For many of you, today may be your first day of the new school year. If so, I hope it’s a great one! My goal is to make it an unforgettably fabulous year for my students. In the immortal words of Kid President,
Update: *As of 1/2/14, you can now download all of my current Genius Hour resources in a bundle on Teachers Pay Teachers for $5. Or, you can still download them separately (for free) by clicking on the Genius Hour Resource Page.
That’s my plan, and one of my strategies for achieving this is to offer Genius Hour to my 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade GT students. (In the past, I’ve only offered it to my 5th graders.)
Over the summer, I developed some new resources to use during Genius Hour. I’ve already shared some with you, but I just created some more: Suggested Genius Hour Mission Sequence, Genius Hour Mission Planner, and Genius Hour Mission Log. Each of these can be found, along with the other resources, on my Genius Hour Resources Page. You can also find links to explanatory articles and some outstanding resources (that are definitely not mine!) on that page.
Here is a breakdown of the new pieces I just added:
Suggested Genius Hour Mission Sequence – this page is a very abbreviated list of recommendations for the teacher on how to conduct Genius Hour using the resources provided
Genius Hour Mission Planner – this is a planning sheet for students to fill out before each Genius Hour project
Genius Hour Mission Log – this is a reflection sheet to be completed at the end of each Genius Hour
If you’re new to this blog, you don’t want to miss out on the Genius Hour Trailer, Genius Hour Bookmarks (QR Codes), and Challenge Cards (which also include QR codes) – plus a bunch of other supporting materials.
Make this year awesome for your students by including Genius Hour in your lesson plans! They will never forget it!
Wow. I am speechless over your Genius Hour resources. I’ve used this concept (calling it ‘Exploration’) for two years and it never was quite right. I ran into all the same frustrations you did. Now I’m excited to revamp it and start the year! Thank you!
Well, I’m definitely still working on fine-tuning it! I like the idea of calling it “Exploration” instead of Genius Hour!