Grade Common Core  
• Activities for Early Grades   
• Pre-K/K/1/2 Science Lessons and Activities  
• Primary grades wonderful picture books  
• Learn to Read 
• Primary Reading and Math  
• Primary Materials from TPT  
• Kindergarten and First Grade Math
• FREEBIES for Pre-K, Kindergarten and First Grade 
• K-2-reading-writing-ideas/  
• *Primary* Must Have TpT Finds
• First Grade Freebies
• First Grade Math
• First Grade Literacy
• Primary Collaborative Connections K-2
• Primary Grades Fun and Learning
• Fabulous First Grade
• First Grade Inspiration
• kindercenter
• Learn to Read
• Early Literacy Activities and Ideas
• Word Work
• K-3 Freebie Round Up
• Common Core Math K, 1, and 2 Grade
• Literacy Awareness

This is certainly not a complete list. Is that even possible? Hopefully, you will find a few in this list that are new to you. If you have a favorite 1st grade collaborative board on Pinterest that isn't listed, please put the address in a comment. I'll happily add more to the list.

Happy pinning!

April is National Poetry Month

Check it out!

You can find Mrs. O's Linky Party here.

Texting Poetry

In this age of texting mania, engage your students in a safe "texting" activity that will produce some "phone-tastic" poetry. Challenge them to write Phone Number Poetry.  It's easy, fun, and will produce poetry with a new "ring" to it.

Have each student write his/her phone number vertically on a piece of paper.  Each digit represents the number of words to write in that line of the poem.  (If the phone number contains a zero, they should write 10 words on that line.) After selecting a topic, they can begin writing their free verse poem.

Google Doc

An alternate idea for this "texting" is to have the digits represent the number of syllables in each line.  For older, more capable students, challenge them to write lines of alliteration using 1 of the letters assigned to that number on the phone.  If, for example, one of the digits is a 2, an alliterative line could be:

Clever conversations

Or, a line for the digit 4 could be:

Giddy girls gabbing, giggling

The topic of these poems may be one you assign or the choice of the poet.  A fun, if obvious, topic is cell phones. With all the smart phones available today, students can expand their thoughts on phones to include games, web browsing, email, maps, photos, videos, yelp, ...

It's about time for National Poetry Month.  So call up this fun poetry activity.  You are sure to enjoy these "messages!"  

You may also like:

Cha-ching Chuckle

The new TpT app kindly announces that you have a sale with a pleasant “cha-ching.” That glorious sound is guaranteed to bring a smile to your face, but this will make you chuckle; guffaw even! 

My husband has installed the app on his phone as he is every bit as invested in my product sales as I am. He’s an architect and contractor, by the way. His business acumen is welcomed, but in truth he’s hoping I’ll make it big on TpT so that he can retire one day. 

He was meeting with clients for whom he has designed a substantial addition. As construction is nearing the end, he was discussing their choice of doorknobs. Their selection was very high-end and over the allowance. As he was explaining that to them, his phone cha-chinged. Right on cue, it would seem! The clients clearly heard it and so my husband explained that he had programmed his phone to make that sound whenever clients agreed to an up-charge. Of course, he subsequently explained what the cha-ching really meant. For a moment though, their jaws were on the floor. 

Oh TpT, I love you so!

Fight Spring Fever!

It's nearly springtime, teachers!  That means spring fever is nigh.  Your students will soon start yearning for summer vacation and tuning out in the classroom.  It takes a little more creativity to keep them engaged and learning.  I've got just thing for you; Spring Square Puzzlers.  

Square Puzzlers challenge both sides of your students' brains.  The colorful graphics appeal to the creative right hemisphere, but more importantly, the task speaks to the holistic, random, and intuitive nature of that hemisphere. Meanwhile, the logical left side of the brain is busy examining the parts of the puzzle, analyzing the details for possible solutions.  

The task in square puzzlers is to create a square with the given pieces in which all the images match on every interior side.  Spring Square Puzzlers includes 3 different puzzles of increasing difficulty.  

Students will manipulate these 4 puzzle pieces until they are able to match all the images while creating a 2 x 2 array. The 4 piece puzzle is perfect for beginners and young learners.

     

The next puzzle is a 3 x 3 square and is exponentially more difficult.  It provides enough challenge that even high school students will enjoy it.  Square puzzlers are perfect for fast finishers.  They most certainly will not be able to finish this in a flash!  In fact, the challenge is sufficient that it may take several days to solve.  To that end, I suggest that you provide box tops or cookie sheets for your students to store their puzzles-in-progress.  

For those seeking a great challenge, I have created a 4 x 4 square puzzler.  It will boggle the most brilliant brains.  Fans tell me that they put the 4 x 4 puzzler on their kitchen counters at home and found every member of their families drawn to it throughout the days it took them to solve it.

I find it fascinating to observe my students as they problem solve these puzzles.  Some will doggedly arrange and rearrange with fierce focus.  Others will beg their peers to help them.  Some will cautiously guard their progress; others will toss all of their pieces up and start over.  Each puzzle has a hint that will make solving it easier.  That is, in each puzzle there is one graphic that appears only twice.  Matching that single pair provides a guaranteed starting place.   

My students are so crazy for square puzzlers that I have created 4 sets so far.  

You can find these Square Puzzlers in my TpT Store or in my TN Shop.  Fight the downward spiral!