More Higher Order Thinking Skills

I have been trying to lift the level of thinking in my classroom over the last few weeks. With the introduction of the common core standards, students are having to think deeply about topics and support their thinking with evidence. Including puzzles, problem solving activities, and critical thinking games into the daily curriculum will help them think deeply all of the time. It hasn't been the easiest. You have to teach them how to do each of the activities and model tons of thinking skills. I am slowly adding more and more activities! My last post was about how I am using SET in the classroom.

Today, I want to talk about Logic Elimination Grids. If you didn't know the name for them I am sure that you know what I am talking about. They have been around for a long time. We even did them as kids at some point. Usually they were done as a time filler or to keep us busy. We didn't stop to think about how important they are to helping us be better thinkers.

I am incorporating them into my morning work for students. We do them at least twice a week in the mornings. They can be very simple like the one above or they can be more complicated like the one below.

The students are getting better and better at solving these puzzles. We look at it like being detectives and having to gather all the clues. I can't wait to actually teach them to play CLUE later in the year. They will have the skills they need to successfully solve the mystery. Having them do them in the morning when they first comes in really helps me get my things done in the morning and gets their brains turned on first thing in the morning.

Currently my morning work assignments look like this:

Monday: SET (see first post on Higher Order Thinking Skills), Morning Math Review, Logic Elimination Grid

Tuesday: SET, Morning Math Review, Tangram Tuesday (see post about Tangrams)

Wednesday: SET, Morning Math Review, Word Ladders (see post about Word Ladders)

Thursday: SET, Morning Math Review, Logic Elimination Grid

Friday: SET, Morning Math Review, Word Ladder

The students are always engaged first thing in the morning. I love to include higher order thinking skills right from the beginning. Once I get through this first month, the students will be the ones explaining their thinking and leading the morning work reviews. Once we get really used to the word ladders and logic elimination grids I will have the students start creating their own.

If you are interested in logic elimination grids you can find some at the following sites:

http://www.thelogiczone.plus.com/kids_index.htm

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/math/logic/puzzles/

http://www.thekidzpage.com/learninggames/logic_games/logic-game-petcenter.html

http://www.logic-puzzles.org/


TGT