Category: Critical Thinking

Canva Choice Board made with Bingo Card app
3-12, Creative Thinking, Critical Thinking, Teaching Tools

Make a Canva Bingo Card/Choice Board

Terri Eichholz

Canva for Education has many bingo card templates, but did you know that it also has a Bingo generator app? This means you can not only make Bingo cards, but also even create choice boards that look engaging. I’ll go through the steps that I used to make a choice board in a few minutes.

Get Your Words

What do you want to put on your Bingo Card? Maybe it’s vocabulary or famous people for a bingo game, or maybe it’s tasks for a choice card. Maybe you don’t know. If you don’t already have a list, you can open a Canva Doc and use the Magic Write feature to generate some ideas. (There will also be a limited amount of pre-formatted lists in the Bingo Generator app.) I went ahead and gave Magic Write the following prompt, “9 tasks for 3rd graders to do to demonstrate their understanding of metamorphosis. Each task should be 4 words or less. You will want the prompt to specify the number of words if it’s generating tasks or the sentences will be too long for the generator to fit properly in each cell.

Get Your Template

Once you have the words/short phrases you want on the card listed, highlight and copy them. Then, it’s time to find your Bingo Card template. Do a search on Canva’s home page for “Bingo Card” and choose the one that looks close enough to what you’d like in design and number of cells. Open the template. Delete anything that’s already in the cells, and design your card. If you think you are going to want multiple cards that have the cells randomly rearranged, make that many duplicates of your card when it’s design is ready.

Find the App and Paste in Your List

Since I have been using the app, it appears in my left menu as “Bingo Cards.” I can click on it, and the generator menu that you see above appears. However, you may have to locate the app the first time by clicking on “Apps” in the menu and searching for it. Note that if “Bingo Cards” does not appear in your search, you may be using a design in which that app doesn’t work. For example, you can’t find it when you are making a Doc.

Paste your list in where it prompts you to “Enter some words.” Then select the grid size and number of cards you would like to generate as well as the font. I turned off gridlines because I already have a pretty template and don’t want the lines.

Create Bingo Cards

When you hit the purple button, cards will be generated on the side as you can see below. These are actually transparent images that you can drag over to your template, resize, and fit them as you like.

The generator went a bit wonky with the font sizes, I’m guessing because I went with phrases of different lengths instead of single words. I’m okay with that because it still save me a ton of time, the words are legible, and the template makes it less stark.

Conclusion

Once you do this process one or two times, it gets even faster. You can probably even have older students make their own Bingo Cards or Choice Boards, and they will enjoy the magic. Let me know if you think of any other ways to utilize this Canva App! Check out this post if you want to learn more about how I combined AI with Canva to make differentiated Choice Menus.

question marks on paper crafts
Creative Thinking, Critical Thinking, K-12, Philosophy, Problem Solving

Conundrums from Class Dojo

Terri Eichholz

Conundrums from Class Dojo are short animated videos (less than 2 minutes) that pose ethical and philosophical questions to students. Each one has a video, a question to discuss along with an activity sheet for recording responses, and the option to share the idea with parents.

How to Access Conundrums

You can access Conundrums even if you don’t have a Class Dojo account. The series is part of their Social Emotional Learning collection, which you can find here. The Conundrums set is the largest of the ten categories by far with 27 videos. You may remember that in the past I’ve also recommended their Growth Mindset videos.

An Example of a Conundrum

One example of a Conundrum from Class Dojo is “The Tree Conundrum.” Students are given a hypothetical situation where a tree that is located on private land has been found to provide the best-tasting fruit in the world — and it’s the only one. The family who owns the property is not interested in sharing their tree, but has offered to sell one seed from the tree for a billion dollars.

Your conundrum is to decide whether someone should pay for the seed, the government should take over the property, no action should be taken, or solve the problem a different way.

Why Use Conundrums with Students?

Students love to debate topics (think about the popularity of “Would You Rather”), and these types of discussions are always opportunities for them to see things from multiple perspectives and learn how to justify their responses. They can practice their creative problem solving skills and critical thinking while feeling safe in participating because there is not one right answer. These are also quick activities that can be done after a long test or other moments when you don’t have quite enough time to start a brand new lesson. Or, you can extend them into a longer lesson using a Socratic Smackdown.

More Ideas

If you like these, and your students want more, you can also try:

You can find these and more ideas in my Philosophy for Kids Wakelet.

Critical Thinking, K-12, Universal Design for Learning, Writing

More Hexagonal Thinking Ideas

Terri Eichholz

I bookmark a lot of examples that I see on social media of uses for Hexagonal Thinking. Sometimes teachers who have been to one of my workshops mention me, and it’s great to see HT being used in the wild. Recently, one teacher even emailed me a Canva example from her 3rd graders!

What is Hexagonal Thinking?

Hexagonal Thinking involves using hexagon-shaped cards to represent different ideas, concepts, or topics. These cards can be moved around and connected to one another in order to explore relationships, make connections, and generate new ideas. You can have words and/or images on the hexagons, and connections are represented by moving hexagons next to each other so they share sides. I first learned about this technique from Pam Hook. Below is an example one small group in my classroom did when we were reflecting on the book, Tuck Everlasting.

Hexagonal Thinking by 4th Graders for Tuck Everlasting

Who Can Use Hexagonal Thinking?

If you don’t know what Hexagonal Thinking is, I cannot emphasize enough how flexible this strategy is; it can be adapted to use in any classroom for any subject in any grade level. In fact, one teacher challenged me on Twitter when I made that claim by asking, “#physed application?” I didn’t even have to answer, because another reader gave this list of options:

Thanks, Erik. I couldn’t have said it better myself!

Literature Example

Becky Gentry was kind enough to share a link with me from a Canva project her 3rd graders did using Hexagonal Thinking with Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH.

As you can see, students don’t usually just discuss and arrange the hexagons. They generally explain their rationale for the placement in written form or out loud.

Hexagonal Thinking + Math

My former colleague, Kelly Cross, has been bringing HT to math teachers in her district. Here is a recent example:

Speaking of math, how about this idea tweeted by Laura Depp to use hexagonal pattern blocks instead of cutting out paper?

And even though this isn’t technically Hexagonal Thinking, it is a Twitter thread involving hexagons, thinking, and math from one of my favorite mathematicians, Dan Finkel and one of his followers, Hana Murray (click on this link if you want to see the whole thread):

AI + Global Goals + Hexagonal Thinking

Lastly, I have this Tweet from Marilyn McAlister, which not only demonstrates using Hexagonal Thinking with the Global Goals, but also offers the idea of using Chat GPT to suggest the terms to put in your hexagons. Pair that with Pam Hook’s Solo Hexagon Generator and you have a winning combination!

Want to Learn More?

If these examples intrigue you, but you don’t know where to start, you can take my online course or invite me to your school or district to do a workshop (terrieichholz@engagetheirminds.com). You can also see some other ideas for using HT in the classroom in recent blog posts I’ve done, such as this one or this one. Or, do a search on my website for even more! You can even download some free templates.

flowers petals blooming still life
3-12, Creative Thinking, Critical Thinking, Math

Free March Digital Breakout and More!

Terri Eichholz

Leonardo the Leprechaun is one of my free digital breakouts, and it’s perfect for March. Students in grades 3 and up should be able to do this breakout in 45 minutes or less. Here is a list of all of my digital breakouts. Along that same theme (leprechauns), I also have a free St. Patrick’s Day S.C.A.M.P.E.R. packet available for download as a PDF. You can search on my Downloads page for digital versions or other S.C.A.M.P.E.R. packets. And you can also head on over to my St. Patrick’s Day Wakelet for even more resources for celebrating March 17th.

Click here to learn more about this free Digital Breakout!

Of course, St. Patrick’s Day isn’t the only holiday in March. There’s Read Across America Day (March 2), International Women’s Day (March 8th), Pi Day (March 14), and World Poetry Day (March 21). You can get links to activities for all of these on my March Wakelet.

By the way, the next potential SpaceX launch date is on Thursday, March 2 (Read Across America Day), and if all systems are go, a very special book will be going up to space. The book, Astronauts Zoom, by Deborah Lee Rose, will be read by an astronaut for the Storytime from Space program! Congratulations to her and everyone who is helping to make this happen!

Creative Thinking, Critical Thinking, K-5, Math

Valentine’s Day: Some “Heartfelt” Resources for Teachers

Terri Eichholz

If you’re looking for some “heartfelt” Valentine’s Day resources for teachers, this post has got you covered!

In the process of trying to update and collect my downloadable resources from over 11 years of writing this blog, I decided to start a “store” (located under “Downloads for Teachers” in my top menu) hosted on my website. The purpose of this store is not for me to make money, but to make it easier for teachers to search and filter through my resources. It has been a slow process, and I haven’t worked out some of the kinks. But I think it will be worthwhile eventually.

You do need to create a free login in order download items from the store. The majority of the items are free. However, I’ve decided to sell bundles of items for a low fee, donating $1 out of every $5 earned to teacher projects on Donors Choose. I am slowly removing my items from Teachers Pay Teachers and will eventually host everything I create on my store with the multiple goals of giving teachers easy access to free resources that are good for students and hopefully earning money to give back to teachers who have amazing ideas for which they need funding. Currently, all of my S.C.A.M.P.E.R. resources are available in the store and I am now working on getting my Visible Thinking Routine resources added.

Would You Rather Valentine’s Day Math for Elementary

While working on my store, I recently updated my “Would You Rather Math?” for Valentine’s Day using a cute Canva template. You can download the new PDF here. For the old versions (including Google Slides and PowerPoint), as well as a more detailed explanation, here is the post I originally wrote when I made this resource based on the work of John Stevens and his WYRM website. Want the free Canva template link so you can edit it and make your own? I’ll be posting it in this week’s newsletter, so be sure to sign up if you haven’t already!

[optin-monster-inline slug=”ucd37iq8avktmtawuyih”]

I haven’t had a chance to update and upload this next Valentine’s Day resource to the store, but if you like to give out something other than candy for Valentine’s Day (or any time of the year), these QR Code Coupons that I made way back in 20212 are a cute option to insert into an old chocolate box or into Valentine’s Day cards for your students.

If you are looking for more Valentine’s Day Resources, you can check out my Valentine’s Day Wakelet here.

a young girl holding her toy microphone while singing
3-12, Creative Thinking, Critical Thinking, Language Arts, Student Products

NPR Student Podcast Challenge

Terri Eichholz

Way back in the early 2000’s, I convinced my then-principal to purchase a MacBook for my classroom. Another teacher (shout out to Diane Cullen at Fox Run Elementary!) and I sponsored a media club after school designed for 5th graders who were struggling in their classes. Our goal was to get them excited about school by getting them excited by creating for authentic audiences. Our little group started playing around with Garage Band, and began producing podcasts for the school. Those, along with their iMovie commercials, not only entertained and energized all of us but also helped to build school community. It was probably one of my first experiences seeing how producing something to be heard, seen, or used by others (Design Thinking) can be a powerful motivator.

I had no idea back then how popular podcasts would become. We had no resource materials when we started, fumbling along as we learned on our own. But now there are plenty available, and the tools for production have expanded way past Garage Band. I detailed many of these resources in an article for NEO almost two years ago on “Podcast Pedagogy.” I also recently blogged about “International Podcast Day“, which occurs annually on September 30th of each year. I still think that Smash, Boom, Best is one of the best gateways to podcasting for younger students.

Now I’d like to bring your attention the NPR Student Podcast Challenge. And before you dismiss it because you don’t think your students are ready to enter a contest (submissions are being accepted until April 28, 2023, possibly March 24th according to the Podcast Guide for Students?) or they are not in the age range (grades 5-12), I would still like to recommend taking advantage of the educational resources provided. You can listen to past winners and even a podcast about student podcasting. There are free downloads for teachers and for students that are useful for helping students to prepare, plan for, and produce podcasts. Don’t worry if you’ve never done this before. In fact, according to the NPR Podcast Guide for Students:

“We don’t expect you to be experts. In fact, we expect that most of you are putting a podcast together for the first time.

And even though this is a contest, it’s also about learning new skills in a fun way. We want to make that learning easier — so we’ve put together a guide to help you along the way.”

NPR Podcast Guide for Students

It can be daunting as a teacher if you have no experience, but it’s a good opportunity to model a growth mindset and learning along with your students. You could start by giving the option to a small group of advanced students and expand from there, or do one all together with the caveat that I always used, “I have no idea how this is going to go, but I love to learn new things even if it’s from my mistakes, don’t you?” Even if students design podcasts just for practice to begin with, there are so many useful skills students will learn such as researching, summarizing, outlining, and writing for an audience. Podcasts are just one of many great choices to give students when differentiating products so they can demonstrate learning (which my colleague, Amy Chandler, and I will be presenting at TCEA this year), so I encourage you to give it a try!

Link to Downloadable Poster Can Be Found in Teaching Podcasting: A Curriculum Guide for Educators