Critical Thinkers

This morning we warmed up with the Spontaneous problem, "What do you need to Explore?"  and shared about some of our own recent discoveries.  We also hunted patterns in our Set game warm-up.

We focused today on qualities of critical thinkers.  We discovered that a critical thinker needs to...

• Be fair
• Be accurate
• Be clear
• Be relevant
• Be logical

We used videos from the Children's Guide to Critical Thinking to highlight different types of thinkers...

• Naive Nancy- Doesn't care about thinking, follows the crowd, takes the easy road
• Selfish Sam- Uses thinking to manipulate others and get his way
• Fair-minded Fran- Thinks to understand and solve problems, considers others

Students were able to take some notes and share examples that helped them realize the benefits of practicing critical thinking.

Our Habit of Mind focus was on Managing Impulsivity.  We read My Mouth is a Volcano by Julia Cook.  Students then practiced managing their impulsivity as they participated in a relay race to come up with the biggest list of good and bad examples of the skill.

Students also played high rollers to build and compare four digit numbers as an introduction to our place value unit.

We wrapped up by breaking in our brain stretcher packets and trying our hand at some analogy practice.

Meet the Nerds

This week we kicked off our morning routine of Morphic Thinking where students warm-up with a spontaneous problem and boundary breaker.  We will be including these weekly.

Spontaneous Problem: A spontaneous problem is a brainstorming type problem to be solved in a specific amount of time and scored according to the number and creativity of responses generated. The point is to challenge students to be flexible thinkers, to elaborate on original ideas and to think fluently and creatively about a specific topic.

Today's Spontaneous Problem: What could you find on the imaginary planet, Twinkle?

Boundary Breaker:  A boundary breaker is a group experience which works toward creating a sense of community. Students gain an awareness of and respect for the opinion of others by the use of questions that go beyond superficial depth and have no right/wrong answers.

Today's Boundary Breaker: What is thinking? Why is thinking important?

We also engaged more with our year-long theme, Exploration.  We read the book, Why Explore by Susan Lendroth and students brainstormed and discussed reasons why people explore and how there is an innate explorer in all of us.

Students were introduced to our math unit, Unraveling the Mystery of the Moli Stone, and completed a pre-assessment for on numeration and place value.

We finished by looking at the four components of creativity and our mascots, The Nerds, who encourage you to "feed your imagination".  We used flexibility to look at a doodle from many perspectives.  We used fluency as we brainstormed many ideas the doodle could become.  Then we narrowed it down to our most original idea.  Finally students added detail to elaborate on their picture.

Welcome!

We had a fantastic start today!  We were able to go over the ins and outs of ALERT and help students uncover what it means to be gifted.  We discussed the Gifted Child's Bill of Rights and looked at the bell curve to build understanding of their personal exceptionality in academic areas.

Students created some picture glyphs as a get to know you game and were able to share some of their favorite things and interests.

We also looked at Art Costas's Habits of Mind and discussed them as good practices for your brain to be successful.  After a quick introduction, students played Habits of Mind Bingo to become more familiar with them.  Most weeks we will focus on one particular habit with an activity that helps students begin to build that skill. 

Finally we searched the room for clues leading us to the "Key to Success"  this year in ALERT. Students solved codes and puzzles highlighting some of the things they will experience in our classroom through the course of the year.  They managed to beat the clock and uncover the hidden key: Curiosity!  Next week we will look more into our year-long theme of exploration.