By Rachel Lynette
Minds in Bloom welcomes Krista Mahan of Teaching Momster. We know you’ll love her post on games in the classroom! Let’s take a look at two classrooms. In the first classroom, students are all sitting in their seats, taking a timed test. Some are already finished and doodling on the back of their page. Others are using their fingers to figure out an answer. A few are looking
Minds in Bloom is happy to present Terri Izatt from KinderKapers with a guest post on the game Fold the Line. We know you’ll love it! This is an exciting time of year as we are thinking about going back to school and getting to know a new batch of students. How do we build rapport with all these new little (or not-so-little) people?
Minds in Bloom is pleased to welcome Heather from HoJo’s Teaching Adventures! Check out her awesome video to learn about Magic Square Puzzles and what an awesome teaching tool they can be! Have you heard of Magic Square Puzzles? If not, then you are in for a real treat! These puzzles are extremely engaging for students. They work well to review concepts, to fill time
Brain Breaks are fun, of course, but I take them very seriously (in a good way!). Research has shown that kids need to move in order to keep focusing and learning. However, in my opinion moving should not be the only goal. While doing a few jumping Jacks or stretches may accomplish the goal of movement, it doesn’t do a whole lot else. A Brain
It’s hard to stay indoors during these last few days of spring before summer break, but you still have things to teach, and giving your students another recess is not going to fly with your administration. So why not take the learning outdoors? Here are some ideas for meaningful learning while getting your kids moving in the sunshine. For all of these, you will
I recently came across this awesome freebie from Literary Sherri. It will get your kids up and moving and can be used in so many different ways! Basically, you have your students form two circles, one inside the other with an equal number of kids in each one. The students on the inside face outward so that each one has a partner on the outside
If you have been doing this hop from the beginning, then you probably have a ton of great ideas by now! I hope that you will find this one useful, as well. You may think of Secret Student as being just for little kids, but it can be a powerful motivator for older students, as well. Think about the feeling you have just before
We all know how motivating games can be in the classroom. In this post Adrianne Meldrum of The Tutor House shares some great ideas for using file folders, as well as a Halloween freebie! Thank you to Rachel for inviting me to write here on Minds in Bloom. Ever since I stumbled upon Rachel two years ago, I’ve been ever amazed at the high quality posts here
Please welcome the talented Kristen of Aspire to Inspire! Today she shares a fun and engaging way to get students excited about social studies. Thanks for giving us so many great sites to go and explore, Kristen! I’m always on the lookout for engaging and authentic learning activities to encourage students’ interest in social studies and to help them understand its relevance in their lives. This
It’s fun, it’s easy, and it’s a great way to review. Just mix the BOOM! Cards in with another set of task cards and put them into a BOOM! bin. Players take turns drawing cards and answering them. They get to keep the cards they answer correctly. But if a player draws a BOOM! card, he must discard all of the cards he has collected.
For all you teachers (and parents) with iPads, I recently discovered a great app for reinforcing math facts. I am a big fan of making learning fun, and Mathtopia does just that. The game incorporates aspects of the popular arcade game Bejeweled, which not only makes it highly addictive (or as 9-year-old Claire says, “addictingly fun”), but it also adds a challenging element of logical thinking into
Looking for a new and fun way to use task cards with your students? Try the Kagan cooperative learning game Quiz, Quiz, Trade. One reason this game is popular with both kids and teachers is that it gets your students up and moving. Not only that but you can also use it to review pretty much any subject. Here is how to play: Select a
Counting coins, making change, and solving money word problems are all important skills. Here are some ideas to help you teach them! Counting Coins First off, manipulatives are the way to go, ideally real coins and “play” dollars, but the plastic version is okay. It is fun and satisfying to handle real money, and it echoes real life. This cannot be said for pictures of coins on
Eye love teaching homophones! Their are sew many fun activities, and as wee all no, it is an important skill four students two learn inn order too right correctly and meat Common Core Standards. Hear are sum ideas: Create Double Homophone Sentences My third graders had a ball with these. The challenge is to put both homophones into one sentence: Can you see the birds
It is getting to that time of year again so I decided to put my own spin on an old favorite. I am sure you have seen this BINGO style Get-to-Know-You activity before. I love the activity, but I found that many of the ones available are not all that visually appealing. Further, many are specific to a geographical region or are focused on student
This game is perfect for the whole class and is great for this time of year, because your students will be moving most of the time. Here is What You Need: One set of multiple choice task cards with enough cards so that each student can have one card Prize globes, plastic eggs, snack-sized storage container, or other fun container Signs for the answer choices (A,
