Daily Higher-Order Thinking, Grade 1

Book excerpt: Critical thinking skills are more important than ever in academic and real-world situations. Daily Higher-Order Thinking provides you with daily activities that build and grow students' problem-solving skills in engaging formats such as logic and visual puzzles, brainteasers, creative writing, picture comparison, word play, and "what if" questions. Daily 20-minute practice lessons help students apply critical thinking skills across subject areas. The lessons develop students' higher-order thinking skills and allow them to integrate their learning and make deeper connections between their learning and the real world. Use Daily Higher-Order Thinking for warm-up exercises, extension activities, early finisher tasks and small-group center activities to develop your students' critical and creative thinking skills. How it works: - Monday-Friday: Full-page daily activities focus on a specific behavioral verb each day. The verb is defined at the top of the page so students become aware of when and how they are using the thinking skill. - Each full-page activity gives students an opportunity to practice a higher-order thinking skill in the context of a different curriculum area. - Questions and tasks are open-ended and can be used to promote peer-to-peer discussions as students share and discuss answers, while also fostering critical thinking skills. - An answer key provides sample responses for each day's activities. Evaluate students' responses based on your own expectations and on what content your students have encountered. Grade 1 activities include: logic puzzles, language play, creative writing, drawing, and visual brainteasers. Daily lessons practice higher-order thinking skills such as: - Comparing - Grouping - Identifying - Inferring - Solving