Monday Made It - Mystery Box, and Using Kahoot

Happy Monday friends!

We still have another week before teachers start.

I don't have my class list yet, and I can finally get into my room today after district cleaning was done on Friday.

So much to do, so little time.....

Tara at Fourth Grade Frolics has done a class reveal on her site this week, and it looks fabulous!

Here are my projects for this week.

I posted about this Mystery Box and how I use it quite awhile ago.

I noticed that it's been pinned frequently so I thought it was worth another look.

I found the cute box at a local Hallmark store, and it was about $3.00.  It had been marked down because it had a nick on the top, which I covered with the polka dot packing tape.

I often use a "mystery box" to introduce a new unit or concept to my students.  For example, when we start a unit on Maps, I put a map in the box, and the students have to ask me questions to find out what's in the box.  It's sort of like 20 questions, but I don't always limit the number of questions to 20.  The directions I give to the students for this activity are:

     1. The questions they ask me must have a yes or no answer, like - 

"Do you use it inside a house?"

     2. They must listen to each others' questions and answers to find out what's in the box.

     3. I suggest they try to find out properties of the item, rather than just guessing about it being specific items like - "Is it a pencil?"

     4. The person who guesses correctly gets to keep the item on their desk for the rest of the day.

You can check out my original post here:

Do you use Kahoot?

I had heard about Kahoot quite awhile ago, but had not used it until the 

WI Blogger Meet-Up this past Saturday.

(Watch for a post about our awesome meet-up later this week!)

After finding out how fun and engaging Kahoot is, I decided to replace a fun school trivia game I usually do the first week of school with a quiz on Kahoot.

I plan to have my third graders work in small groups to answer the multiple choice questions on iPads.

I have 7 iPads in my classroom, so using them for this game will be a nice way to introduce the devices.

The Kahoot games can be played on any device that has an internet connection, 

so our Chromebooks would work, too.

My School Trivia game is a work in process, and I can go into Kahoot and edit 

as much or as little as I want.

In the past, I had the students play the trivia game in two teams, and when a team got a correct answer they colored in a window of a bus I had drawn on the board.

The first team to color in all the bus windows were declared the winners.

The kids love it!

Recently I had some friends over for lunch, and this Cobb Salad was a huge hit.

You can find the recipe here.

What have you made for school or home?

Wednesday Made It - Mystery Box

I am finally joining the crew of creative teachers on Tara's blog at Fourth Grade Frolics who have posted about nifty little items they've made for their classrooms.  About two weeks ago I came across a box at the Hallmark store that was marked down to $2.50 because of small nick on the top.  Back in late June I had discovered some polka-dot packing tape on the clearance rack at JoAnn Fabrics for about $0.80!  When I saw the box, I got a brainstorm about decorating it with the packing tape.

I often use a "mystery box" to introduce a new unit or concept to my students.  For example, when we start a unit on Maps, I put a map in the box, and the students have to ask me questions to find out what's in the box.  It's sort of like 20 questions, but I don't always limit the number of questions to 20.  The directions I give to the students for this activity are:

     1. The questions they ask me must have a yes or no answer, like - Do you use it inside a house?

     2. They must listen to each others' questions and answers to find out what's in the box.

     3. I suggest they try to find out properties of the item, rather than just guessing about it being specific items like - Is it a pencil?

     4. The person who guesses correctly gets to keep the item on their desk for the rest of the day.

At times, the students have become frustrated, and I remember someone asking once if I would just tell them what it was, but I always review what they've learned so far from the answers to the questions.  And you might want to "veer" them in the right direction with a little clue if needed.

I've put a thermometer in the box when beginning a study on weather, or chopsticks when  studying Japan - anything with a link to the unit would be suitable.  The students are very engaged and interested with this kind of kick-off to a unit.

Anyway - here is how my new Mystery Box turned out.  I added some letter stickers that I had to the side: