Less than $5 Middle School Critical Thinking Activities

This is a great sheet for following directions and coming up with a strategy to follow those directions. It checks reading comprehension and knowing left and right as well. I use it with 6th graders to show how important carefully following directions can be. It could easily be used with younger grades or possibly older grades as well.

Add a touch of holiday excitement to your classroom with this activity- Christmas Mystery Game! Ideal for use in homeroom, classroom parties, or as a fun brain-boosting break, this game will have students working together to solve clues and uncover the mystery.

Ready-to-Use Ready-to-Print / Printable Black and White Worksheet

What’s Included:

• Christmas Mystery PDF: A festive logic puzzle game that challenges students to think critically and collaborate to solve the mystery.
• Answer Key

Bring holiday magic to your classroom with this Christmas Mystery Game! Download now and watch your students immerse themselves in this joyful, brain-teasing activity!

Can be used in any grade level and any subject, especially math for cryptography lesson, encrypting, decrypting messages.

OTHER CHRISTMAS CLASSROOM GAMES:

• Math Escape Room
• It's a Match (like Spot It / Dobble)
• Christmas Mystery: Crack the Code Worksheet
• Memory Game
• This or That
• OOPS Taboo-Like Game

Copyright © OOPS! Math is Fun [2024]. All rights reserved. This digital product is the sole creation of OOPS! Math is Fun and is intended for personal use by a single individual only. Redistribution, posting online, resale, or sharing of this product, in part or in whole, is strictly prohibited without prior written consent from OOPS! Math is Fun. Any unauthorized use or distribution may result in legal action.

Looking for some fun printable autumn and fall September activities? These rebus puzzle worksheets and stations are a blast! These puzzles are for kids ages 7-12. These puzzles are extra fun because they come with a final challenge! Once students solve the rebus puzzles, they will collect the shaded letter. Then they will unscramble the letters to get the answer to the jokes!

Please see the preview for all pages included.

What's included?

• Answer Keys
• 2 Worksheet Puzzles
• 2 Puzzle Stations with Answer Recording Sheets

Please note that this product contains two puzzles total, but each puzzle has a worksheet and stations format.

Why different formats?

The worksheets are perfect for independent work (homework, gift, reward, early finisher, etc.), while the stations are great for group work or a class activity.

Use these for:

• Rewards
• Class party
• Early finishers
• Gift to students
• Group collaboration activity

How do we play?

If you are using the worksheets, print and play! If you are using the stations you will print the six station cards (per puzzle) and one answer recording sheet per student or group. Spread the station cards around the classroom how you want, and tell students to find the puzzles and solve them using their answer recording key.

This set of engineering and design process posters and rubric was designed with student input. There is a one page rubric that focuses on self-assessment, but that also has space for students to comment about how their team worked. There is space for teacher comments as well. There are also 4 color-coded posters to hang in your classroom so students can refer to them and self-monitor as they are working in their collaborative groups. This is aligned to the Next Generation Science Standards.

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Help your learners develop critical social communication skills with the Think It or Say It? ABA Program! This digital download is designed to teach teens and adults how to determine when it’s appropriate to say something out loud or keep it as a thought. The program uses Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) techniques, offering structured support to build self-awareness and improve communication skills.

What's Included:

1. Detailed Implementation Plan: A comprehensive guide that outlines how to implement and target these skills using ABA strategies. The plan provides clear, step-by-step instructions on teaching learners to differentiate between thoughts that should be kept private and those appropriate to express in social settings.
2. Flashcards for Discrete Trial Training (DTT): A set of editable flashcards that focus on various scenarios to help learners practice identifying whether to "Think it" or "Say it." The flashcards can be personalized to meet each learner’s unique needs.
3. Visual Aid: A visual support tool to be reviewed with learners prior to starting the program. This visual helps learners grasp the key concepts and provides a clear, visual reminder during the learning process.

Why Choose the Think It or Say It? ABA Program:

• Improves Social Awareness: Learners will become more aware of their thoughts and better understand what is socially appropriate to say, enhancing their communication and social interaction skills.
• Easy to Implement: The detailed program plan and ready-to-use flashcards make it simple to start working on these skills immediately, whether at home, in school, or in a therapeutic setting.
• Flexible and Adaptable: The program’s customizable flashcards and visual aid ensure that you can adjust the difficulty and content to match each learner’s unique developmental level.

Equip your learners with the tools they need to navigate social situations with confidence. Download the Think It or Say It? ABA Program today and start teaching thoughtful communication skills that will benefit learners in all areas of life!

Get ready to discover the fun side of your favorite educator, and show off your amazing guessing game skills by sharing your results with your classmates. Ideal for students and teachers alike, this spring break edition of How Well Do You Know Your Teacher will keep you entertained and engaged with your school community. Are you ready to take on the challenge?

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Back to School Puzzles for 5th Graders – Word Search, Maze, and Crossword

Kick off the school year with fun and engaging back to school-themed puzzles for 5th graders! Includes word search, maze, and crossword activities with answer keys. Two word search options available.

Start the school year with excitement and learning with our Back to School Puzzles for 5th Graders! This engaging set of puzzles includes a word search, maze, and crossword puzzle, all designed to captivate young learners and reinforce key back-to-school vocabulary and skills. Perfect for classroom or home use, these puzzles provide a fun and educational activity to welcome students back to school.

What’s Inside?

• Word Search Puzzles: Two versions of the word search are included – one with a colorful image to engage visual learners and one without for a simpler approach. Both options focus on back-to-school themed words.
• Maze Activity: A fun and easy maze designed for 5th graders, helping to develop problem-solving skills and fine motor coordination.
• Crossword Puzzle: A beginner-friendly crossword puzzle that reinforces vocabulary and spelling skills through engaging clues related to the back-to-school theme.
• Answer Keys: Comprehensive answer keys for the word search, maze, and crossword, making it easy for teachers and parents to check students' work.

Educational Benefits

• Enhances Vocabulary: The word search and crossword puzzles introduce and reinforce key back-to-school vocabulary, helping students to recognize and spell important words.
• Develops Problem-Solving Skills: The maze and crossword activities encourage critical thinking and spatial awareness as students navigate and solve the puzzles.
• Engages and Motivates: The back-to-school theme and colorful options make learning fun and keep young students engaged.
• Supports Fine Motor Skills: Tracing through the maze and searching for words helps improve fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination.

Perfect for Various Settings

This versatile set of puzzles is ideal for:

• Classroom Activities: Use as part of your back-to-school curriculum, in literacy centers, or as a fun filler activity.
• Homework Assignments: Assign as homework to reinforce learning in an enjoyable way.
• Supplemental Practice: Great for extra practice or as a reward for early finishers.
• Home Learning: Perfect for parents looking for engaging and educational activities to support their child's learning at home.

Why Choose These Puzzles?

Our Back to School Puzzles for 5th Graders offer a fun and effective way to start the school year. The themed word search, maze, and crossword activities not only make learning enjoyable but also help reinforce important vocabulary and problem-solving skills. With answer keys included, these puzzles are a convenient and valuable addition to any 5th-grade curriculum.

A fun, interactive way to introduce classmates to one another. These two Bingo-like sheets have squares labeled "Find Someone Who...has a pet, has a hobby, has traveled out of state" and much more. Easy to customize to your students' interests and needs. Each square includes a place for name, email, and cell phone number/contact info. Great for Study Buddies and peer tutoring!

Speed Dating is a fun alternative to a traditional class discussion. Students have a set amount of time to discuss a question with their partner, then quickly move onto the next partner and question. This product includes directions and 12 discussion questions for Season 3 Episode 24 of The Twilight Zone: "To Serve Man". The questions address word choice, point of view, inference, theme, allusion, cinematic techniques, suspense, and foreshadowing. They require the students to really analyze the episode! Please let me know if you have any questions! Thank you!

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Embark on a mythical adventure with this set of 30 HeadBands cards featuring iconic figures from Ancient Greek mythology!

From powerful gods and goddesses to courageous heroes and fearsome monsters, test your knowledge and have fun guessing who you are.

This pack includes:

1. 30 cards featuring a variety of well-known characters from Greek mythology.
2. A diverse range of figures: Gods like Zeus and Poseidon, heroes like Hercules and Apollo, monsters like Medusa and the Minotaur, and more!

Engaging gameplay: Perfect for any elementart or middle school classroom.

Educational value: Learn about Greek mythology while having fun!

How to Play:

Insert a card into your headband or stick it to your forehead without looking at it.

Ask yes or no questions to the other players to figure out who you are.

Be the first to guess your character correctly to win!

With this pack, your HeadBands game will reach Olympian heights!

This AVID strategy of layering focused notes is the perfect instructional routine to display for any class in any subject area! Layering is a strategy that clarifies the second and third phases of the focused note-taking process by asking students to revisit their notes multiple times, thinking critically with a different purpose in mind.

Why layering?

Each layer added to the notes is completed in a different color, so a student’s interactions are visible to the instructor and to the student. This not only allows the instructor to assess the quality of the student’s thinking and interaction with the content, but it also solidifies learning about the process and the content itself. Additionally, the use of color enhances retention for visual learners.

Instructional Goals

Students will:

• Add layers of thinking to their notes to process and connect their thinking.

• Use colors to show their repeated interactions with their notes.

Materials needed

If taking notes on paper, students will need a variety of colored pens, colored pencils, highlighters, and markers to use for the note-taking layers.

Directions

• Provide time for students to complete each layer by adding to their notes with a different color.
• Work on one layer at a time. Consider whether developing learners need more structure or fewer components to add during each layering session, compared with more experienced note-takers.
• Have students keep a key to indicate what color is used for each layer (they can make their own key or use the example.)

Click HERE to see our other AVID resources. We also have several great AVID bundle options available down below!

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Looking for fun mazes or after testing activities for your early finishers? This Pop Culture Maze set is perfect for Gen-Z! Offer your students stress-relieving, yet challenging activities that they will WANT to work on and stay on task as they complete mazes themed upon high-interest topics in pop culture, like TikTok, Crocs, Fortnite, Snacks, Air Jordans, MrBeast, AI, and Netflix!

►This resource requires NO PREP - simply print and staple a packet or use the activities separately. Either way, it's guaranteed to keep your kiddos busy and engaged. I often like to challenge the class with a maze from the pack and offer a small reward to whoever solves the puzzle first! So fun!

►I always leave a stack of mazes to grab in a pinch in my sub binder on my desk for a sub, or colleague to grab in case of an emergency. I feel at ease knowing my students are engaged, even when I have to be out of the classroom.

✔️What's included:

1. 8 Impossible Mazes (PDFs)
2. Answer Keys

***CHECK OUT THE PREVIEWS FOR MORE DETAILS!***

✔️✔️✔️_LIKE THESE MAZES?? GRAB THE_ POP CULTURE PACKETS THAT INCLUDE THESE EXACT MAZES, AS WELL AS A HIGH-INTEREST ARTICLE, READING COMPREHENSION, A CROSSWORD PUZZLE AND A DESIGN CHALLENGE!

► Grab Set 1 which includes the following sets:

• Crocs
• Air Jordans
• Takis
• Fortnite

► Grab Set 2 which includes the following sets:

• TikTok
• MrBeast
• OpenAI
• Netflix

⭐⭐⭐ OR CLICK HERE TO BUY THE MONEY-SAVING BUNDLE AND GET ALL 8 SETS HERE FOR 20% OFF!!

Have a question?

Please check out the Q&A section or message me and I'll get back to you within 24 hours.

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⭐⭐⭐ You may also be interested in the money-saving Monthly Early Finisher Packets Bundle. Each packet comes with 20 pages. This Growing Bundle will soon include all 12 months of the year!! Get it now for over 50% off!

**For personal and single classroom use only. If using with multiple classrooms, please purchase additional licenses at the discounted rate.**

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Hurry Up to Catch the School bus and get ready for an exciting back-to-school adventure! This unique clipart collection combines fun mazes and vibrant illustrations to engage students and make learning enjoyable.

This set includes 2 Easy level mazes with 4 different kids in PDF format (A total of 4 Pages)

Engage your students in an adventure they won't forget. Download now and let the fun begin!

Stay tuned for more Clipart and make sure to follow me on TeachShare ARTeam Studio to get the latest updates on all products and the latest deals.

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All clipart is a creative property of ARTeam Studio and can't be resold, used in print-on-demand products, or distributed as-is. it should be part of the design. **Credit is required for any free or paid resource that includes my clipart (logo and link to my TeachShare store)

Clipart may be used for personal and limited commercial use. Feel free to email me at arteamstudio.2015@gmail.com with any questions, Modifications, or clipart ideas you want.

✨Keywords: BTS, Back to school, Kids, Girls, Digital resources, Whimsical clipart, Problem-Solving, Critical thinking, Mazes

Lesson Overview

In this lesson, students learn more about safe and reliable use of the Internet in the digital age as they learn how to decipher between fake and real news, spot misleading websites, avoid clickbait, and recognize rumors or misleading information on social media. The lesson starts with a PowerPoint presentation (teacher led or distributed to students to read themselves) that outlines some of the pitfalls of erroneous or misleading information on the Internet. Then, students complete several lessons to develop their skills in recognizing fake news, fake websites, clickbait, and other misinformation. These can also be done with a partner or in a small group if the teacher prefers. Next, students work with a group to answer critical thinking questions about the ethics of fake news and ways to prevent contributing to the problem. Also included with the lesson is a word search puzzle, great for early finishers, or as a part of the lesson.

This lesson was designed for middle school (grades 6-8) but could be used in upper elementary grades or high school as well.

Materials Required:

· Computers with Internet access for each student (or pair of students)

· Access to Microsoft Word or Google Docs and Microsoft PowerPoint or Google Slides

Files included:

· Teacher & Student Resources

· PowerPoint Presentation – Misinformation in the Digital Age

· 3 Lessons with Instructions, Grading Rubrics, and Answer Keys

· Reference Sheet: How to Recognize Fake Websites and News

· Group Discussion Critical Thinking Questions with Teacher Guide for Use

· Word Search Puzzle with Answer Key

Approximate Lesson Duration:

· Introduction to the Unit and PowerPoint Presentation: 1 (50 minute) class period

· 3 lessons: 3-4 (50 minute) class periods (for all three lessons)

· Group Discussion Questions: 1-3 (50 minute) class periods depending on class/group size

· Word Search Puzzle: about 20-30 minutes

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Enhance your students' reading comprehension skills with this engaging resource featuring five significant historic disasters. Each passage is designed for 5th to 9th-grade students and includes questions that encourage critical thinking and discussion. Perfect for use in the classroom or as homework assignments!

What's Included:

• Five Reading Comprehension Passages:

1. The Great Chicago Fire (1871)
2. The Titanic Disaster (1912)
3. The Hindenburg Disaster (1937)
4. The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake
5. Hurricane Katrina (2005)

• Five Sets of Questions:
  • Comprehension questions for each passage, focusing on key details, cause and effect, and historical significance.

I Spy Math: Divisibility, US Coins Money, 2D Shapes, Place Value, Roman Numerals

Get ready for an engaging and educational experience with our I Spy Math Worksheets for elementary students! Perfect for practicing important math concepts in a fun and interactive way, these seek and find worksheets are sure to keep young learners entertained while they sharpen their math skills.

- Dive into Divisibility Rules and learn how to quickly determine if a number is divisible by another

- Explore the world of Roman Numerals and decode these ancient counting symbols

- Master Place Value to Thousands and understand the significance of each digit in a number

-Identify US Coins with our I Spy US Coins worksheet

- Identify and name 2D Shapes

What is included in this bundle:

• Divisibility Rules
• Roman Numerals
• Place Value to Thousands
• US Coins: Money
• 2D Shapes

Challenge your students higher order thinking skills with these five logic puzzles that have a Halloween theme. Wake their brains while having fun working through a logic grid puzzle.

Each puzzle includes a scenario, a set of clues, and a grid that students may use to mark off the clues as they work their way through the clues. A teacher instruction page and answer keys are also included.

Unlocking Logic: 20 Engaging Puzzles for Grades 5–8 is a fun and challenging collection of brain teasers designed to boost critical thinking, reasoning, and problem-solving skills in middle school students. This ebook features 20 diverse puzzles, including number patterns, riddles, code-breaking, magic squares, logic grids, spatial reasoning, and more. Each puzzle is crafted to spark curiosity and encourage creative thinking, making it perfect for classroom use, homework, enrichment, or early finishers.

The puzzles vary in difficulty and style to engage a wide range of learners and support flexible use across grades 5–8. Students are encouraged to work individually or in pairs, explore multiple strategies, and build resilience through thoughtful problem-solving. A full answer key is provided to support self-checking and guided discussion.

Whether you're a teacher looking to inspire your class or a parent wanting to support logical thinking at home, this ebook is the perfect companion for building sharp minds—one puzzle at a time!

This is a bundle of two resources focused on Ellen Raskin's book The Westing Game. The first resource is a movement-focused comprehension activity in which students are assigned character cards and have to ask each other yes/no questions in order to figure out their classmates' characters. The second resource is a creative writing activity that student can complete right before they finish the book. Students should stop reading at the start of chapter 24 and write their own ending to the book.

This AVID Costa's Levels of Thinking Early Finisher Packet includes a variety of critical thinking activities for middle and high school students. It features a passage with leveled questions, a creative "Finish the Story" activity using Costa’s levels, and an exercise where students categorize questions by thinking level. Perfect for classroom use or independent practice, this packet helps deepen understanding and encourages higher-level thinking!

Find this in...

✨AVID Bundle

✨Costa Bundle

✨Early Finisher Packets

What's Included

1. Passage with Leveled Questions

• Overview: This activity provides students with a short, engaging passage followed by questions categorized by Costa's Levels of Thinking.

2. Costa’s "Finish the Story" Activity

• Overview: This creative writing activity allows students to apply Costa’s Levels of Thinking as they finish a partially written story. Each stage of the activity corresponds to a different level of thinking.

3. Categorizing Costa's Questions Activity

• Overview: In this activity, students are given a set of questions related to a topic and must categorize them into Costa’s Levels of Thinking. This helps students learn how to identify different types of thinking questions.

Bonus Features

• Answer Key: An answer key is provided for teachers to quickly check the categorization activity and leveled questions.
• No-Prep, Print-and-Go Format: Just print and distribute!

Perfect For:

• Early finishers
• Enrichment activities
• Critical thinking lessons
• Independent or small group work
• Sub plans