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Browse tic tac toe behavior board resources on Teachers Pay Teachers, a marketplace trusted by millions of teachers for original educational resources.

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Open Tic-Tac-Toe board - "Tic-Tac-Toe-Show-What-You-Know". 

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Open Tic-Tac-Toe board - "Tic-Tac-Toe-Show-What-You-Know". 

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This video has some great ideas - however if you just want to watch this strategy - stop at about 4 minutes.

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4 Tips to Boost Student Engagement When Teaching Math

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Brief Description

Students win Xs and Os as they review knowledge and reinforce skills.

Objectives

Students will

Subjects

practice a variety of skills.

follow the rules of the game.

play with courtesy and fairness.

game, review, tic-tac-toe, reinforcement, skill

Materials Needed

teacher-prepared game board/sheet

Lesson Plan

Draw a tic-tac-toe grid on a board or chart paper. Choose a topic/subject for the game (for example, solving money math problems, find the grammar error, or identify the country capital).

Arrange the class into two teams; Xs and Os. Flip a coin to see which team will go first. For example, it the X team wins the toss, pose a question to a student on that team. If the student on the X team answers correctly, he or she places an X on the grid. If the student answers incorrectly, the O team does not automatically get to put an O in that square. To earn an O, a member of the O team must correctly answer the question. If the O player answers correctly, his or her team puts an O in the square and earns the first chance to respond to the next question. If the O team answers the next question correctly, they get to place another O; if the answer is incorrect, the question is posed to the X team.

Keep track of how many games each team wins.

Tic-tac-toe can be adapted for reinforcing and reviewing a wide variety of skills.

Alternative Idea
Write a different topic in each square on the tic-tac-toe game board, so students can choose squares on the topics that most interest them most.

Assessment

End the activity with a quiz that includes ten of the questions posed in the game. Each student should correctly answer at least 8 of the 10 questions.

Lesson Plan Source

Education World

Submitted By

Gary Hopkins

National Standards

The game can be adapted to support a wide variety of national standards.

Find more fun learning game ideas in the following Education World resources:

Click here to return to this week's Learning Games lesson plan page.

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Brief Description Students win Xs and Os as they review knowledge and reinforce skills. Objectives Students will Subjects practice a variety of skills. follow the rules of the game. play with courtesy and fairness. game, review, tic-tac-toe, reinforcement, skill Materials Needed teacher-prepared game board/sheet Lesson Plan Draw a tic-tac-toe grid on a board or chart paper.

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Tic-Tac-Toe Review with a Kinesthetic Twist

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Tic-Tac-Toe Review with a Kinesthetic Twist

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That is a thought that I continually have after every Sunday. There have been times when I look out to the class and it feels as if nobody is paying attention to anything I am saying. I want so badly for our message to connect and become a part of those in our class.

There has to be a better way to recap our lessons but also do it in a way that our class will enjoy it. I have long since held to the belief that if class is fun, the students will not only be more engaged, but they will retain more. I also do not want to just fill time for the sake of filling time. I feel like our class will just see through that and mentally tap out.

I decided we would try a game of tic-tac-toe but with a spin.

Option 1: Small to Medium Size Class
The first variation involved drawing a large grid on a marker board and picking up a few suction cup balls. We made the grid on the board as big as possible and numbered each square on the board. The entire class was split into two teams. Every person got the chance to take the suction cup ball and toss it up on the board. Once they tossed the ball, we would see what number on the grid it was and then ask that team a question. The questions primarily centered around the current week's lesson, but also covered some of the previous weeks. The goal was to use the questions to help reiterate some of the main points from the series. If the team got the question correct, they could mark the spot on the board with an X or O.

Option 2: Larger Size Class
Using the same idea as above, we made a few modifications. To begin with, we have the space in our room to branch out, so that is what we did, by moving a few tables. When tossing the suction cup balls to the marker board, I noticed that some in the class were not comfortable walking up and tossing the ball. Some were not physically able. To make this game more accessible for everyone, we used painter's tape (because I forgot the bright-colored duct tape at home) to make a grid on the ground. I bought a set of sandbag tic-tac-toe bags which was $39.99 from Amazon. This larger visual gave everyone more space to work and also made it a little easier to see as well. Since the grid is not numbered on the floor, I wrote numbers on paper, folded them, and put them in a box. One person from the team would take their turn to draw a number. I would ask the corresponding question to the number that was drawn.

Option 3: Small Class
You don't need a marker board or a large tic-tac-toe grid on the ground. You can simply use a sheet of paper and play tic-tac-toe together using the same steps as the options above.
Volunteer Roles
Playing games like this is not only a great way to get everyone involved, have fun, and recap the lesson, but it is also a great way to pull volunteers into the mix. You can assign roles to volunteers to ask questions, keep track of who is winning, set up and take down the tic-tac-toe grid, etc. If you have someone in class who does not want to play the game, invite them to take charge as a leader and help facilitate gameplay.

When you are preparing your lesson for the week, creating the questions to use takes little to no time at all. It is a good idea to have answers printed on your question sheet, especially when it comes to answers that come directly from scripture. I prefer to have the verse handy on my paper so that I can read it after the question is answered.

With our class, it took about 15, maybe 20 minutes to play one round, which worked out perfectly for our group. We have now played this game several times and each time, we find that there is more and more involvement. To mix up the questions even more, I have also pulled trivia questions in. The best part about all of this is that it is easily repeatable. Each week the questions are new and will work with any curriculum series.

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Tic-Tac-Toe: Fun Game to Add to Your Class - Ability Ministry

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"Does anyone remember anything we are teaching?" That is a thought that I continually have after every Sunday. There have been times when I look out to th

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Aronson, E. (2000-2008). Jigsaw Classroom: Overview of the technique .

Aronson, E., & Goode, E. (1980). Training teachers to implement jigsaw learning: A manual for teachers. In S. Sharan, P. Hare, C. Webb, and R. Hertz-Lazarowitz (Eds.), Cooperation in Education (pp. 47-81). Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press.

Aronson, E., & Patnoe, S. (1997). The jigsaw classroom: Building cooperation in the classroom (2nd ed.). New York: Addison Wesley Longman.

Clarke, J. (1994). Pieces of the puzzle: The jigsaw method. In S. Sharan (Ed.), Handbook of cooperative learning methods. Westport CT: Greenwood Press.

Colorín Colorado. (2007). Cooperative Learning Strategies.

Crone, T. S., & Portillo, M. C. (2013). Jigsaw variations and attitudes about learning and the self in cognitive psychology. Teaching of Psychology, 40(3), 246-251. https://doi.org/10.1177/0098628313487451

Hattie, J. (2017). 256 influences related to achievement. Visible Learning .

Law, Y.-K. (2011). The effects of cooperative learning on enhancing Hong Kong fifth graders' achievement goals, autonomous motivation and reading proficiency. Journal of Research in Reading, 34(4), 402-425. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9817.2010.01445.x

Moreno, R. (2009). Constructing knowledge with an agent-based instructional program: A comparison of cooperative and individual meaning making. Learning and Instruction, 19(5), 433-444. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2009.02.018

Moskowitz, J. M., Malvin, J. H., Schaeffer, G. A., & Schaps, E. (1985). Evaluation of jigsaw, a cooperative learning technique. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 10(2), 104-112. https://doi.org/10.1016/0361-476X(85)90011-6

Slavin, R. E. (1980). Cooperative learning in teams: State of the art. Educational Psychologist, 15, 93-111.

Slavin, R. E. (1995). Cooperative learning: Theory, research, and practice (2nd ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Tierney, R. (1995) Reading Strategies and Practices. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Stanczak, A., Darnon, C., Robert, A., Demolliens, M., Sanrey, C., Bressoux, P., Huguet, P., Buchs, C., Butera, F., & PROFAN Consortium. (2022). Do jigsaw classrooms improve learning outcomes? Five experiments and an internal meta-analysis. Journal of Educational Psychology, 114(6), 1461-1476.

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Jigsaw is a cooperative learning strategy that enables each student of a "home" group to specialize in one aspect of a topic (for example, one group studies habitats of rainforest animals, another group studies predators of rainforest animals).

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AnswerGarden is a new minimalistic brainstorm tool for online brainstorming, real time audience participation and classroom feedback.

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Instant, affordable classroom response system that replaces expensive clickers. Works over the web and SMS.

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For Remote or In-Person Classrooms

Factile is a free learning platform that lets teachers create engaging jeopardy-style quiz games for the remote or in-person classroom

Assess students' understanding of new topics or review the latest concepts using our simple, user-friendly gameboard template. Create and share your games with students, or search our database of already-created games. Use Factile with Google Classroom to easily assign games and flashcards to your class.
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Classroom Jeopardy Review Game | Buzzer Mode | Factile

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Create your own Jeopardy template online without PowerPoint, or browse the pre-made templates to play Jeopardy-style classroom games or quizzes in minutes.

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Wakelet | The All In One Content Platform

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Wakelet allows you to bookmark, organize, collaborate and present on content all in one platform. Harness your content to build remarkable things.

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Howdy! I am Mr. Greg from The Kindergarten Smorgasboard. My real name is Greg Smedley-Warren. I have been teaching for 11 years. I spent a year teaching fifth grade, two years in second grade and am now in my 9th year in Kindergarten. Kindergarten is my passion and my calling but honestly, that wasn't how it started.

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Purpose: Flashcards can be used to provide students with additional practice or additional challenge. They can be used individually or in groups. Please see the list below for more ideas on how to use them for varied purposes.

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I am so excited to launch my first "series" of blog posts! It's making me feel all grown-up and blogger-like 🙂

My first series is going to be on increasing student engagement in the classroom. Over the next several weeks, I'll share with you some strategies that I've found really increase student focus and motivation. At this point in my career, I feel like these are pretty sure-fire. When I see kids zoning out - or even ( gasp!) dozing off, when I have a lesson that I need every kid to really understand, or when an administrator walks into the room and I want to "WOW!" them, these are the activities that I use!
The Graffiti Wall
The first strategy is something that I call the "Graffiti Wall," but I've seen it called all sorts of other things on the Internets.

Basically, you put large pieces of paper around the room with questions or prompts, and have the students travel in small groups and respond to them. (On this day, I was getting ready to introduce a new unit in our anthology, so all the questions/prompts reflected the big themes of the unit.)

As the kids travel, and the paper starts to fill up, they can begin responding not only to the question/prompt, but also to the comments written by their peers.

After every group has had a chance to write on each paper, bring students back to their seats and use their responses to generate a class discussion.

I love Graffiti Wall because it gives kids time to think-out and talk-through their ideas. In teacher-lingo: it gives them processing time. Don't we all function better with adequate processing time? Isn't our thinking better/clearer/"smarter" after we've had time to talk it out? Of course it is!

Have you ever tried Graffiti Wall? Would you ever? I'd love to hear your thoughts on this strategy!!

Happy Teaching!!

For each strategy, I plan on making a reminder card for teachers to print out and keep handy. After this series is over, you'll have a stash of strategies on hand to bust out whenever you need them!

Check out all five of the posts in this series:

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Strategy #1 - The Graffiti Wall (Engagement Strategies Series)

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I am so excited to launch my first "series" of blog posts! It's making me feel all grown-up and blogger-like :)My first series is going to be on increasing student engagement in the classroom. Over

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Snowball Technique - A Teaching Strategy - Book Units Teacher

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The Snowball Technique is a teaching method which allows students to teach each other important concepts and information.

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To create a more structured mingle, the teacher can monitor the time for each interaction. After a set amount of time to share questions in pairs, music can be played. Students should move around the classroom. When the music stops, students find a new partner standing near them.

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Although this strategy is often used for team building or debate, it can be easily adapted in several ways to help students compare and contrast. As an added bonus, it makes for an engaging lesson and it gets students up and moving.

For an even more active and exciting version of this activity, check how to compare and contrast with a classroom snowball fight!

Teacher Prepares Statements

This adaptation of Four Corners requires a little more prep but is a valuable assessment tool. For this adaptation, different statements on the topic students will be comparing and contrasting must be prepared ahead of time.

For this adaptation, if you are wanting to have students compare and contrast tornados and hurricanes, you could post the following on signs in the different corners:
Corner 1: Tornados
Corner 2: Hurricanes
Corner 3: Tornados AND Hurricanes
Corner 4: Neither Tornados or Hurricanes

Then, give each student one of the prepared statements that relates to hurricanes and tornados. For example, "These storms usually form over water." The student with this statement would stand in the "Hurricane" Corner. Other students would go to different corners based on their statement.

After checking to make sure students are in the correct corners, give students a different statement and have them repeat the activity.

Student Discussion

In this adaptation, students write down the statements that will be sorted so you don't have to!

Just as before, post different signs in each of the 4 corners. Then, ask students to write down a statement that relates to one of the 4 corners.

After every students has written a statement, collect all of the statements. Then, pass them out so that each student gets somebody else's statement.

Students then take their statement to the correct corner, where you can easily assess.

There are several potential problems that might arise if you do this adaptation. For one, the statements might not be evenly distributed between the 4 corners - most of the students might choose to write a statement about tornados, for example, leaving other corners mostly empty.

Also, it might be difficult for students to read other student's statements if they use bad spelling or handwriting.

Students Prepare Statements

This adaptation of Four Corners requires minimal prep and encourages student discussion.

Post the signs in the 4 Corners of the classroom as before. Then, have students choose a corner and go stand in the corner (or assign corners to students).

While in their corner, have students discuss the topic on their sign. If they are in the "Tornado" corner, then students should discuss things that are true for Tornadoes, but not hurricanes.

If you would like to include some sort of written assessment with this activity, then have each student write down a list of the things discussed in their corner, or have each corner create a poster and share it with the rest of the class.

These Four Corners adaptations can be used to compare and contrast virtually anything. Have students compare and contrast characters, fairy tales, texts written by the same author, famous people, animals, and more!

Never Stress Over Sub Plans Again!

compare and contrast movement

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Although this strategy is often used for team building or debate, it can be easily adapted in several ways to help students compare and contrast. As an added bonus, it makes for an engaging lesson and it gets students up and moving.

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Direct Instruction receives a powerful visual and motor cortex amplification with the Brain Engager, Mirror Words.

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Whole Brain Teaching: Teach! Okay! and Switch!

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Teach! Okay! is a fabulous way to reinforce concepts and ideas throughout the lesson. This practice combines seeing, saying, hearing, and doing. It gets students involved and talking. One thing I’ve noticed is that teachers TALK A LOT! If we can transfer some of that speech to our students, they can take more control of their learning. Plus, it sticks in their little brains better.

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Today I'm linking up with Mrs. Shipley from Mrs. Shipley's Classroom to reflect and talk about a book study I am currently participating in: Whole Brain Teaching for Challenging Kids. So far, my entire WBT (Whole Brain Teaching) experience has completely altered my classroom and my students. I have always been super passionate about teaching but WBT has refreshed and energized my classroom even more! I hope you'll join me as I tell you about some exciting changes that have come about as a result of this book. You can purchase this book on Amazon to learn along with us. 🙂

If you are not familiar with Whole Brain Teaching, I can only describe it as this: The highest amount of student engagement you will ever experience, mixed with higher-order thinking skills that are student-led, and the most effective classroom management procedures you've ever used!

I have to admit that I was a bit skeptical when I first started to learn about WBT. I've always been one to pride myself on my classroom management. I felt comfortable with management. It was "my thing." It was always something that my principals and administration praised me on. So when I first started to see bits and pieces of it floating around on YouTube, I didn't feel as though I would have much use for it. After all, I thought the cute, little quiet chants I've used for five years worked just fine for me. Nevertheless, I devoured videos and self-taught myself as much as I could...

If I ever thought my classroom management and student engagement was good before WBT...well...I hadn't seen anything yet! This school year has been the most exciting year for me yet!

I have some challenging friends in my room this year. I have students with an extraordinarily short attention span. The short amount of time that these students were able to focus at the beginning of the year was unreal to me. I hadn't experienced this in six years. We couldn't sit at the carpet. We couldn't stand in a line. We couldn't sit in a desk. We couldn't sit through a mini lesson.

I went home those first couple of weeks stressed out.

Enter: The "Ah-Ha!" moment from Whole Brain Teaching:

The more we talk, the less our students listen.

The more my students productively talk, the more my students learn.

In his book, Chris Biffle explains that short, direct micro lectures and directions are most effective with challenging students. Using short 30 second to 45 second pieces of information has worked wonders for my challenging kiddos this year. However, I have found this to be true of ALL students. Chris also explains that even the most challenging students want to be a part of the classroom environment. If you had told me this statement while I watched math game pieces being thrown across my classroom this past August, I might have laughed at you. However, after concentrating on WBT and making it a daily part of every moment in our classroom, I now do not deal with behavioral issues from my challenging students. It's not that I'm choosing to ignore the behaviors or "deal with it." It's because it's not an issue anymore.

After fully implementing WBT this year (not just "kind of implementing it" - REALLY implementing it):

I spend 99.9% my time teaching - not managing.

I have cut down the amount of times I need to repeat directions to my students drastically.

I rarely use my clip chart anymore. I actually have to force myself to use it because I forget about it so much. We just don't need it. (Since I started with the clip chart this year, I feel the need to carry that through until May so that I don't confuse my parents. 🙂

I have completely eliminated the old "treasure box" from our system of rewards.

My students' grammar and use of complete sentences in oral speech has improved drastically.

I come home each day happy and stress-free about my classroom. (Now, I'm not saying I don't stress out over lesson plans, data, paperwork, and all the other stuff that goes with teaching. But, I do not stress-out or get anxious about student behavior because I don't feel as though I have any behavior issues anymore with WBT.)

The point? Teachers are in charge of how they feel each day within their classroom:

-If you choose to be disorganized, your classroom will be chaotic.

-If you choose to be inconsistent with your consequences, your challenging students will walk all over you.

-If you choose to be unprepared for your lessons, your results will be poor lessons with poor results, and students who are disengaged in what they are learning.

And, my favorite... Grow or die. If you refuse to try new techniques with your students, you are ultimately killing yourself as a teacher.

As we go through the book study, I will share Chris Biffle's strategies and techniques of WBT with you. For now, I'm leaving you with Chris' challenge from Chapter 4. Sort your students by their classroom behavior. Your categories are: Alphas, Go-Alongs, Fence Sitters, Challenging Students, New Students, and Leaders.

Alphas: Your model students. These students follow the rules every single time. Give each student in your Alpha group 4 points.

Go-Alongs: These students usually "go along" with you. Sometimes, they fall a bit short of being model students. Give each Go-Along student 3 points.

Fence Sitters: These are students who can be model students one day and not follow directions the next. Each Fence Sitter gets 2 points.

Challenging Students: These students rarely, if ever, follow the rules in your classroom. They do not raise their hand to speak, stay on task, etc. Give each Challenging Student 1 point.

New Students: New students are automatically put in the Fence Sitters category until you are ready to really assess them.

Leaders: Leaders go above and beyond Alphas. They are self-managing. They are the ultimate leaders in your classroom. Your big goal is to train as many leaders as possible throughout the year. Each Leader in your room gets 5 points.

Now, find the average of your points and write it down. As you learn more and more about WBT, reassess your class. Your goal is to continue to improve this class average. I know that as you study and implement WBT, your student average will increase as well. I also know that your own attitude, outlook, and joy in teaching will continue to increase. 🙂

Visit Mrs. Shipley's blog by clicking HERE for a free printable download to track your progress and your students' progress in WBT. She is amazing!

Until our next book study post, I'm going to leave you with these free WBT posters that you can find in my TpT store.

I urge you to get the book and read it with us as we go through this WBT journey! 🙂

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Whole Brain Teaching Book Study - Chapters 1-4 - Miss DeCarbo

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Today I'm linking up with Mrs. Shipley from Mrs. Shipley's Classroom to reflect and talk about a book study I am currently participating in: Whole

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How Whole Brain Teaching Engages Students

Nancy Stoltenberg discovered Whole Brain Teaching (WBT) by accident. "I was trying to prepare for a huge class - 38 kids - coming up in the fall and was researching ways to manage the classroom," she says. "I saw videos of teachers using Whole Brain Teaching, and I was really encouraged to see how engaged the students were in the activities".

She began the school year using WBT and the method allowed her to create a classroom environment that fostered learning better than anything she had tried before. "It was really fun," she says. "WBT is quick and energetic, which keeps kids interested. I've been to so many trainings where I bring back a notebook that sits on my shelf, but WBT is simple and easy and it just works. I say, 'class!', they say, 'yes!' and all eyes are on me. The first time I said, "Class!" to my students, I witnessed change, and as the days passed, I became even more drawn to the energy and positive atmosphere WBT created in my classroom. My students had a new twinkle in their eyes. Challenging students began to 'twinkle', too."

According to Chris Biffle, founder of WBT, "the teaching system incorporates all learning styles simultaneously: visual, auditory, oral, kinesthetic, and it adds an extra jolt of ongoing Funtricity!" The result is an environment where discipline problems are reduced and learning is an appealing activity for children.

Cooperative Learning and Instant Feedback

Whole Brain Teaching centers on the use of active learning and rituals in the classroom where students become the teachers, and teachers are the facilitators of learning. Learning is broken down into brief segments of direct interactive instruction before the teacher turns the lesson over to students, who re-teach to each other in pairs, collaborative learning. As students use gestures and their own words to educate each other, the teacher observes how well they've learned to determine whether to review or advance to the next lesson.

Support for Kids with Special Needs

Stoltenberg says the approach makes lessons more engaging, which reduces disciplinary issues. Quoting Biffle, she says, "If a student's whole brain is involved in learning, there isn't any mental area left over for challenging behavior." A teacher in a Title I school, Stoltenberg's classroom was where children were mainstreamed from special day classes for subjects identified on their Individual Education Plans (IEPs). Students in her room reached and often surpassed the educational and social goals on their IEPs.

"It's OK to make a mistake in WBT," she says. One of the rituals of the program is a classroom chorus of 'you're still cool' when another student offers an incorrect answer. "If students get confused, they say, 'help me!', and the class helps. That kind of team spirit creates a safe, no failure, learning environment that encourages students to participate at higher levels. This environment is especially important for our learning challenged kids."

Presentation of the lessons in small chunks and the movement and engagement throughout also helped Stoltenberg's students with ADD and ADHD. "And I had many English learners, some who had never been to school before coming to my classroom. WBT has made a huge difference for all these children," she says. According to Chris Biffle, "it does not matter what style learner, the more brain areas activated in kids' classroom activities, the more they learn."

In her role as director of Whole Brain Teaching certification, Stoltenberg has worked directly with hundreds of teachers, including homeschool educators. She says the flexible approach and ample free materials make it easy for any educator to try WBT with their own students.

Many of the downloads available on WholeBrainTeaching.com can be used across a wide variety of grade levels and subject areas. Powerpoint lessons on the site guide teachers through specific topics. "Anyone can register for free on the site and download what they need," she says. Specific WBT videos of Chris Biffle and other teachers demonstrating Whole Brain Teaching are accessible here and here.

Learning and using "The Core Four" is how she recommends educators start. Below is a brief description of each and links to a full explanation on the Whole Brain Teaching website.

The first of the four is "Class - Yes", a call-and-response-type ritual in which the teacher says, "Class!" and the students reply, "Yes!" As Jeff Battle explains in this post, students "have to say it the way I said it. If I say 'Classity-class-class!' they have to say 'Yessity-yes-yes!'. If I say it loudly, they have to respond loudly. If I whisper, they respond in a whisper. They have to match my tone and intensity."

Second is saying the word, " Mirror," to signal to students that they should mirror your words and gestures. This is an easy way to engage multiple modalities in the lesson. WBT's site recommends you "use 'mirror' when telling a story, giving directions, describing the steps in a procedure, demonstrating a process ... anytime you want your class locked into what you are saying." Teaching with gestures makes it instantly clear who's engaged in the lesson.

The third element of the Core Four is " Teach! OK!," in which the teacher says, "teach!" and the class responds "OK!" before each student turns to his or her partner to take turns teaching the lesson.

The fourth is "Hands and Eyes". This signals to students that they put their hands together, look at the teacher and repeat, "Hands and eyes!" This is used much less often than "Class - Yes," and reserved for times when you need the class's close attention to make a Really Big Point.

"An Education Reform Movement, Not a Program"

Whole Brain Teaching does have its detractors. Some point out that it's scientifically unproven, but Stoltenberg points to the rapidly growing number of teachers around the world who continue to adopt the approach. "Teachers who have used Whole Brain Teaching are very devoted to it because they have seen that it works," she says. "This organization operates because of a large group of committed volunteers. All the materials are free and the conferences are free. We all just want to see kids personally engaged in learning, not only core knowledge but in thinking more critically and in reasoning as they problem solve," she says.

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How Whole Brain Teaching Engages Students

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How Whole Brain Teaching Engages Students Nancy Stoltenberg discovered Whole Brain Teaching (WBT) by accident. "I was trying to prepare for a huge class - 38 kids - coming up in the fall and was researching ways to manage the classroom," she says.

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6 Activities that Enrich Student Vocabulary - Brookes Blog

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With these activities you can provide your students with direct, explicit instruction that will increase their exposure to new vocabulary.

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Dioramas in the Classroom—Fun and Effective Project Based Learning | Writer Judy Dodge Cummings

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Check out this lesson plan to see how constructing dioramas can require students to engage in critical thinking skills such as primary source analysis, writing and defending a thesis, problem-solving, and engineering and artistic design.

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Claims, Evidence, Reasons Graphic Organizer

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Claims, Evidence, Reasons Graphic Organizer

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With this strategy you would present a topic to students and then break them off into groups.  They would each have poster paper and then some source to learn more about whatever the topic will be.  They work together to create a "mind map" sharing information, adding ideas, pictures, etc.  Then they share it out with the groups.  **This is an example of a mind map - just random thoughts/images, etc.**  The strategy suggests they start with black markers - then as they learn more, they add the information with different colors (red from one group, green, etc.) Then you can see the progression of what/how they learned.  

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Building Background Knowledge: Building Background - Mind Mapping

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Building Background Knowledge: Building Background - Mind Mapping