216 mind-stretchers results | sort by:
return to subject listingTeachersFirst's Resources to Avoid the Summer Slide - TeachersFirst
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Share the link to this special collection via your class web page, newsletter, or email to all your students as they depart for vacation. You will help parents and students alike. Avoid the "summer slide."You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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World Maths Day - Mathletics
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Enroll your classroom and enjoy a fun Math Day by allowing students to participate in the Math games for a portion of their class time. Introduce the site on your interactive whiteboard, enroll your class and encourage them to participate from home for extra credit. Challenge other classes in your school to participate, record scores, and have a friendly competition for World Maths Day. Incorporate a PTO/PTA evening for family involvement.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Math Nook - MathNook
Grades
2 to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
This activity would work well for individual or pairs of students in a lab or on laptops. Create a link on your class website or blogs for students to access activities from home. Use the "key" at the bottom of the page to decipher what skills would be useful for your students.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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MathDoku - MathDoku
Grades
4 to 12In the Classroom
Share this site on your interactive whiteboard or projector to demonstrate how to solve MathDokus. Create a link on classroom computers for students to explore on their own. Challenge students to create their own MathDokus. This site is perfect to use with gifted students as a problem-solving activity. Share this link on your classroom website for students to access both in and out of class.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Math Tricks - Pedago.net
Grades
3 to 12In the Classroom
Use this site as a resource when looking for activities for a Math Night, Open House, or end-of-year fun math activities. Perform one of the tricks for students then ask them to find the explanation for how it works. Assign students tricks to perform for other students, then have them solve for the explanation. Have students act out and record Math Magic videos using these tricks, upload the to a sharing site such as TeacherTube, reviewed hereAdd your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Baseball Almanac - Baseball-Almanac
Grades
8 to 12In the Classroom
Share the site on your interactive whiteboard or projector to introduce statistics and common definitions. Use the spreadsheets on the site as real-world practice for learning Microsoft Excel skills by inputting data from students' favorite players or teams. Compare team and player statistics by graphing information inputted into spread sheets.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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A+ Click - A+click
Grades
1 to 12In the Classroom
Share this site on your classroom newsletter or blog for students to access at home. Introduce the site on your interactive whiteboard or projector then create a link on classroom computers. Challenge students to progress through different grade levels and share problems with the class.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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KenKen - Nextoy, LLC
Grades
3 to 12In the Classroom
Review the illustrated tutorial on your interactive whiteboard or projector when showing students how to play KenKen. After students understand the game, create a link to the free puzzles on classroom computers or the computer lab for students to solve. After solving puzzles, allow students to discuss their solutions and problem-solving process.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Sequencer - Shodor
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
Introduce the website on your interactive whiteboard or projector by discussing the information on the learner area. Practice inputting information and creating equations as a class and challenge students to create their own equations. Set up the whiteboard at the side of your room for small groups to investigate further. Create a link on your classroom computers to use as a learning station. Provide this link to students on your class website for some additional practice (at home or the lab). Have students create their own sequencing "What comes next?" puzzles for classmates to solve, sharing the questions on a class wiki or in a Google Doc for others to try.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Word Games - FPS Networks Inc.
Grades
2 to 12Navigate carefully as this site has many advertisements! But the great interactives make it worth the hassle.
In the Classroom
Introduce this site on your interactive whiteboard or projector then have students explore this site independently or in small groups. Make a shortcut to this site on classroom computers and use it as a center. Provide a link to these activities on your class website.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Math Fun Facts - Harvey Mudd College
Grades
7 to 12In the Classroom
Use this type of fact as a class warm-up exercise or bell ringer activity to have students get actively engaged in learning from the moment they enter your classroom. Or, use it as a Fun Friday Math Fact activity. Assign students into small groups or partners to "solve" a math fact. Additionally, many of these facts could be turned into mini-math research project. Have students investigate this site independently and share their findings with the class by creating an interactive online poster using Genial.ly, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Tables and Chairs - Shodor
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
Introduce the site on your interactive whiteboard or projector by beginning with the learner section of the site. Discuss the different arrangements of tables and chairs and how seating capacity changes based on table arrangements. Allow students to complete the exploration questions on their own or with a partner. Provide a link on your classroom website or blog for students to use at home. Challenge able students to create pattern challenges of their own for classmates to try on an interactive whiteboard using shapes and colors.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Math Solutions - Math Solutions
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Take advantage of the free lesson plans; also search for plans in grades higher and lower that can be modified to meet your students' needs. Display student work included with the lesson plans on your interactive whiteboard or projector as conversation starters in your classroom - allow students to discuss other students' work to increase understanding of concepts.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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LEGO Education Activities - LEGO Education
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Expose your students to different levels of the learning spiral by challenging them to use problem-solving skills for increasingly difficult obstacles. Students can work in small groups to foster cooperation and teamwork as they sort, graph, follow and give directions, and discuss ideas. Of course you will need some LEGOs, so you might try raiding your own children's toy boxes, include a request in your classroom newsletter for donations, look around for LEGO kits collecting dust on classroom shelves, or put it on your school's PTA wish list. Be sure to have cooperative learning groups video their activities to share with the rest of the class using a site such as SchoolTube (reviewed here).Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Brain Den
Grades
4 to 12In the Classroom
Enrich gifted students' learning by having them explore the puzzles and teasers on this site. Try having students solve the geometry puzzles or algebra puzzles and then ask them to present their solution to classmates using a multimedia presentation. Challenge students to create a video and share using a site such as SchoolTube, reviewed here. Students could also try to create their own puzzles. Share the puzzles on an online, interactive poster using Lucidpress, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Luminosity - Brain Games - Lumos Labs Inc.
Grades
4 to 12In the Classroom
What a great way to give kids a brain break while still keeping them focused. This site can be used on an interactive whiteboard or projector with the whole class. Psychology classes may want to investigate the games and how/why they might affect memory and brain function. The website is also a great tool to use as a center or to provide a student reward. Some of the games do not require a sign in but others do. Teachers could create a class login that students could use to access the additional games.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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New York Times Mathematics Lesson Plans - New York Times
Grades
7 to 12In the Classroom
Use the lessons found on this page to enhance mathematics class curriculum. Have students work on activities independently on laptops in class. If computer access is limited, print out activities and have students work in groups on calculations and guide them using the interactive whiteboard or projector. This also provides the automatic connection between real life and the math strategies and concepts. Take advantage of these timely topics. Be sure to save this site in your favorites and check back often for some fresh ideas.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Armored Penguin - Armored Penguin
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Need a puzzle to reinforce the words in a particular unit? You may find one already created. If not, it is simple to create and save to your computer or share by URL (remember the online version is saved for two months). Use the "Quotes" page for great quotes of the day, the "Illusions" page for optical illusions, or the "Fresh Words" page to see what words can be made from a word, phrase, or collection of letters. Have cooperative learning groups create their own puzzle pages for a topic that they are researching or learning about in class and use them to challenge their classmates or another section of the course. Have students create puzzles as a cost-free, printable gift for families on special occasions such as Mother's Day.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Visual Complexity - Manuel Lima
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
Share the graphics on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Use data visualizations to ask questions about interactions among the parts shown. For example, use any of the food chain visualizations to look at the interactions in the chains and identify roles of organisms. Ask students to use the whiteboard tools to explain how the visual "shows" the underlying information. Be prepared for less visual students to struggle while more visual students thrive using such a tool. Share the interesting map graphics in geography class. Use this at the beginning of a discussion and identify the organisms in the chain to uncover the relationships. Use the graphics for creative writing projects (displaying the graphic on a whiteboard while students react in writing). Ask your gifted students to choose a graphic they particularly enjoy as an inspiration to create one of their own.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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20 Questions - 20Q.netInc.
Grades
5 to 12When you arrive at the site, click your language (there are MANY languages from which to choose). Enter your gender, age, and location (optional). Then choose the "game" you wish to try. Some are more commercial (Disney, The Simpsons, or Star Trek). Others have educational value (Harry Potter, Earth, or Classic, Famous people). This is an interesting and challenging activity. There are disclaimers that the "game gets smarter" the more you play because the game compiles facts over time. It is involving and entertaining to play. The site does include some advertisements.
In the Classroom
Share this site on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Teachers could have students research a person, place or thing and then use their research to play twenty questions against the computer. It could also be used as review if posted to the class wiki and then completed independently by students at home. Use this as a first day or first week activity, have students try the 20 question game about names and see if the computer can figure out their name. Use the Earth activity for geography practice in cooperative learning groups or as a class activity. In world language classes, choose the appropriate language to practice vocabulary about animals and other categories of information. Extend learning by having students create their own 20 question activity and quiz the class! Use Involve.me, reviewed here, What a great culminating project in any class. You will be teaching HOTS (higher order thinking skills) as students use classification to create their questions.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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