IT'S ABOUT TIME, TEACHERS, for PUMPKINS!

 It's pumpkin season! Fill your classroom with pumpkin resources:

PUMPKINOES are domino style math activities perfect for your fall math centers. These pumpkin math games and activities exercise skills ranging from counting to critical thinking; basic operations to HOTS. Pumpkin dominoes are open ended, easily differentiated, and useful for all elementary math classes.

These Latin Squares math puzzles will challenge children's deductive reasoning skills and help them acquire the critical thinking needed to solve Sudoku puzzles.  PUMPKIN SQUARES begin with an easy 3x3 grid appropriate for young learners.  The tasks progress gradually, increasing in difficulty up to a 7x7 grid.  PUMPKIN SQUARES are available in print and digitally on TPT Easel.

HOW MANY WAYS? Fall Edition is an open-ended, math bulletin board that is perfect computation practice for any elementary classroom.  Challenge your students' critical thinking and fluency to determine how many ways they can reach the target number by combining the values on the pumpkins.  The task is similar to Boogle(TM) for numbers.  Post the operation symbols and the target number you choose to easily differentiate the task.

HALLOWEEN SQUARE PUZZLERS are fun, yet challenging brain teaser puzzles for kids. They exercise critical thinking & problem solving, build perseverance & stamina, and stimulate the brain while disguising it all as fun. Similar to Scrambled Squares(TM), these printable, differentiated, logic puzzles must be reconstructed so the images match on every interior side. Use them for centers, stations, rotations, fast finishers, enrichment, GATE, and/or a class reward. Adored by all ages.

While the theme of this product is Halloween, the graphics have been chosen carefully to preclude concerns about frightening and/or evil visuals. The icons used are owls, pumpkins (no Jack-o'-lanterns), candy corn, and bats. All objects are presented in rainbow colors, adding to the light and happy feel of the puzzles.

It's About Time, Teachers, for Fall Resources!

 

It's time for some fall resources. Check out these products for primary classrooms:

Buying the bundle saves you 30%!

These fall resources are well suited to ALL elementary grades:

If you teach upper elementary and/or middle school, you have to check out these FALL PUNS! They are so punny.

IT'S ABOUT TIME, TEACHERS, for CREATIVITY PROJECTS!

• Do you want to cultivate creativity without adding to your overloaded schedule?
• Do you want to build constructive home-school connections?
• Do you want a full year of project assignments that will build right brain thinking?
• Do you want resources that are print-and-go?

If you answered YES to any of these questions, then -

Destination: Imagination via Creative Thinking is perfect for satisfying your goal of building creativity. These products are designed to be completed at home, giving overly eager parents a constructive way to work with their students. (Teachers of gifted students are well acquainted with this problem phenomena.) Sharing their projects with the class gives students the opportunity to speak meaningfully. This product line is designed to be teacher friendly by providing a weekly assignment sheet, award certificates to recognize the creators' efforts, and tips and tricks to ensure success.

Destination: Imagination via Creative Thinking was designed for gifted students to promote the 4 traits of gifted children: fluency, flexibility, elaboration, and originality. But really, what child wouldn't benefit from working on those aspects? I have found the projects work very well with heterogeneous groups and have successfully used it with 1st - 5th graders. But you don't have to take my word for it. Try these FREE samples before you buy the collections:

Each volume of Destination: Imagination via Creative Thinking supplies projects for a full semester.

Here's a preview of Volume 1:

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%.