"Minded" Activities: Enrichment Box Idea

"Minded" Activities post from 2010, from my old weblog, Jasztalville.net. Since the weblog closed last year and I transferred some posts over here, I am making this post accessible to you again because it was a really cool idea that became a reality! 


When you create prompts for your folders on pages, cut them apart, tape them to hanging folders (I purchased the nice plastic ones), and put corresponding resources in each folder. The video is coming soon!

To make a Minded set, you need: a crate, hanging file folders, scissors, tape, materials to enrich the prompts (like graph paper),  and a box to collect student work that relates to the activities in the crate. I don't collect the work along with other student work because I don't want anything mixed in or lost by mistake.

September 2010:

Today, I met a woman named Roxanne at the bookstore. At first, she was mumbling to herself about something, and I had no idea whether she was talking to me or not. There was a professor, we believed, talking a few aisles down about testing- the SAT, FCAT… things teachers absolutely, positively don’t want to hear about on long weekends.

Eventually, Roxanne and I got to talking, finally when I turned around and realized she was saying something about the person who was rambling about testing. I told her I was a teacher and how the long weekend was not a time to discuss these kinds of topics. We both laughed, and then I discovered she taught art in our district at one of the K-8 schools.

I told Roxanne about a vision I had for my students when they were done with their classwork. Too many teachers tell their kids they have around five options: silent reading, finishing work from before, studying, computer time, and perhaps doing some type of activity from a file or a Sudoku puzzle. Yet for me, those options seem too typical and I want kids to realize the world is a vast, intriguing place where opportunities abound.

I have had a vision where students focus on multiple intelligences, to extents, in a variety of categories: Math-Minded, Science/Nature-Minded, Art-Minded, Music-Minded, Literary-Minded, Public Relations-Minded, and World-Minded. Thinking about what these categories have made me think about has gotten me extremely excited and thinking that I would have embraced opportunities like these when I was a 9- and 10-year old fourth grader. Here are some of the ideas I have thought of so far in the different categories:

Typical Options:
1. Silent Reading
2. Studying spelling, science, math, or working on free writing
3. Finishing work
4. Listening center: I have CDs with Diary of a Wimpy Kid (which will excite many), Frindle by Andrew Clements (which is a hilarious and interesting read), and the entire Narnia series. I also have iPods that have educational raps and rock songs on them as well as podcasts from Dragonfly TV (a science show on PBS), CNN for Kids, and other shows geared toward older elementary and younger middle school students.

Math-Minded:
1. Games that involve dice and playing cards
2. Various restaurant menus with prices and descriptions of food to “order” food and tip their “waiter” or “waitress”
3. Shopping catalogs where students have a budget to spend money and pay sales tax on their items, along with money from the Money Instructor website.
4. Puzzles from magazines like Scholastic DynaMath, put in a heavy duty sheet protector and easily able to be written on with dry/erase markers.
5. Students can work on floor plans for various kinds of houses, tree houses, and larger buildings, including schools. Floor plans will be included in a folder. Besides that, students can sketch skyscrapers and other interesting architecture.

Science/Nature Minded:
1. Students can come up with inventions, based on a folder that has some interesting invention-related articles from magazines like Scholastic Super Science.
2. Students can write documentaries that they can perhaps record later on about science-related topics. They can also record podcasts (to incorporate in the documentaries), make PowerPoint presentations, and create Wordles, if desired.
3. Very basic experiments may be included over time that needs very basic materials. This option may only be available during science.

Art-Minded:
1. Roxanne was mentioning a neat idea to me that I hope to see more of and incorporate that focuses on books the kids create that focuses on different art periods.
2. I will also include photos of different types of art that the kids will try to sketch out on their own, like candy bar wrappers. Students will see how well they can reproduce different kinds of art. This will please kids who absolutely adore art, but give them more than just picture-sketching options. A lot of teachers do not let their students draw in class, but this would have a purpose.
3. There will also be step-by-step tutorials on how to draw different kinds of art. Students will have to follow directions, so this is more than just drawing as well.

Music-Minded:
1. Of course, the iPods have educational rap and rock songs on them. Students will have the lyrics available (from Mr. Duey and Rockin’ the Standards, for example) and also be challenged to write their own songs.

Literary-Minded:
1. Students can design a variety of brochures and mini-books about topics. First, they can make graphic novels/comic books of their own (regarding topics we learn about in fourth grade would be extremely nice). Their books need a decent plot and facts, depending on whether their creations are fiction or non-fiction.
2. They can also use the mini-books stapled together to write about a video game they design, where they must write about five of the levels in their game. Perhaps they can make a strategy cheat guide for their game that includes a page or a few pages about the characters, then the weapons/tools, and the levels. They will be challenged to make their video game original from other games they have seen or played.
3. They can also write book reviews about something they have read for our interactive Book Recommendations bulletin board.

Public Relations-Minded:
1. Students can write interview questions for someone they wish they could interview. They can also write real letters to authors, and I can see they perhaps receive the letter. I correspond with some authors, which has been a superior opportunity for me.
2. Students can also come up with advertisements for products. They can pretend they have been hired to come up with a line of something. A new Silly Bandz collection, for example. They would have to sketch the different Silly Bandz out and name their collection. They can also come up with their own restaurant or store. For their restaurant, for example, they will have to talk about some of their famed dishes (of course, we have menus from different restaurants that have excellent descriptions of food- The Cheesecake Factory includes wonderful descriptions, for example.).
3. Debate Folder: I will have topics like: Should Silly Bandz be allowed in schools? Should students have to earn good grades in order to play sports? Should lunchrooms serve healthier foods, or do you believe the options they have now are healthy enough? Should items like those that were recovered from the TITANIC shipwreck remain in peace underwater or be displayed in museums?

World-Minded:
1. I am going to educate students about people who impacted this world in the past and present this year, and they will be challenged to learn about them. They can think: How did they make such a huge difference? How can they make a difference as well?
2. I have travel guides, and students can “write” about visiting different places. They can pretend they took a trip somewhere with their friends, and they can also create brochures about certain cities.
3. Last, I have informational sheets where students can teach themselves various languages, from sign language to Spanish and French, and the like. There is also a Cherokee Indian sheet I have acquired from a magazine. There are instructional how-to sheets for all kinds of topics, like tying ropes, as well.

I know it is a lot, but there are 170 days left this year and all options can realistically be explored. My students will have to keep up their grades to explore the many options. They will have to study hard and take their work seriously. If their work is rushed or not up to the high standards I set for them, then they will have to work hard until they earn these privileges. I believe focusing on the many intelligences will be very beneficial for increasing confidence and skills.

I don’t want creativity to be something my students embrace on special occasions. I want it to be something they embrace every day. 

I did this two years ago, as I stated, and I have had the box organized for a while. It worked great in motivating students to "think outside the box". If you'd like, I can make a video of myself going through the box to explain it a little farther. Yet obviously this cannot happen until I get back to school and begin setting up, which will be about 3 weeks-a month from now.

Have you ever done anything like this before?