Wonder Journals

First, let me state, that this is not my original idea.  Once again, a great idea from Matt Gomez.. amazing and highly creative Kindergarten teacher. Read his blog post here.

Matt used the awesome Wonderopolis website daily with his Kindergartners to help them think and wonder. This site is fantastic for many reasons.  First, it asks a wondering question and then uses text, videos, pictures, etc. to answer the question.  It is super for little ones because the text has a read aloud feature. Really great informational text source.... and new content daily!  There are many great educational features to each day's wonder.  The site recently added a discussion area, so if you have a question about the wonder of the day, the Wonderopolis staff will answer the questions you have!  You and your class can suggest Wonders to be included on this website.  

After watching the Wonder of the Day video and listening to the text, he has his students create a KWL entry in their Wonder journal.  K~Know  W~Wonder  L~Learn

I love this idea!  

Here are a few printables to help you get started:

Wonderopolis QR Code Printable

Wonder Journal Page Template

  

What do you get when you put Geography & Trivia together?

I think this would be a fun classroom center or "thinking minute" activity for older students.  Smarty Pins asks geography related questions that are answered by "dropping" a pin on a Google Map. It plays like a game, with points being awarded for correct answers.  Students would have fun with this learning game.

Questions are hard, so they may have to practice their Google Search strategies in a separate tab to find some answers.  Great multi skill thinking activity!

Give it a look! http://smartypins.withgoogle.com/

Higher Level Thinking Quick Activity ~ Guess the Wordle

Here is a super, awesome, quick, thinking activity that could be used during those morning minutes or during other transition times. Show one of these on the classroom SmartBoard or project this for kids to study and think.  

http://guessthewordle.weebly.com/

These activities are organized by level and also by theme.  As they go up in difficulty, thinking increases.  I think kids would like these challenges.  Give some a try!

Imagine, creating your own curricular Wordles to keep kids thinking about what they are learning!  The possibilities.......