I've been a huge fan of hexagonal thinking activities for several years. This year I found a new way to incorporate the concept of hexagonal thinking into my classroom - BULLETIN BOARD DISPLAYS!
If you're unfamiliar with hexagonal thinking, it's essentially a visual tool for students to organize their thinking about a particular topic or concept. I use hexagonal thinking activities in both informal and formal ways in my classroom. I also incorporate old-fashioned manipulatives and digital versions in my classroom. (My students prefer the manipulatives over the digital version.) Sometimes I have my students complete hexagonal thinking activities independently, sometimes in small groups, and sometimes as a large group.
A few examples of how I've used them in my classroom include:
Short bell-ringers and anticipatory activities.
Review activities.
End-of-the-unit assessments
No matter how I use hexagonal thinking activities, my students seem to love them. I love them because students are practicing many important skills while engaged in a hexagonal thinking activity. In addition, students are thinking deeply about the content. They are more likely to retain what they've learned from a lesson or unit after engaging in this type of exercise.)
Recently I tried something new. I designed large hexagonal cards (4 per page) to use as a bulletin board display. After laminating and cutting out my cards, I had an idea! Why not affix magnetic tape to the back of my large cards and place them on my whiteboard? This would create a beautiful and purposeful display AND tool! I could use my display to demonstrate to my new students how to create a hexagonal cluster. Even better, I could invite students to interact with the display creating their own hexagonal clusters!
Below is an example of one of the hexagonal clusters we designed this week.
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