52 Teachers, 52 Lessons #37: Bucket o' Fun

This week's entry comes from Jessica Lepore, who teaches Spanish at The Chicago High School for the Arts in Chicago, IL.

I have what is lovingly referred to as my "Bucket o Fun". This small bucket is filled with plastic baggies full of activities related to the current unit and recycles concepts from previous units occasionally. The baggies are filled with verb conjugation matches, vocabulary cards, sentence builders and activities to help improve subject verb agreement. I use these in many different ways:

1. If a student needs tutoring, I have him/her work with the cards that meet their needs
2. My teaching aide is in the classroom once a week, and she uses them to informally assess student progress one on one
3. If there is extra time at the end of a lesson, I distribute them around the room and the students work in groups on the material
   
4. I use them to quiz special education students who may struggle with more traditional pencil and paper tests

The options are limitless. This is a really inexpensive and easy way to differentiate instruction for all students. The little bucket can be picked up at the dollar store. I use simple 3x5 notecards, a Sharpie and Ziploc baggies for the individual activities. As the students learn a new concept I add a new activity to the bucket. My teaching aid also will work on keeping it up to date if I get behind - a student might even work for this and would probably enjoy it.

Read more about this project here, then email your entries to teachforever AT gmail DOT com. Week 38 is scheduled for next Monday, December 28th, but there is no entry in the queue.


As promised, the download version of Ten Cheap Lessons: Second Edition will be available for free all day today!