Crypt-O-Words
Crypt-O-Words from Donna Lasher are a new way to teach and reinforce vocabulary for students who need enrichment and/or love a challenge!
Vocabulary
Reflecting with Hexagons
I think that the deepest discussions I ever hear in my classroom happen when we do Hexagonal Thinking. If you haven’t heard of this strategy, I explain how I use it with my 4th graders in this blog post. Last year, I did a post on using Hexagonal Thinking to reflect on the school year. … Read more
Common Ground
According to its website, ” ‘Common Ground‘ is a collaborative kinetic art installation about connecting America through creativity and problem solving.” The result is a video that shows 5 Rube Goldberg reactions created in 5 different locations across the country. Each one “triggers” the one that follows. (I particularly liked the “Women in Stem” portion … Read more
Word Sift
Larry Ferlazzo recently published a post on his blog about a site called Word Sift. I decided to try it out with a text that I am reading to my 5th grade students, hoping to give it more meaning. We just finished reading The Giver together, and Lois Lowry’s Newbery Acceptance speech for the honor received by … Read more
Thing Explainer
Randall Munroe was first brought to my attention when a parent directed to me to his fun website, xkcd.com. One of my favorite Randall Munroe comics is “Up Goer Five,” a diagram of the Saturn V explained in simple language. The best part, in my opinion, is at the bottom where it says, “This end should … Read more
My Brainpop
One of the booths I visited at the massive ISTE expo this week was the Brainpop booth. I got my picture taken with Moby, the famous Brainpop “mascot”, but, trust me, you don’t want to see it. This one is much better (Moby is on your right): I haven’t shared a lot about Brainpop on … Read more