Engaging Deeper Thinking

Podcasts are a wonderful way to bring storytelling into your classroom. Research has shown that "better listeners are better readers." This is a blurb from The Cult of Pedagogy website- "Listening to stories helps students hear grammar and syntax and understand how stories work. Incidental exposure to vocabulary through listening and reading together helps students learn the meaning of unknown words. Research shows listening while reading improves text reading rates and leads to higher compreh

This pdf is filled with 7 informational articles about the history of how some of our most prominent Christmas traditions came to be (the Christmas tree, Christmas lights, the poinsettia-to name a few). Each article has multiple choice questions about that article. Students can choose a Christmas tradition to read about and then complete the questions. Next students will create blackout poetry on the article they chose. One example shows the article about gingerbread blacked out to make a beauti

This bundle includes a variety of 7 Greeking Out episode companion sheets. 5 of the episodes are based on Greek Mythology and then there is one about a story from Mesopotamia and one from Norse Mythology.

Brains On is an amazing science based podcast for kids. This bundle includes the high interest topics of Time Travel, Ancient Lost Cities, Language, Tardigrades, and Dreams. This could be a great whole class listen or could be a centers based activity with students listening to the episodes with earbuds.

Podcasts are a great way to get students excited about storytelling. The podcast Grim, Grimmer, Grimmest has creepy but still overall kid friendly stories that the students get super excited about. This is a set of 5 notes pages to fill out while they listen to five episodes from the first season. The first season of episodes can be accessed for free. These notes pages build ELA skills like summarizing big ideas in different ways but are a low risk way for students to practice these skills. Anot

Listening to podcasts in the classroom have many benefits. From being highly engaging, to working on listening skills, to an exposure to different types of storytelling, students LOVE podcasts in the classroom. This could be used as a standalone episode for a speaking and listening grade, for fun, or as part of a bigger unit on mythology. This would be a great addition or extension to a unit on Mesopotamia. Many students know more about Greek or Roman mythology but know little about one of the e

Annotating while a student reads is an incredibly important skill. This assignment makes annotating fun with booksnaps. Students will look for signposts like words of the wiser, again and again, aha moments, memory moments, and tough questions. They will take a picture of the text and then create a fun and thoughtful reaction and analysis of the important quote they chose. This does not have to be used with The Lightning Thief. Booksnaps is an idea that works for any fictional book. It could be

Listening to podcasts in the classroom have many benefits. From being highly engaging, to working on listening skills, to an exposure to different types of storytelling, students LOVE podcasts in the classroom. This could be used as a standalone episode for a speaking and listening grade, for fun, or as part of a bigger unit on Ancient Greece or Greek Mythology.

Listening to podcasts in the classroom have many benefits. From being highly engaging, to working on listening skills, to an exposure to different types of storytelling, students LOVE podcasts in the classroom. This could be used as a standalone episode for a speaking and listening grade, for fun, or as part of a bigger unit on Ancient Greece, Greek Mythology, or with reading Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief. This is about Theseus and how he defeats the minotaur. It has students analyzing w

Listening to podcasts in the classroom have many benefits. From being highly engaging, to working on listening schools, to an exposure to different types of storytelling, students LOVE podcasts in the classroom. This could be used as a standalone episode for a speaking and listening grade, for fun, or as part of a bigger unit on Ancient Greece or Greek Mythology.

Listening to podcasts in the classroom has many benefits. From being highly engaging, to working on listening skills, to an exposure to different types of storytelling, students LOVE podcasts in the classroom. This could be used as a standalone episode for a speaking and listening grade, for fun, or as part of a bigger unit on Ancient Greece, Greek Mythology, or with reading Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief. This is about the creation story of humans in Greek mythology. It brings in the Tit

Podcasts are a great addition to any classroom of any age. Brains On is a wonderful podcast that usually covers scientific concepts, but the topics can cover pretty much anything. This is an interesting episode about tardigrade or water bears. Kids will love listening about the microscopic world around us. This recording sheet could be used as whole group or the students could listen independently if they have their own technology devices. It could be used as a substitute for read aloud one day

How I Built This is a podcast about innovators and entrepreneurs that have made it big. There are over 400 episodes so I have curated a list that I think will interest students and are also appropriate for upper elementary students all the way through high school. This is a great podcast for the classroom because the more careers and exposure students have to other stories, the bigger their own dreams for the future can become.  Have students choose 1 or 2 of the episodes to listen to on their o

Podcasts are a great addition to any classroom of any age. Brains On is a wonderful podcast that usually covers scientific concepts, but the topics can cover pretty much anything. This is an interesting episode about dreams and what the brain is up to while we dream. Kids will love learning about how the brain works as well as naturally wonder what their dreams are all about. This recording sheet could be used as whole group or the students could listen independently if they have their own techn

Forever Ago is a podcast that digs into the history of popular everyday things. This episode is about the Rubik's Cube and digs into the idea of how trends and fads become popular and come and go. This is a fun topic that gets students thinking about how trends and fads affect them in their lives. This is a notes page to fill out while listening to the episode. The first page is basic notes and the second page is some reflection questions. You could listen to the podcast whole group and they co

If you are reading Soldier's Heart by Gary Paulsen, this packet would make a great addition to the unit. This contains an anticipatory set about beliefs of war before reading and then to be done again after reading. It has comprehension questions about the book broken into three sections. Students will be asked to write the page and paragraph for where they found the answers to the questions. There is also a vocabulary section.

If you've never heard of Robert Smalls, you will want to listen to this inspiring story. Robert Smalls, an enslaved African American, completed a daring escape from slavery during the Civil War when he commandeered a Confederate ship and sailed it to freedom, delivering it to the Union forces. This podcast episode tells his story through an interview with the great great grandson of Robert Smalls. Students will answer some questions while they listen. Then there is a 6 word memoir assignment for

Listening to podcasts in the classroom have many benefits. From being highly engaging, to working on listening skills, to an exposure to different types of storytelling, students LOVE podcasts in the classroom. This could be used as a standalone episode for a speaking and listening grade, for fun, or as part of a bigger unit on mythology. Or you could make listening to podcasts a regular part of your day.

Listening to podcasts in the classroom have many benefits. From being highly engaging, to working on listening skills, to an exposure to different types of storytelling, students LOVE podcasts in the classroom. This could be used as a standalone episode for a speaking and listening grade, for fun, or as part of a bigger unit on Ancient Greece or Greek Mythology. This is in fact about Hercules, but the Greek way to say it is Heracles.

This is a great guide to keep students focused on pulling out some of the most important ideas from the Kids Discover Abe Lincoln magazine. The questions are easy to locate and focus on some of the most important facts about Lincoln and the Civil War. All the questions can be found directly in the text or captions of images. Answer key is included.