Smart Designing for Students

I heard today on the radio that Hasbro is creating  shortened versions of some of its board games such as Monopoly (no more GO TO JAIL!) due to the lack of kids' attention spans and lack of time to play board games.  WOW! 

  When I was a kid we would play a weeklong Monopoly marathon over Christmas vacation.  We would also  play board games in the evening as a family, even though my father was extremely busy as a dairy farmer!  Kudos to him for making the time!  Our world is changing and it is difficult to get children (and adults) to stay focused on task for a long period of time.  I have also noticed that many children don't spend the amount of time that I did as a kid coloring and crafting. 

I like to infuse art and design into my other subjects.  I think it gives students a chance to slowdown, learn to plan, make decisions, be creative, and it also promotes independent thinking skills.

At the end of last year I developed US Region State Posters. 

I finally got them bundled together for sale!  I love this project because there are so many creative ways to use these in the classroom to develop designing skills, research skills, presentation skills, and decision-making skills. 

The students need to decide on four major research parts of their poster from this list:

 



Sometimes a student really struggles with the decision-making process.  Many times, they research all the areas and then decide on the four. 

These posters will look great around the perimeter of your classroom (infuse a math term there) and can definitely lead your learners on the way to smart designing!

Here's my freebie set ( after all it is freebie Friday)  to get you started:

Happy Designing!

 

Amy