Mother's Day Craftivity

It's about time, teachers. . . for Mother's Day.  Following are directions for a card your primary students can make for their mothers.  I guarantee it will bring a smile to every mother's face and a warm feeling in her heart.

1. Give each student a 4.5" x 12" piece of construction paper in the color of their choice.  
2. Provide construction paper scraps for the students to make flower petals and long, thin strips of green paper for stem(s).
3. Students should position the background paper vertically, then glue on the stem(s) and flower(s).
4. Once the flower(s) and stem(s) are applied, have the students fold the paper in half and then in half again.  They will now have a 4.5" x 3" card.  
5. Ask them to unfold the card.  Using their very best handwriting, the children will write the following on each section of the card:   My love for you grows, / and grows, / and grows!

  Here's what the finished project looks like:

to all the teachers who are also mothers!

Higher Order Thinking Skills and much more!

Last week, I blogged about Bloom's Taxonomy and Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS).  (See April 2, 2012.)  My friend, Andrea, over at One Teacher's Take...is Another's Treasure commented that she also uses Webb's Depth of Knowledge (DOK) Levels and Marzano's Dimensions of Thinking, both of which are new to me.  So, I immediately googled them. Here's what I found. . .

Webb's DOK Levels look like this:

What I like about Webb's model is the 4 levels versus Bloom's 6.  It's always nice to condense things, isn't it?  At least in my realm of preparing dozens of lesson plans each day, less is more!  The 4 level descriptors (the inner circle) boast newer and somewhat clearer concepts.  

Then my eye wanders over the outer circle.  Ouch!  Another sea of verbs to swim through.  The 4th level, presumably the quarter in which we strive to spend most of our time, is curiously short on verbs compared to the other 75%.  Are those 8 verbs/phrases just more succinct?  Or, do they reflect the limitations foisted upon teachers by the Common Core of Teaching Standards, standardized testing, and uniform time lines?  Surely that triad has bearing on it.  

Perhaps there is more to be considered, however.  Is the 4th level truly where teachers strive to  be?  I hope, in my heart of hearts, that the answer is YES.  However, it is possible that some, if not many, teachers find little motivation to work on level 4.  Their efforts are not evaluated by standardized tests, depriving them of extrinsic approval.  Paychecks remain static whether teachers push their students toward extended learning or not.   Indeed, rewards are esoteric.  Certainly the dedicated, professional teacher experiences intrinsic satisfaction.  S/he may even be fortunate enough to receive accolades from students, parents, colleagues, and/or  administrators.  Is that enough? 

In a future blog, I'll discuss Marzano's Depth of Knowledge Levels.  Until then,  I'd love to hear your thoughts about teaching HOTS.  

HOTS or Bloom's Taxonomy

It's about time, teachers, ... to revisit Higher Order Thinking Skills or HOTS.  If you've been a teacher for more than 5 minutes, you must have some knowledge of Benjamin Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives.  Did you know Benjamin is not actually the author of the taxonomy?  It bears his name simply because he chaired the committee that developed it.  So, the next time someone asks you to chair a committee, you may want to say "Yes."

It seems like Bloom's Taxonomy has been around forever.  Actually, it's been around since 1956, which for most of the educators at work today IS forever.  It's been 56 years and it's still going strong.  Although, it has morphed some over the decades.  When 1st proposed, the taxonomy strove to deal with 3 domains of education: cognitive, affective, & psychomotor.  The goal of the 3 domains was to produce holistic education.  Over time, however, the cognitive domain has become the taxonomy we all think of when Bloom's Taxonomy is mentioned.  In fact, each domain was to have it's own handbook, but after publishing the cognitive domain  handbook, it took 8 years for the affective domain handbook to be written and the psychomotor domain handbook was never written!

Too often, I think, the taxonomy is taught and used in educating gifted and talented learners.  That may be a matter of practicality.  The taxonomy is scaffolded; the lower levels must be broad and strong in order for the upper levels to be built. In an age of standardized testing mania, knowledge and comprehension, the foundation levels, are the name of the game. Since those are the most easily evaluated components, performance is naturally based on those levels.  And so, I surmise that only the teachers of G/T have the time to work on the upper levels of the taxonomy since their students, presumably, have the requisite knowledge and understanding.    

Let's not dwell in the basement, teachers!  It takes more work to bring your students to the upper levels of the taxonomy. The payoff, however, is well worth the effort.  Who doesn't want to spend their time in the penthouse rather than the basement?

Following is Bloom's Taxonomy model in 2 versions:

Any student of the taxonomy knows that there are lists of verbs to help us remember how to incorporate each level into our teaching.  While I am a visual learner, perusing those lists tends to make my eyes roll to the back of my head.  So, I created the following visual to expeditiously remind me what each level should look like.

I don't know if Easter eggs brought this to mind or the hatchlings that spring promises us, but I do know that teachers everywhere need to break out of their shells and push their students to work in the higher levels.  Our children deserve to be grade A educated.

Now I'll climb down from my soap box and get back to dyeing eggs.

Presidents' Day Craftivities

It's about time, teachers, to honor our presidents, especially those born in Feb.  I've got 2 craftivities that will brighten your classroom and engage your students.

#1:  Presidential Silhouettes and Weaving

For every student you will need 1 sheet each of red, white and blue 9"x12" construction paper.  You will also need cardboard patterns of Washington & Lincoln.  The beauty of this project is that by encouraging your students to choose 2 colors of their choice for the background, saving the 3rd for the silhouette, you will give your classroom a burst of color without having all 20+ projects look the same.  

Since paper weaving has been around forever, I'm assuming you know how to create the woven background.  After each student has chosen which 2 colors to use for the weaving part, ask them to exchange 1 of those sheets for about 6 - 8 pre-cut strips of the same color.  I always cut my strips about 1" wide for 1st graders. 

When the weaving is completed, each child should borrow the silhouette pattern of their choice to trace on their remaining sheet of paper.   After tracing, if they are careful about cutting out the silhouette, they can actually make a 2 sided craft.  One side features the traditional silhouette.  The other side can host the scraps from the silhouette making a reverse or negative image. (See Lincoln projects above.)  Of course, just gluing the silhouette on 1 side makes a perfectly good craft.

I strongly recommend cutting the patterns out of sturdy cardboard, such as from the back of a tablet of paper, in order to have them survive for next year's students.

You could also do the weaving project with patriotic symbols, such as the star, above.  And, again, you can use the scraps to create the negative on the backside.  A star and liberty bell pattern can be found below.

#2 Patriotic Chalk Art:

This is one of my all time favorite crafts, but please realize it can be quite messy.  The pattern piece above actually reflects 2 methods of making the chalk rubbings.  One uses the shape pattern and rubs out from the edges; the other uses the scrap or negative of the shape with rubbings going in toward the center.

For the bell images above, provide cardboard patterns for the shapes.  Ask your students to trace the pattern on construction paper (color doesn't matter).  Insist that they trace the pattern onto another piece of paper because if they all try to rub chalk on the pattern, you will endure many complaints about purple symbols.  Each child should use his/her own shape.  

After cutting the shape out, students should generously rub blue or red chalk around the edges of the shape.  They MUST do this on what I call a "dirty" sheet, which is actually paper reclaimed from the recycling box.  It is essential that they rub the chalk on while on the dirty sheet, then move to the chosen construction paper background.  Demonstrate holding the shape securely with one hand while pushing the chalk out onto the background paper with 1 finger (hence the messy part).  You can make this project as easy or challenging as you like by making a single shape on the background or using multiple shapes and colors all on the same background, perhaps creating complex patterns.

The negative version of this craft works much like the presidential silhouettes above.  After cutting out the shape, the student should tape the scraps together (see lower left corner) and then rub the chalk around the edges of the missing shape.  Again, this step must be done on a dirty sheet.  Then, holding the negative steady with one hand, have the children rub the chalk toward the center on their background paper.  

Clean up absolutely requires lots of soapy hand washing in order to prevent chalk smudges everywhere, and especially on their clothes.

These patterns can be cut out of card stock or heavier cardboard.  You should insist that the students not put chalk on your templates.  Who wants to have to remake the patterns year after year????

Enjoy Presidents' Day!