Today I’m teaming up with a slew of other great bloggers to bring you a bunch of fabulous Bright Ideas.
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.
Love this idea!! On my to do list: buy gold spray paint and chick peas!
Terri Izatt
KinderKapers
Very cute idea!
Jennifer
First Grade Blue SKies
I never would’ve guessed what those were if you hadn’t told us! What a great, simple way to engage students. Thanks for sharing!
Jenny
Luckeyfrog’s Lilypad
Always, always love your ideas! Now I have a reason to buy chick peas! : )
Laura
Peace, Love, and First Grade
What a great idea!
Christina 🙂
Apples, Books, and Crayons
applesbooksandcrayons@gmail.com
Adorbs!
Seusstastic Classroom Inspirations
I love this!!! My husband thank you because I just bought two bags of dried chickpeas with the intent to cook them, but now I am headed to the store for spray paint instead! 🙂
Tiffany
KTeacherTiff
*thanks 😉
You’re welcome Tiffany. And thanks for the laugh out loud. It sounds like something my husband would say.
Marsha
I love this!!! My 2nd graders love any type of manipulatives and I can’t wait to do this at home with my own littles!!! We are working on letters right now and you have inspired me to let them dig for the letters we are working on in a pot of gold!!! They are going to be so excited!
Lisen
This is great!!! Can’t wait to make them myself!! Thanks for sharing…
Melissa
Keep Calm and Love First Grade
I love this. I agree that this keeps them engaged and interested. I would love to find out about the different manipulatives you use throughout the year such as above, especially when they don’t break the bank:) . These ideas blow my mind and I love seeing a new blog post from you in my inbox. Thanks so much!
Love the idea! 🙂
Kindergarten Malaysia