Differentiate By Engaging!-Differentiated Kindergarten’s Bright Idea

For me, I’m always thinking about differentiating.  It’s always there in the front of my mind.  Somedays I think I do it better than other days, but everyday it’s what I’m aiming for . . . it’s my goal.  It’s often easy to get caught up with only the tiering aspect of differentiating.  But we have to remember that when we differentiate, we can do it in response to a student’s level of readiness, their learning profile or their interests. 

Lucky for teachers, it’s easy to engage students, to grab their interest and set the hook.  One of the ways I like to do this is by using engaging and interesting manipulatives to make otherwise mundane activities, fun!!!

How do I use them?  I use them in my sensory table where I then hide real and nonsense words on gold coins (i.e. old PTO carnival chips)  to be sorted and recorded.  

I use them as counters in math stations.  They work great as game pieces, or for weighing objects (how many Leprechaun gold nuggets does a pencil or crayon weigh). 

And they are super easy to make, just grab some dried chick peas, and some gold metallic spray paint.  Spread the chickpeas out on some tin foil (you might want to do this outside), give them a spray, wait a bit to mix them up and give them another spray to catch all the sides.

Easy! 

For effect, place them in a nice black pot!  I promise you, your kiddos are going to LOVE it.

Now for other Bright Ideas, click on Maria’s link below and follow this party to Kinder-Craze.  

Happy Hopping.