Good morning! I got back from a workshop with Chris Biffle last week in Phoenix over critical thinking and came back with some great things to start using in my 3rd grade classroom! Yesterday, I introduced sockless hand puppets to my students while teaching seven simple science tools. They loved it! I walked around while they were using their sockless hand puppets to teach the 7 simple science tools, and they all did an excellent job. I'll be scoring their SBRC assessments this afternoon, so I'll have an even better idea if it was a success. However, they were all excited about learning and using their puppets, so to me that was a success in itself!

I highly recommend trying it out. It really gets them excited and engaged in what they are learning!

What a simple addition to our "Big Back Pocket" isn't it? You're right they sure do get pumped. Not only is it a great review, but they are getting the reps that they need using their brain in a different way.

They did a great job on their 7 simple science tools assessment, so props to sockless hand puppets for getting their brains engaged.

Also, loving the sockless hand puppets when someone doesn't have a partner. They automatically start working on their own using their sockless hand puppets to review or practice whatever concept we are working on and I don't have to hear, "I don't have a partner! What do I do?"

Chris R. mentioned the Sockless Hand Puppets briefly in Joplin, but I wanted to know more about it. Is there information about them on this site? I'd also like to know more about the Brain Toys. Are they available to read about?

Thanks for the help,
Bethany

I learned about the Brain toys and sockless hand puppets when I attended the workshop in Phoenix over Critical Thinking. They are great to use and really get the kids excited. I use sockless hand puppets a lot when I have students that are absent in my class. When I say, "Teach!" and there is a student whose partner is absent, instead of them sitting there like a bump on a log, they will teach themselves using their sockless hand puppets. They love it. In fact, I sometimes have students who ask if they can use their sockless hand puppets. Of course, I modeled how to use sockless hand puppets first, and made it really fun, so they were super excited about using them. There are times when I have them use their sockless hand puppets to retell a story too. You can apply it to anything. There are several brain toys, but as far as I can tell, they are not on the website in ebook form yet, just on the forum. A couple of the brain toys that I use quite often in my room are props, air blackboard, and 2 finger action figures. You can have them use their pencil, an eraser, anything as a prop and they can use it to talk about the 5 parts of a friendly letter, for example, pointing on the prop to where the 5 parts are and what they are. I use the 2 finger action figures a lot with retelling stories during my guided reading time. They have to read a passage, and then act it out using their 2 finger action figures. They love this. I use the air blackboard quite a bit as well. This week, we're talking about double consonants in words, so we draw our air blackboards, and then write words on it that have double consonants.

I hope this helps. If I can help out anymore, just post and I'll see what I can do. Have fun trying out some of the brain toys!

Staci

I'll make it my goal this week to get the list of Illustrious Brain Toys on this website! That way we can all enjoy the immense fun that they are to use in class.

I posted the list of Brain toys in the General Education folder on the Forum. Enjoy!

Thanks Chris! What an awesome addition to the forum.