Big Ideas-Memory

One of Kaplan's concepts of Depth and Complexity is Big Idea. Many teachers see incorporating this simply as main idea-what was the main idea of a story, etc. I see it more as being able to explain big ideas-something that I think is a little more challenging. I read my kiddos one of my favorite stories:

And you can hear the story read aloud here: 

http://www.storylineonline.net/wilfrid-gordon-mcdonald-partridge/

The book is about a boy who lives next door to a nursing home and he goes from resident to resident asking them what a memory is. He gets different answers-a memory can make you happy, it can make you sad. So I asked the kids to put into words what a memory was--I was very specific that I didn't want them to just give me an example of a memory or write "a memory is something you remember". I wanted them to go deeper than that and describe it to me in their words. Here's what they came up with:

I love this answer! I have often wondered if I am remembering something like the first day of Kindergarten, or simply remembering the picture of it.

something you remember a long time ago

a thing you have to know

something you remember of ever that's how you remember

something you remember-when my dad got me a puppy

Veteran's Day Cards

I have a friend who delivers cards to the VA every year and I was asked to have my kiddos make some cards for the veterans. As you know, I am very much a believer in open-ended activties. So we learned about why we celebrate Veteran's Day and I asked them to simply draw something for the soldiers and write a message to them thanking them for their service.

Thank you for saving us in the whole wide world.

Adapt for Critical Thinking

I discovered S.C.A.M.P.E.R. several years ago and did not know where it had been hiding my whole life! :) I use it particularly when we are talking about holidays. If you are not familiar with it Terri over at Engage Their Minds does wonderful things with it and I believe even has some resources on TPT:  Superhero-s-c-a-m-p-e-r/

Well, we did some activities involving the tradition of Halloween. One of them was to adapt the holiday for various other locations. Yes, the traditions here involve dressing up in silly costumes and carving pumpkins. But what would they do say in the North Pole, or in Africa or in the ocean or in space. These activities really tend to wake up those brain cells-it's not easy for them to adjust what they know and apply it in a different way. Some of them even wrote "I would just not celebrate Halloween if I lived in the North Pole". But there were several kiddos who got it-remember these guys are Kindergarteners.

North Pole: make a giant snowball

Africa: Roll up the grass

Ocean: Roll up the sand

Space: Pick up Jupiter and roll up the gases

North Pole:  a snow statue

Africa: a dry pumpkin

Ocean: a pearl pumpkin (love this!)

Space:  a pumpkin rocket

North Pole: use snow to make pumpkins

Africa: use mud to make pumpkins

Ocean: use sand to make pumpkins

Space: carve a spaceship

North Pole: You can wear a Halloween coat

Africa: You could make some short sleeves

Ocean: Make a Halloween swimsuit

Space: make Halloween spacesuits

North Pole: decorate a polar bear

Africa: decorate with a broken house

Ocean: decorate with a dead fish (I know!)

Space: I would use shapes

                                                      Space: make a pumkin out of Pluto

My Annual Vocabulary Runway Show

I have a tradition in my classroom, we dress up on Halloween but we do something educational with it! I know, I know, I'm a Grinch! :) For the past few years I have assigned my kids vocabulary words. Some request silly words-zany, peculiar, disheveled. Some like the scary words like eerie. Some like the fancy words like dazzling, groovy and vibrant. They come in their costumes that day walk down a red carpet and present their little speech for their parents. Because this is our first presentation we keep their speeches short and sweet. "I am ancient. Ancient means very very old. Moms are ancient"-she wrote it herself! :) I love as we go throughout the year and I'm reading a story and say the word "peculiar" they all turn and say Johnny's word! 20 new words in their vernicular, just like that!

And nobody seems to mind learning something new on Halloween! :)

Inventing New Candy

So the top level of Bloom's now is Create. That is often a hard level to hit with what we do, especially with Kindergarteners. Our new chapter book that we are reading (a chapter per day) is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Being Halloween and all, I thought it was appropriate to ask the kiddos to invent a new kind of candy. Now, of course, I got answers like M&M's and Skittles (many Skittle rainbows, I think they'd be glad their ad campaign is working! :). Even though I stressed that we were inventing something new, some of their brains just have trouble going there yet. But we did get lots of good answers, I hope Willy Wonka isn't listening: