Mad Scientist "Sensory/Feel Boxes" For Halloween

I remember when I was in school my favorite thing that we did at Halloween parties were the "feel boxes".   So, I have made them a few times for Elijah's parties... Trying to pass on the memories, ya know?

Generally, I use the book There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Bat.  Which works great!

However, since I had already done that for him, I wanted to switch things up a bit this year.  I decided to do a mad scientist theme because he is SUPER into SCIENCE right now.   And I wrote a poem to go along with materials I already had for the most part.  

Here's the poem:

The mad scientist is crazy!

The mad scientist is a loon!

He tip-toes from beaker to beaker

In circles around the room.

Always checking concoctions

that bubble, fizz, and pop.

Shelves upon shelves of goodies

In cabinets from floor to top.

Sneak a peek inside?

You may not like what you will find

Some jars green and gooey

Filled with slime of the Ogre kind.

Dig around a little deeper

And three brown boxes you will see

Each labeled “Hazardous” or “Toxic”

To keep out you and me.

But fear not my little friend

It’s not as bad as all that

In box one you’ll find monster fur

And the wings of a bat.

Box two has a most unique surprise

Cold, slippery and thin

Just wiggly little worms 

Touch them and you will grin. 

Box three is last but not least

Reach in and you will be

Feeling something spectacular

The sharp points of werewolf teeth.

But you better be extra careful

Snooping around the room 

The mad scientist is crazy!

The mad scientist is a loon!

The  materials I used for each:

Ogre Slime- Mystery Matter: 2 cups Corn Starch, about one cup of water, 3-5 drops of green food coloring (Great for science lesson too! It exhibits characteristics of both a solid and a liquid depending on how you use it.)

Monster Fur- Cotton Balls, Pulled Apart

Bat Wings- Dried Apricots or Dried Apples

Worms- Cooked Spaghetti (cook it a long time... it will get very slimy)

Werewolf Teeth - Candy Corn
Another tip- wet wipe containers work well for the boxes! :)

This is an example of the labels that I used for the boxes.

* I'll post pictures tomorrow!! :-)

Scholastic Story Starters = WONDERFUL WRITING FUN!!

I just happened across this website called Scholastic Story Starters for our little thinkers in grades K-6.... AND IT IS WONDERFUL!  I can see this working well for parents or teachers.  

Here are some screenshots of possibilities.

Step One: Choose Genre.

Step Two: Name & Grade Level

Step Three: Spin for your prompt.

Step Four: Choose Format.

Step Five: WRITE, WRITE, WRITE.

Step SIX- Share your writing with your friends & family.

Six steps to a fun writing project at home or at school.  

Calling all SUPER HERO SCIENTISTS!

Okay, this is one of my favorite things! I cannot wait to do this lesson with our kiddos (and my son) on Saturday at The Center for Gifted Studies Super Saturday Class.  I am leaving this free for the first 20 downloads.  All I ask is that you either follow/share my blog or follow me on TPT.

I'll post pics of kids doing this activity later this week.

Enjoy!! :-)

Download this Unit FREE FOR THE FIRST 20 followers! :-)

Spelling, Spelling, Bo-Belling...

Ugh.  Spelling.
I ALWAYS hated spelling in school.
ALWAYS. (Period, end of sentence.)

Now, I watch my little thinker struggle with it.
(Yes, struggling is a part of being a little thinker.)
Little E. doesn't hate spelling.
He's got a good teacher that gives fun assignments.
Like go outside and write your spelling words with sidewalk chalk.
Where were the sidewalk chalk assignments in the 90's?

Anyway, we are always on the hunt for something we can do to keep spelling fun for Little E.
My husband uses this website with his class.
www.spellingcity.com
Some of this site is for "Pay" members only.
We don't do the pay parts.
There are lots of options that are free.

Check it out. :-)

All Children ARE Artist... (& Thinkers)

I love this.
I believe this.
But not necessarily limited to art.
All forms of creativity
Creative Play
Creative Writing
Creative Problem Solving
Creative Thinking
Innovation
Somewhere along the way
We begin to feel the need to be streamlined.
So the question is...
How do we foster it?
The answer won't be found in a box.
Or another brick in the wall.
Maybe the first step is awareness.
I believe this.
Do you?

*Image from lionheartedstuff.tumblr.com

It takes a village.

It takes a village to raise little thinkers. 
I'm thankful for my village. 


Joe had a stroke before he was born; so, he's learning to walk a little later than most  babies.

Which is hard because these fun little toys...

don't provide my sweet pea with enough support for balance.  I mean really, it basically looks like a lawn mower.  Think of the shape... How many people with mobility issues do you see walking with things like this?   That wasn't what my boy needed.

Then I was on pinterest and came across this toddler that was dressed as the old man from UP for Halloween. Low and behold, if that kid didn't have a tiny walker made from PVC pipe.

The great news is you an buy PVC walkers from medical/special needs companies... 

The bad news is they cost $300 or more.  

I'm luck to have a big thinker in my family.  

This guy...

I've got a pretty good big brother.  He looked at the picture and said he could make it. 

And make it he did!!  Look at those WKU Decals, Name & Shiny Red Paint!  

He loves it! :)

Even when he falls, he laughs.

*Thanks to Little E for anticipating the fall.  The pillows were his idea...such a good little thinker.

Wanna see Joe learning to walk with his shiny new walker?

"OOOOOKAY!"  Joe always says this when he is learning something new.  

You can hear it at the end.  :-)

Can you hear Little E cheering him on! He's a great big brother too. 

But you know the best thing about this walker?  

Joe feels so proud and independent when he's standing, holding on.  

It breaks his villagers hearts.  He calls it his "ishous" aka delicious. 

Grin on, sweet boy.  Your village is proud of ya too. 

Election Unit for Young (or Old) Big Thinkers!

Today's ago I got this idea for an election unit... So yesterday I spent A LOT of time creating it.  The good news is.... IT'S FREE FOR A SHORT TIME on my TPT store.  Please, check it out. Use it at home or school with your young thinkers.

When I made this pack I really was thinking at first that I would making it just for kids at school.  However, the more I thought about it I realized that it could work for families too.  Granted you may not go through every piece or have your young thinkers write down research but it would provide good talking points.

Please visit my TPT STORE for this item.

For Example:  Little E has always been into elections. (Last time around he was for "The Cain" often arguing with his dad who was for O-Rock.)  But this time he heard the part in the debate where Mitt Romney mentioned getting rid of Big Bird.  Since hearing that information he has made it his mission to bring awareness to this issue. (He tells EVERYONE!)  That really struck a cord with him.   So, we have conversations around the "Big Issues" as they relate to my six year old Little E.

I have left some of the big issue pages blank so young thinkers can write in their own big issues.  Our schema determines the issues that are important to us; therefore, it is interesting to find out what interests our kids.  Kids are never too young to learn about democracy... and more importantly KIDS are never to young to THINK about BIG IDEAS! :)

Election Math Fun!

This task is aligned to Common Core for grades K-2; however, it may work for other grade levels depending on the readiness level of your students.  Modeled from one of my favorite Van de Walle activities.  

Visit my TPT store for the Election Math Center. :)

Young Thinkers saying Thanks!

I think one of the most important things we can teach our young thinkers is to be thankful. Regardless of circumstances, there's always a reason to feel blessed.  I want my kids (children, nieces, nephews, students-anyone!)  to learn to say thankful.  Grand-Daddy John in our family is big on thank you cards. I must say, I have not always been the best at having my kids write them.  Even as a teacher I used to hand out paper and have kids write thank you notices (or drawings) to our guests.  But even then the process was often rushed.  Last night while browsing Pinterest, I stumbled across an app called Red Stamp that was featured on Momfilter.com 

I thought how perfect!
We can teach our little thinkers to be thankful ...
AND
How to write for an authentic audience..
WHILE
Using technology.  
(It is FREE!)

I took some screenshots on my phone of the process if you'd like to see a little of what you can do before you chose to download it.

The icon for the Red Stamp is the last app on this screenshot, white with red letters.  Just so you know what you're looking for after it downloads. 

This is what it looks like when you open it up.  There are pages and pages of categories to choose from.  I went with the thank you section because that's what my Little Thinker needed to write. But as you can see from this screenshot you can send anything from holiday cards to calendars.   

Once you've opened up your selection, you have EVEN MORE CHOICES!  You can select various categories along the top to narrow down the type of thank you (holiday/calendar/invitation) that you want to send.  

Think now that you've picked out your card you are done choosing, right?  Wrong.  If you look along the side of this screenshot you can see that you have many choices regarding font size and color.  This is nice because you can pick one that works well with your photo.  (Oh, and you don't have to send a photo-card but why not when you have such cute Little Thinkers to choose from?)

If this isn't the bees-knees I don't know what is.  You can take a photo, choose from your camera, instagram, or facebook.  How cool is that?  It's even got social media covered.  So if you have a facebook account for your family/class you probably already  have tons of pics to choose from.

There are even three filter choices for the photos.  I went with color on this one but the black and white & Sepia look nice too. :)

Now for the writing part.  Have a hard time knowing what to say?  Well if you click the speech bubble on the card, it will give you suggested phrases.  You can use this one or not.  We didn't use it because Little E knew what he wanted to say.  However, I wanted to share this feature.

Now your card is all finished you can decide how you want to share it with others.

If you want a more traditional approach you can even mail by post!  I'm not sure of the cost of this service though because I haven't actually done it.  We emailed our cards out.  

One super sweet thank you card from Little E, my oldest Little Thinker.  :)

Celebrating THINKERS, not KNOWERS (For Families and Teachers)

"Great job on that test."

"Jo is just perfect."

"You are so smart."

I used to say things like this with the best of intentions. I was building the kids self esteem, right?

When I first learned that saying these types of things to our young thinkers was wrong, it made me take a step back.  Why not?

The problem comes into play when students begin to think they need to know everything.   I tried to be careful of this when I was teaching by saying these types of things instead...

"Wow, you've learned a lot since the pretest."

"Jo you just made the best choice."

"You worked so hard studying that new material."

I wasn't always perfect, but I did try... at school anyway.  I felt pretty successful too.  

Until my four year old Little E said "Mama I am such a Knower."

Uh-oh.  While that good advice had translated over into teaching... It didn't make it to my  parenting skills.  I did tell Little E what a SMART boy he was he was ALL THE TIME!  

And what I created was a little monster.  He now thinks he KNOWS everything.  And what's worse than that he melts down when he doesn't KNOW something.  I'm starting to reverse this little monster thinking because it's not healthy for him.  

So just this morning a few minutes ago, I said "You're my good little thinker." 

He smiled his gapped tooth 6 year old grin and said,  "I know."  

He likes being a little thinker just as much as he likes being a knower. :)

Monster Mash Poetry

We do the Monster Mash...POETRY STYLE! :)   I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE teaching kiddos figurative language.  This mini-lesson pack has everything you need to work with your young thinkers on analyzing, writing, wondering, and reflecting on poetry with similes.    I'd love to give one of these packs away. Please follow my blog (and maybe share it with others) and I'll enter your name in the give away when I reach 25 followers!!

Oh, and this pack is aligned to Common Core for grades 1-3.

Monster Poetry Mini-Lessons on TPT

Happy Fall... Let's Make Inferences with POETRY!

I love writing, making inferences, and fall. So, I decided to put all of those things together into this Halloween/Fall Making Inferences model lesson.  It contains an original poem that I wrote for my own young thinker, "Little E".  He, like every child I have ever worked with LOVES silly poems.  This this one is right up his alley.

The poem is called "Knock, Knock- Don't Answer the Door!" and it includes a fall themed inference organizer.  I aligned this one to common core for grades 1-3 but it could be modified to work with other grade levels.  If anyone that has purchased this one sends me some pics of you doing this activity with your class, I'll give you an item of your choice from my store for FREE!  It would warm my heart to see other classes enjoying this activity! :)

Knock Knock Don't Answer the Door... Making Inferences on Teachers Pay Teachers

Want to read the poem? :)