Creativity at its Finest

Our last lab has finally arrived for some of us I think this was the light at the end of the tunnel but there was a catch, we had no idea what we were going to do. The only information we were given was to bring a unit plan or some lesson plans from the same unit and that we were going to be driving somewhere. I immediately think that we are going to have to switch lessons with our fellow lab members and have to teach from it....whoa scary!!! Once we piled into the car and traveled to our destination we were presented with our challenge: spend $5.00 to get 5 items in the dollar store.

I brought with me my 1st unit for my 7th grade class. This unit touched on agriculture history, FFA, and jobs within the agriculture industry. As I wandered up and down the aisles of the store I was not sure what to get. First I picked up some playdogh, this was going to work well for my Are You Smarter than an Ag Teacher game, I was going to mesh it with pictionary and have them complete different tasks with it. Next I picked up a puzzle, this was going to be used for my "Putting all the pieces together" lesson where we recap everything we learned about FFA. The students would design a puzzle piece that reflects what they learned about FFA. We would put the whole puzzle together and display it in the classroom. Next I found some really awesome burst cutouts, perfect to represent time on my time walk of ag history. Paper plates were next and are going to act as the model for designing a healthy plate.

Finding the last object was the hardest part. There were so many things that I could have chose and done but I wanted something that would really give my students added value. I finally settled on some cookies, I know how are cookies added value? Well I decided that this would make for a great activity. I would have my students read the labels of different products and then trace the ingredients and see where the products came from.

I really enjoyed this lab because it showed me that I could make all of my lessons fun just by adding in something that cost a dollar. It was a lot of fun to see what some of my other lab mates found as well and what their creative ideas for use were. I cannot wait to use the props in my lessons and I know my students will really enjoy them too!