Using Popsicle Puzzles as a Research Activity

Check out this creative idea posted last month on Sciencenotebooking.  Popsicle puzzles are a common craft idea for kids, but have you ever thought to use them in the classroom?  The blogger did just that, and she's graciously posted a few videos to walk you through performing this activity with your own class.


A popsicle puzzle can be used for any sort of short-term research activity.  Her example uses a short report on an animal, but you could also do this for geography (assign students their own state, country or location to research), or history (historical figures, ancient cultures, artifacts, events, etc), science (scientific discoveries, processes, etc), and almost anything else you can imagine.


I like this activity because it combines lots of good things:  research, writing, technology (students have to type the information that appears on their puzzles, and find or illustrate a good picture), and hands-on/visual learning with creating and reconstructing the craft.


I also love her suggestion to have students mix up their sticks, place them in a labeled plastic baggy, and then rotate to one another's desk to reassemble others' puzzles and read the information on the back.  Have them jot down one or two interesting facts about each other's puzzles, or compose your own assessment activity.

Watch the example videos:

Classroom Management: Make Your Own Scratch-Off Tickets

Look at this awesome tool for classroom rewards I found on ArtMind.  The blogger shows you how to create handmade scratch off lottery tickets and I think it would be a great way to implement the use of the mystery motivators discussed earlier.  Little more is needed for these than soap, paint and contact paper.


You can print words or a symbol to represent the classroom reward (for instance, a sun to represent recess, or popcorn to represent a movie, etc).  You can fill an entire card with a symbol in each box and, on good days, have a representative scratch off a random box to see what that day's reward will be.


Or you can use the technique from The Tough Kid Toolbox:  Make a lottery ticket with spaces for each day of the week.  Hide a reward on one or two of the boxes.  On great behavior days, decide that students can receive the reward in that day's box.  A representative can scratch it off the day's space and see if the reward is won that day.  If not, keep encouraging them to continue their good behavior because a reward is imminent.  


On poor behavior days, you can scratch it off to reveal if students missed an opportunity for a reward.  This can help if you're trying to help reinforce particular behaviors with the entire class.  The book suggests adding two "reward days" in a row occasionally because students can begin to anticipate that, if there was already a reward scratched off that week, they're in the clear and no other rewards are available for good behavior.  Surprise them!  Perhaps if the lotto ticket reveals a reward they missed, that will help keep them accountable for their behavior.


Here are a few other ideas related to scratch off tickets in the classroom:

• use them for behavior intervention called "Response-Cost" Lottery
• use them for review activities, to hide and reveal answers and predictions
• use them as a homework incentive

Have fun with these!  How else could you use scratch-offs in the classroom?

Moon-Gazing Flip Book (Free and Printable!)

You guys seem to like "free, printable activities," and I have another one for you:


Remember that moon-gazing activity for young students I posted a few months back?  Here is another version of the same activity.  Ology provides a printable flip book for students to record and illustrate their observations about moon phases for one month.  It's a pretty simple activity, and attention to detail will result in a nice, handy depiction of how the moon changes over the course of one month.  There is also room in the flip book for make comments and notes about what they see.  

image: microsoft

Live WordGirl Vocabulary Competition

From Facebook:


Register your class for the 2012 WordGirl Definition Competition, which takes place via live webcast.  The site explains:

The Definition Competition will consist of three short rounds plus a bonus round. In a game-show setting, students will put their vocabulary skills in practice as they are asked questions pertaining to word usage, definitions, using words in different contexts and reading comprehension. Your class will play along, in real-time, by submitting answers online during the webcast—and may be called out during the event! Plus, by registering for the Definition Competition, your class and school will automatically be entered into the WordGirl Definition Competition Sweepstakes for a chance to win books and WordGirl prizes! 

The competition is May 1, but register now to receive a kit to help your class practice.  Here are the official rules.  Good luck!

Education in the Media: "Brooklyn Castle" Documentary

Check out the trailer for this film, which premiered at the SXSW film festival, about how education cuts affected a championship-winning chess team at an urban, public school in NYC.


Brooklyn Castle Trailer from Rescued Media on Vimeo.

Writing Activities: "Swamps of Sleethe" (Poetry)

If you haven't ventured to the Swamps of Sleethe, you may be missing out on an excellent opportunity for writing lessons and activities.  This picture book by renowned author Jack Prelutsky touts itself as "Poems from Beyond the Solar System."  It's a perfect accompaniment to science lessons about space and poetry activities.  The book is a 2009 Parent's Choice Silver Honor Book, and it really is a delightful read aloud (be prepared for a mouthful!).

The book can help students learn about alliteration and figurative language as they journey through space to imaginary locations.  Dangers lurk in every corner of the undiscovered reaches of the galaxy:  there are the murky swamps of Sleethe that hide "abhorrent" creatures, the icy discomfort of Drifig Prime (where visitors must beware lest they freeze), and the inhabitants of Gazook like to consume children in their chowder!  There are 19 poems in all, describing different places that present different dangers to the reader. They are fun to read, like tongue-twisting Dr. Seuss stories, as they warn the readers of various perils of planets beyond our solar system.  There is good reason to use the book for vocabulary practice as well; words like "expire," "unabated," "mucid," and "eviscerate" are throughout the book.  The author cleverly disguised certain locations by making them anagrams, and provided answers in the back of the book.  Can you guess why a cold planet might be named DRIFIG Prime?

After reading this book, I would assign students to design a poem and illustration in the style of Swamps of Sleethe, but focused on a planet in our solar system.  Or, they could make up their own planet and use an anagram to disguise its name.  I think students would have fun being creative modeling their poems after Prelutsky's.  They could describe the physical characteristics of their planet by making them sound dangerous and threatening, like the places in the picture book.  They could even make up alien inhabitants, like those of Gazook.  

Random House's Teacher's Guide contains a crossword and visualization activity that may also be useful for this book.

Fostering Independent Learners:

One of the biggest issues I have subbing is keeping kids on task while they work.  Students aren't necessarily playing, but they sometimes have a hard time FOCUSING just after they get an assignment.  One of my pet peeves is when students wait to ask a question before they even try to tackle an assignment. Several times, I see a swarm of hands and bodies asking me questions about 5 seconds after the papers are handed out.  I can stand helping one student and look up to see several others at their seat, staring off into space with their hand raised limply over their heads.  They won't even try unless I'm next to them "helping" (or coaxing).  I can't stand it because it wastes so much time and reinforces their laziness.


That's why I was intrigued by a classroom management technique I found in Every Teacher's Guide To Class Management .  It refers to a "sweeping" process we all know as circulating around the room while students work.  But the book's idea of "sweeping" helps students know exactly what you want to see them doing, and it helps train them to persevere while they wait for you to help them.


As the book describes, "sweeping" should go like this:  when you assign seatwork, let them know exactly what you want to see as soon as they get started.  For instance,  "I am passing out your worksheet now.  I need to see three things as I come around:  a sharpened pencil, your history book opened to page 74, and you silently reading."  For some classrooms, it may be a good idea to write the "initial sweep tasks" on the board so they can see it, or have them repeat them.


Let them know that's all you want to see.  There shouldn't be movement or noise beyond accomplishing those three things, and that including hand-raising or getting up to ask you a question.  Your initial "sweep" or rotation around the room should praise students who followed directions.  Anyone who is up asking questions or has their hand up should be ignored.


Your next sweep should check for them to have accomplished small, manageable tasks.  They've gotten started, but now you want to see them in a productive, thinking mode.  For instance,  "I now want to come around and see your worksheet with your name and the date on it, and to see that you've attempted to answer the first question."  This sweep is designed to get them on task, focused on working and not relying on you or others for help or answers.  The first few questions are usually easiest, so they can at least attempt to answer them.  You're not looking for accuracy, so just make a mental note to come back to students who appear to be having trouble.  But even a kid who has no idea what they're doing should be able to get their name on their paper.  If anyone has a question with the first problem, or any subsequent problems, your explicit instruction should be to tell them to keep going.  Skip it and come back.  Move on.  Don't stop.  (You may also want to tell them you want to see evidence that they've made an attempt themselves, depending on the assignment.  Have they written out a problem and parts of a solution for a math question?  Have they highlighted important information in a text?  Have they at least located key words or made a guess?  You may have to tell them, "I'll only help once I see ____ for this problem."  It's helpful to have prompt questions posted around the room to help students work autonomously when they run into a question, so they can learn to think through their difficulties themselves.)  Students who are sitting with their hands raised waiting for you to approach their desk are not following directions and should, again, be ignored.


After this second sweep, you can then make it known that you are coming to now respond to questions.  Make it a point to first follow-up with students you noted following directions during your initial sweeps.  The book recommends prompting the students who have questions, helping them by pointing them in the right direction, and then moving on to the next person.  No lingering with one student.  Again, the goal is to get them focused and autonomous, not dependent upon the teacher's help.


I really like this method and I will try to implement it myself.  This will keep students seated and focused on working, which will do wonders for classroom management.  More importantly, I think it will help make students true problem solvers.

image:  microsoft