Are you one of those people like me who loves everything about fall?  I could go on and on about the awesomeness of my favorite season and believe me, I want to, but I’m going to do my best to keep it all about the kiddos.  Since I love to be outside in Autumn, I loved taking my students outside to immerse themselves in the wonders of the season.  Here are five free activities to do with your students in the fall that are fun, free, and educational!

Fall Writing – For this activity, your students will need a clipboard, paper, and pencil.  Take them outside to a place where they can sit comfortably and study nature.  They may write a descriptive paragraph, a poem, what they’re observing as they study, questions, and more!  There are so many possibilities!  Afterwards, they may illustrate the setting.

Leaf Arrays – If your students are learning about multiplication, this is a great hands-on activity.  Each student will need a paper bag, a clipboard, a sheet of notebook paper, and a pencil.  Take your students outside and give them a few minutes to collect leaves inside the bag.  Have your students work individually or with a partner to create leaf arrays on the ground.  Each time they create an array, they record the array and matching multiplication facts on notebook paper and repeat.  Afterwards, students may return the leaves to nature.  Another option is to have each student glue a leaf array, write the matching facts, and hang all the pictures up for a fun seasonal display!

Compare and Contrast Leaves – This is a great critical thinking activity for fall.  Each student or pair of students will need two fall leaves, a Venn diagram, and a pencil.  Attach the leaves to the page with glue or tape.  Students study the leaves, then write how the two leaves are similar and different.  They may focus on number of points or veins, color, texture, type, etc.

Measuring Area of Leaves – This is a fun guessing game that requires students to guess how many nonstandard units it will take to cover a leaf.  Your students (partners are ideal) will need fall leaves, nonstandard units such as cubes, beans, etc., a sheet of paper, and a pencil.  On the paper, students make a T-chart with “Guess” on the left and “Actual” on the right.  Before measuring, students guess how many units it will take to cover the leaf.  The guess is recorded on the left side of the chart.  Then, they measure by covering the leaf with the cubes, etc.  They record the actual answer and compare it to their guess.   If students use more than one leaf and use the same unit, they become better at guessing as the activity progresses.  This is a hands-on, effective way to introduce area to your students!

Fall Coloring – Just like I could go on and on about how much I love fall, I could go on and on about how much I love coloring!  I was (and still am) one of those kids who wants to color everything.  Encourage your students to enjoy this FREE Autumn Coloring Page on a Fun Fall Friday, at a writing center, or simply for self expression and relaxation.  It is from my Autumn Coloring Pages resource on Teachers Pay Teachers.  Now go and treat yourself to something, anything, pumpkin spice because …It’s Fall Y’all! 🙂

Standardized Testing may be here to stay, but there are creative ways to combat the anxiety many students feel when taking a test.  While it’s likely that 20% or more of your students experience test anxiety, these ideas are great for all students – even the teacher!

Rethink Review!  A certain amount of review is reasonable, but if your students are enduring week after week of practice tests, consider how this may affect their motivation and mindset during the actual test.  If students are mentally exhausted from test prep, imagine how they’ll feel after a few days of the real thing!  If you feel like you can’t give up any review time, make it fun!  Use games and other fun activities to revisit skills in addition to traditional practices.

Practice Yoga! Designate a short period of time before testing to stretching, deep breaths, and silent meditation.  Yoga helps calm the mind and inspire concentration.

Share a Joke of the Day! Laughter triggers a “feel good” sensation in the body and helps relieve stress.  Collect enough jokes for the week or two of testing to share each morning.  Have a good laugh with your students before it’s time to get serious!

Shoes or No Shoes? Every year during standardized testing week, I allowed my students to remove their shoes during testing. We’d talk about how the first thing people do when they get home to get comfy is take off their shoes.  Since I wanted my students to feel relaxed during testing, I allowed them the choice of shoes or no shoes.  There were some ground rules, however.  No stinky or bare feet – clean socks only!  Right after we take a restroom break and get settled to begin testing, remove your shoes and place them neatly on the floor beside your desk and leave them alone.  Keep your feet still.  Put your shoes back on after testing and before the next restroom break.   My students loved this privilege and I loved that it didn’t break any testing rules!

Create Something Colorful!  Did you know the brain is in meditation mode when you color?  Coloring also helps reduce stress, stimulate the brain, and inspire positive thinking!  I’m the kind of teacher who doesn’t just let my students color, but I believe in coloring and its positive benefits in the classroom.  Coloring instead of doing morning work was another one of my testing traditions.  Each student had a coloring packet and they’d take it out first thing in the morning.  They were only allowed to take one crayon at a time to use so that when it was time to take a restroom break before testing, they’d only have one crayon to put away.  If you’re looking for coloring pages, I have some great ones in my Teachers Pay Teachers store!  Also, I’ve created one just for testing I hope your students like.  This one is similar to my Do & Design Math Coloring Pages, but without the math.  Download this FREE resource here: Inspirational Testing Poster

I hope you and your students have a positive, productive testing period!

Teachers everywhere want their students’ thinking to be self-guided and self-disciplined.  They encourage students to reason, analyze, and communicate effectively so they will increase academic achievement and become lifelong learners.  It can be quite a challenge to teach higher order thinking skills, but there are practical ways to incorporate opportunities to think critically into each school day.  Here are five ways to make critical thinking an everyday occurrence in your classroom:

1. Make the questions more important than the answers.  Switch things up sometimes and instead of prompting students to tell you everything they know about a topic, find out what questions they have about the topic, what they’re curious about, what they’re wondering.  Don’t stop there!  Instead of assuming responsibility for answering these questions, choose questions your students can research (perhaps with a partner or small group) and have them find the answers.  Afterwards, they can present what they learn to the class!

2. Use language that encourages critical thinking.

 “Did you do your math?” is not the same as “Can you explain the strategy you used to solve the problem?” or “Have you thought of all possibilities?  How do you know?”  Using vocabulary that stimulates deep thought is an effective way to encourage higher order thinking.

3. Use exit/ entrance slips that facilitate critical thinking.

Exit slips can be a great tool for incorporating critical thinking into each day of the school year.  The right exit slip will not only reveal whether your students have mastered a concept, but also provides valuable insight about your students’ thinking.  Bloom’s Taxonomy Exit Slips Set 1 and Bloom’s Taxonomy Exit Slips Set 2 are perfect for a quick, yet challenging formative assessment!

4. Provide more opportunities for collaborative learning.  Collaborative assignments can foster critically thinking when students have clearly defined responsibilities and work together to sort through ideas and draw conclusions.  But be careful!  Simply pairing or grouping students without planning for opportunities to think critically is much less likely to encourage higher order thinking.

5. Explicitly teach students how to think critically.  Model what critically thinking looks like and what it doesn’t look like.  That way students will be equipped with effective strategies they can use as they approach their work.