Spicy Challenges - Differentiation

I have introduced a new strategy for differentiation in my teaching. I started by trialling it in maths and it has been a great success!

The children get to choose their own challenges: mild, medium, spicy and the ultimate chili bowl challenge! I started off by gently nudging them in the right direction, but to my surprise my class didn't really need the nudges. It always amazes me how, just by changing the name of a task or the way a task is presented, it can totally change how children take to it... I expected quite a few children to opt for the easier challenge, but they didn't! If anything more children took the trickier challenges. It was lovely to see so many children relishing a challenge! It has given the children a sense of ownership over their learning and they have more of an awareness of their own abilities.

I have now developed he idea further so that as part of the chili bowl challenge extension tasks, children can write their own problems or challenges linked with the learning intention of the lesson and put them into the trays for other children to have a go at!

How do you differentiate? What successes or challenges have you come across?

Pinterest - Classroom Ideas and Inspiration

In less than a week the summer holidays will be over and I'll be back into the whirlwind of teaching once again! I've been trying to get my brain back into "school mode" and I've been in and out of school sorting out my classroom and finding sources of inspiration. I have found some great teaching ideas over on Pinterest. If you haven't explored Pinterest, I urge you to now. Here are my Pinterest pin-boards.

 The best ideas are the simplest, you can pick up these little pots for very little cost. There's always the potential for chaos during a maths activity if everyone in the class needs to be rolling dice, so this is the perfect solution!

This is one of my favourite ideas! In year 3 one of the science topic looks at what plants need to be healthy and this is the perfect and really easy way to illustrate to children exactly what is happening when a plant grows. One of the most interesting stages of a seed germinating is that first moment when the seed sprouts roots and this is ordinarily completely hidden from view. I'm definitely going to try this with my class this year! I also came across a fabulous idea of growing seeds inside lightbulbs that you hang from the window frames in the classroom. 

What a brilliant idea! My sister The Style PA suggested it could be adapted by inserting Kings and Queens. But this idea could be used in many ways. With a variety of book characters inserted, it would be a powerful way of children developing their skills of character description and would be an exciting way of starting a literacy lesson on descriptive language.

 Another brilliant and cost-effective storage solution.

A great way of teaching children about erosion.

Another recycling idea - using Starbucks plastic cups as paint pots.

I think I may have to steal this for my classroom. I currently have words around my clock, but this is a simpler and and more visual aid for telling the time.

 

Every child works at different speeds and there are inevitably going to be a few children that finish tasks early. This is a great way of having a quick and easy bank of extension tasks that can easily be adapted and added to depending on the context.

 This is a lovely idea for an early morning activity while children are filtering into school, a time filler activity, or as part of phonics sessions.

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