When you can give students time to deeply discuss a text, you may be surprised by the connections and conclusions they make on their own. This is the purpose of “Hexagonal Learning.” You can read more about the origins and many uses of Hexagonal Learning in a blog post I wrote 4 years ago on the… Continue reading Hexagonal Learning with Tuck Everlasting
My 4th grade gifted class is learning about mathematical masterpieces, talking about the symbolism of the circle, and discussing immortality as we read Tuck Everlasting. I usually integrate a short project on mandalas as a culminating activity during this time of year, since their symbolism fits so well with the other facets of our study.… Continue reading 3d Printed Mandalas
As many schools begin to realize the need to integrate more STEM/STEAM into the curriculum, those of us in elementary education who may feel a bit inadequate when it comes to lofty fields like engineering sometimes have a hard time incorporating it into our lessons. Novel Engineering is a project that aims to show how engineering and… Continue reading Novel Engineering
I think that my brain naturally looks for trends. Whether it’s on social media, in Flipboard magazine articles, or at education conferences, if I’ve heard about something more than a few times, my brain starts alerting me that I should try something new, already! Newsela is one of those tools that kept turning up in educational discussions,… Continue reading Newsela
In my 4th grade GT class yesterday, we came to the part in Tuck Everlasting, by Natalie Babbitt, where Mae Tuck hits The Man in the Yellow Suit with the barrel of a shotgun. For those of you who have not read the story, The Man in the Yellow Suit learns the location of a… Continue reading Ethics, Tuck Everlasting, and the Trolley Car Dilemma
Update 4/11/2022: This poetry lesson, along with many others, appears in my Poetry Wakelet collection. Click here to find more free ideas! I don’t often repeat lessons from one year to the next. But this has been one of my favorites to use with my 4th grade GT students during my career. The only change… Continue reading Parallel Poetry
