Good afternoon! I hope everyone had a wonderful St. Patrick's Day yesterday! ...I know I did. :)
I can't even begin to describe how excited I was for my students to use the QR Code Scavenger Hunt I created! Another second grade teacher and I planned it so far in advance, I was almost too excited to wait...but I'm glad I did! Here is what we did yesterday:
We started off by placing the QR codes around our school. We were strategic in having all four scavenger hunts start and finish in the same area. That way we could monitor/help as needed for the first problem, and then all come together at the end in the same place. It seemed to work well for us.
After that, we were off to the races. We borrowed enough clipboards for all our kids (we even used whiteboards with a clothespin as a make-shift clipboard) and divided our kids up into four groups (based on current levels of performance for standard 2.NBT.7). After that, we went through the normal teacher routine of stating and modeling expectations. My class is very familiar with how to use QR codes, so they helped students less familiar if they needed assistance. Children feel so proud and accomplished when they help their peers-- it's the sweetest. :-) (Our school is fortunate enough to have access to enough iPads for two classes, so we used those as our QR scanners.)
Mrs. Watts-Blount and I each strategically chose a group to work with and we are fortunate enough to have additional support. So, our paraprofessional took another group. The group completing the "Subtraction with Regrouping" scavenger hunt was sent to complete theirs on their own (we know our students well!). All students worked extremely well in their groups!
The kids were working so hard to find the "pot of gold," I think they forgot they were even working at all. What an engaging activity! Even students who normally don't get too excited to complete math problems were squirming with excitement. It's such a great sight to see.... I mean, what is better than seeing students excited for learning? Isn't that our job as educators? ...to give students the necessary tools to have in their tool box so they can pull them out whenever they need to problem solve? I saw students who have worked their tails off to master this standard TEACHING other students how to use the strategy they chose. I saw students SHOWING other students why they thought their strategy was appropriate for
the current problem. I saw students EXPLAINING their thinking to justify their answer to their peers.
Mrs. Watts-Blount and I have given our students those tools...the ability to think, show, explain, model, justify, teach...and all students, regardless of ability, pulled their tools out of their toolbox and found the pot of gold.
I could not be more proud of our second graders! You can find the QR Code Scavenger Hunts here! :-)
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