High Interest Activities
One of the ideas I'm toying with for next year is asking students to identify an area of high interest that they may not be touched on in our regular content areas. They would design an assessment and then work on this project when they are done with their work, or during free time. I'll list ideas below. My initial thought it to label plastic shoeboxes with the topics, and then students can choose from those. If they want to study an area that is not already available, I would work on creating that for the future. If you have any ideas, please submit them and I will create activities for you.American Sign Language- This kit would contain flashcards for the alphabet, numbers and common words. Students could work with a friend to memorize how to sign a picture book of their choice, or perhaps the alphabet song.
Alphabet Flashcards Number Flashcards
Discovery Packs/Literacy Bags- I love, love, love this idea. What if you took content areas that you were studying in the classroom, or even ones that you weren't but that students were interested in, and made 'discovery packs' for students to check out. Take a look at this website for inspiration, and at this website for fantastic photos of what your packs could look like. This is another great site with beautiful pictures. Love it!
If you are going to create these bags, check out the picture books at SproutClassrooms-just $2-3 each and categorized by topic so it's easy to fill a bag quickly and cheaply!
Mastery Club- This is a great way to get students engaged in outside learning and research. Mrs. Renz has done a great job outlining how the entire program works, and even gives you printouts to use so you don't have to recreate them on your own!