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Critical Thinking Journal

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Critical Thinking Daily Brain Busters | Enrichment Activities | Morning Work
$9.99
Are you looking for the BEST way to promote critical thinking in your upper elementary students? Want to enrich and extend your day, or even add morning work to your daily routine? If so, these Critical Thinking Brain Busters are the resource you need in your classroom! Help your students increase their logical reasoning in…

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I am a HUGE proponent of creating interactive anch

I am a HUGE proponent of creating interactive anchor charts with your class, and these anchor chart templates ALWAYS come in handy!

💥 Need dozens of anchor chart templates to help you with your lesson planning? Comment CHARTS below, and I’ll send the links your way!! 💥

Now, let’s talk anchor charts… 👇

📝 I 💯 believe anchor charts should be made WITH students, but that doesn’t mean you’re winging the content, so I often print a template as a guide for my teaching.

👉Then, I print them in quarter page size to add to reference rings since wall space is at a minimum and most charts can’t stay up all year! Some years, kids have their own reference rings and others we have class reference rings for students to use!

💡 Use in Notebooks: Create the chart with your students but have them glue a template into their notebooks for later reference and annotation.

⛔️ 🔥 Every year, I set the expectation from

⛔️ 🔥 Every year, I set the expectation from day one that saying “I don’t get it” isn’t an option. Is it okay to not understand something? 100000% YES! 💯

Can we equip students with strategies for this circumstance so it doesn’t become a roadblock? 🚧 Yeeeeeessss!!

💬 I use the book Avocado Asks to teach about questioning, and then we create this chart to hang in our room ALL year. It gives students ownership over how they communicate when they have questions or misunderstandings, and it is phenomenal to see how the kids begin to utilize it.

✏️ We are implementing 7 Steps to a Language-Rich classroom, and the top section of this chart comes directly from it. I added the tricky problem sentences to help students have clear strategies and stems for tackling things they’re unsure of.

P.S. Anchor charts don’t have to be fancy to be impactful, but they do need to be referenced regularly. 😉

✅✅✅Time saving hack they don’t teach us in

✅✅✅Time saving hack they don’t teach us in school 😂😂 Do you agree, or do you cut, laminate, cut? Weigh in! ⬇️

I LOVE using enrichment binders for my gifted and/

I LOVE using enrichment binders for my gifted and/or high-achieving students. Want to see all the resources inside as we start the school year? Drop a comment with the word “enrichment” and I’ll send you a ton of info with all the details! 💥

Now… why enrichment binders? 🧐 Is this just more busy work? 🙅‍♀️ ❌ Absolutely not!!

❇️ While everything inside can be used with most students in any classroom, I often use then with my GT or high achieving students.

✨ I’m a firm believer that students who have mastered material should have DIFFERENT work, not just MORE work.

🤔 That means when students have shown mastery of a skill, we don’t need to make them do more of the same — Instead, we need to have something MEANINGFUL ready for them that either advanced or enriches their learning and thinking! While that is oftentimes a differentiated task related to the topic at hand, if we’re being realistic, that can be a TON of extra work for teachers to manage all day every day.

💡 That’s where enrichment binders come in! In combination with differentiated class work and appropriate enrichment programs, the content inside is rigorous and meaningful and will challenge and advance them academically while still remaining SUPER engaging.

📅 I update enrichment binders as needed, based on current skills, goals, and needs!

💥 Comment below, and I’ll send you our current line up!

Not a single one is necessary, but I have LOVED ad

Not a single one is necessary, but I have LOVED adding little touches to my room over the years. Here are a few of my favorites! 💖🥰 See anything you’d love to add to your classroom? Comment the word CLASSROOM, and I’ll send links your way!

🎶 A tongue drum to use as a soothing attention-getter and signal to students.

🤩 Koosh Balls for student speakers — whoever has the ball has the floor! I use this all the time for morning meeting.

🧩 Giant Rubik’s Cube because my students are positively OBSESSED with Rubik’s cubes.

🧠 A giant squishy brain ball to toss back and forth during discussions.

🎩 A bin of hats for use when using Six Hat Thinking

💯 Pop It Hundreds Charts for mental math and other math mystery number activities.

🧠 A jar full of stress ball brains for random rewards, fidgeting, kiss your brain moments, etc.

The Day You Begin is one of the best children’s

The Day You Begin is one of the best children’s books I’ve ever read, and I incorporate it into my first few weeks of school every year. ✨ It’s a PERFECT morning meeting activity and super easy to prep! ❤️💖

After we read it at the beginning of the year, the kids write down (anonymously) things that make them unique. Then, we go through and read the sticky notes out loud. If there are kids who had something in common, we place a heart next to the sticky note.

Swipe to see a completed chart from a previous year and to see the last page of the book, which is what inspired me to create this activity. ✨

I saw some sweet little eyes light up when they realized they had more in common with others than they thought!

Posting the standards of mathematical practice in

Posting the standards of mathematical practice in kid-friendly language — Very demure. Very mindful. 🫣😅😍 Drop a comment below, and I’ll send you a link to download them for free!

Who is a morning meeting/Responsive Classroom fan?

Who is a morning meeting/Responsive Classroom fan?! 🤚 Me!!!

This is one of my FAVORITE morning meeting activities and so easy to implement! I HIGHLY recommend it as a back to school activity, too! ✨ Here’s how it works:

”I pulled out a ton of picture books and displayed them all. I asked my students to peruse the titles and covers and choose one that represented either how they were feeling or something about them. They were NOT choosing a book to read or that looked interesting but a book cover and title that related to them in some way.

I almost teared up multiple times hearing them share why they shared their book covers. Not because they were sad reasons but because of how thoughtful and insightful they were. I was BLOWN AWAY and immediately added this to my list of must-do activities on a regular basis!!”

💖💖💖

As a specialist, how do I incorporate morning meeting? Every week, I gather all of my GT students by grade level and hold a special morning meeting. Gifted students have some very unique social and emotional needs, and this is a great time to address them in a comfortable environment.

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