Sparking Student Thinking with an Index Card Challenge

Happy Saturday!

Today is my handsome Little Man's Birthday!! and my South Alabama Jaguars take on the Mississippi State Bulldogs in a little college football action. This will be our family's first game at the stadium, and we are super excited to see what this team, and more importantly, the marching band can do!

Before I head out to the game I wanted to link up with one of my BBBs, Joanne, over at Head Over Heels for Teaching for a little Sparking Student Motivation.

Recently, my students completed the index card challenge. Have you challenged your students with this yet? It's fun, and easy to organize. All you need is a piece of paper and scissors. The orginal experiment says to use an index card, and this does work, but even with sixth graders we needed something a little more pliable.. you know.. those pesky fine motor skills and all...even with 11 year olds!

Basically, I gave my students a piece of paper and scissors and challenged them to figure out a way to cut the paper so I could fit through it. THEY WENT CRAZY trying to figure this out. I think I went through a ream of paper!

I did gain a lot of insight into how my class thinks, who jumps in feet first, who is a quiet leader, and who is a good listener. This is a great challenge to complete at the beginning of the year to find out a little bit about our students!

If you would like directions, you can go {HERE} to download the ones I typed for my students. You can also go {HERE} and watch a Youtube video about the process. The directions are a little different, but you get the idea.

How can you resist these smiles!