Whisper Wand

Do you ever ask a question or put a problem on the board and have a couple kids just stare at the ceiling tiles? For years, I have tried to encourage my students to be thinkers through the use of wait time and partner sharing, but still I have had students who were reluctant to think when I asked a question whole group. Equity sticks are an option used by some teachers; however, I have found that putting my students on the spot when they do not know the answer is counterproductive. One of the best things I did to get these students thinking about whole group questions, I began asking them to whisper their answers in my ear. I found this method very effective because they know I expected them to give me an answer. I wasn’t simply going to call on someone else and move on. My students let me know when they have an answer my holding thumb up to their chest. I even created a whisper wand. My kiddos get a kick out of whispering into the whisper wand. My original whisper wand was invented the year lice was going through my classroom and I decided I needed to put a little distance between my hair and my kiddos’ hair when they whispered to me.

Multiple Mummy

My kiddos had the best time today with multiples. I gave my kiddos some receipt tape and a set of numbers from which to choose. I wanted them to section off the receipt paper and find the multiples for one of the numbers. I also gave them a printable to complete once they finished their multiples. I told them if they completed the task that they could turn their teacher into a Multiple Mummy. They were so excited to get started. I let my inclusion classes wrap my colleague Mrs. Alexander. Let me tell you, they LOVED it!!! I love it when they leave class saying they had fun. Click here to checkout Multiple Mummy's in my TpT store!

My friend and colleague, Mrs. Alexander

We also played my new game Factor Flipout this week. My kiddos LOVED this game. They asked, "Are we going to play it again tomorrow?" What I liked about the game is it made my students want to know what the factors of a specific number are. My students who were struggling with finding factors of a number came to me during this game for help.