Awesome Invention Books!

February 10, 2016

Today, I finally was able to use my new invention books that I ordered! I realized I was lacking in a wide variety of books about inventors and their inventors. I had a few in the biography section like Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell but I wanted more and ones that were lesser known. For example, the book on who created video games and basketball were big hits with my students!

At first, I really did not know what to blog about. Now that I had a visual plan about how to implement the books,  I am excited to blog about them.

I used them with my sixth and seventh grade students.

At first, I spread all the books out so the students can pick one out that they were interested in. I used the first graphic organizer below. They seemed to really have trouble with the clouds on top.

Then for the next class, I decided to use a new graphic organizer and that was a big hit!

Half of my class used the books as I only had about sixteen books. The second half used the CPS databases like kidsinfo bits to pick their own invention/inventor to research. The students did a wonderful job and were sharing their books and information with each other.

This took about a couple weeks to finish as then the two groups had to switch. If they did not have ipads last time, then they did the ipads this time and vice versa.

I asked my students which did they prefer to use: the books or the ipads.

They said the books which totally SHOCKED ME!

It was great to learn that the books I ordered are a big hit with my students!