Conversations in Literacy: Building Brains & Filling Buckets

I was looking for some free apps for my 2nd and 3rd grade students and found Brainbean. I really like how it makes the students think, be creative, and increase their processing speed.

This activity lets the student be creative by turning the doodles into a picture they create.

On this one, the student is given a letter of the alphabet to try to come up with as many words as they can within the time limit. I like how they are timed and can try to beat their own time and increase their speed. My students need practice with increasing their processing time.

This last one really gets the student thinking in a different way. They must slide the puzzle pieces around to complete the paths. They learn to think ahead as they move the pieces from place to place. We wouldn't normally have time for these type of activities during the school year, but during summer school I like to get in more thinking and processing type activities.

During summer school, we have also been working our our Summer Bucket Lists. The kids have had a lot of fun coming up with ideas for what they would like to do over their summer break.

First, we brainstormed a list of ideas together. Then each student make their own list. These students are creative too! Pillow fights, staying up late, water gun fights, and making smores made some of their lists. I really do hope when the students take these home that the parents will take a look at them and be sure the kids get to do some of the things they picked to be on their bucket list. And it is amazing that the kids just picked simple activities that the families could do together with little money spent! That is what it is all about- families spending time together!!

After the students wrote their own list, they chose their top five favorite things for their own bucket list. They decorated the covers.

I didn't want students to just write a list of 5 things. I like for them to write about each one.

They also got to decorate each of the 5 pages. They really want to take these buckets and shovels home! They make such a colorful display though so I would like to keep them on the wall for a few days before sending them home in hopes the kids will get to check off some of their items!