Critical thinking is a skill our children will certainly need throughout their lives.  As educators, it is part of our job to equip young minds with the ability to analyze situations, solve problems, and to question what they see and read. 

All of our students have a tremendous capacity! But, to tap into this capacity requires a gradual process that involves hard work and lots of patience. So how can we do what is necessary to help our students develop critical thinking skills? Keep on reading for some suggestions and strategies that you can start implementing at home or in the classroom today.

I developed math mysteries to be versatile in their use. After being in a teaching role that involved seeing 220 different kids a week across K-6, I initially made this math mystery range to be something that I could quickly prepare, engage, teach,  be mostly self-correcting, and quick to pack up before heading onto the next classroom.. So, if you've seen these math mysteries and ever wondered what you can use them for, keep on reading. 

When using any of the math mystery resources from my range as a class activity, I recommend pacing the case clue by clue rather than giving your students all of the five clue worksheets in one go. By pacing the clues, it will stop some students from racing too far ahead of the rest, while others are left behind.  Turning a math mystery into a competition has its benefits, and certainly is still a fine approach to using these if you prefer to give all five clues in a booklet format for students to work on at their own pace. However, in this post, I aim to outline five tips with suggestions that will help set up ALL of your students for math mystery success!

The previous post aimed at providing some insight to introversion. If you suspect that you have one or more introverted students in your classroom (there's a high chance that you will at least have one), below are some strategies that you can implement in your classroom to help them thrive in school. 

This week I'd like to share an anchor chart I made to teach addition with regrouping. I found the use of place value blocks helpful in explaining the concept of carrying the ten over. 

The different colors used are intended to help highlight and show the steps throughout the process.