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. Available in Grades 1-6.

An analogy is a comparison that points out the similarities between things that are different in all other respects. Teaching students how to solve analogies not only develops their logical thinking, but also builds visual awareness and verbal proficiency. The seven different types of visual analogies and 14 different verbal analogies in Analogies for Beginners are perfect for beginning lessons in logical reasoning, flexible thinking, and vocabulary. Each page gives students an example of the type of analogy that is being introduced and then provides 7 (visual) or 10 (verbal) problems for them to solve. This combination of verbal and visual formats is an ideal way to introduce logical thinking in primary grades. Whether you have time for one analogy a day, or a worksheet a week, students will benefit in many ways when analogies are part of your curriculum. The use of visual analogies is beneficial for developing visual analysis even for older students, but especially useful for nonreaders and students with developing English skills. The verbal analogies provide students with exercises that require them to use word comprehension and also to examine various characteristics, uses, and relationships.

The Balance Math™ & More! activities sharpen students' critical thinking and computational skills, and develop algebraic reasoning. Each book is made up of three different types of puzzles: Balance Math: Students examine the balances to deduce the missing value. Inside-Out Math: Students need to reverse their thinking, using the inverse relationships between addition and subtraction and multiplication and division to solve the puzzle. Tic Tac Math: Students figure out the correct order to complete all rows, columns, and diagonals. Level 2 focuses on multiplication and division of whole numbers, but has a few problems involving fractions. The spiraling difficulty level is designed to scaffold a student's conceptual understanding of the targeted operations from beginning to advanced. Teaching suggestions and detailed solutions are included. Try one of these intriguing puzzles—and then try to stop!

Understanding analogies and the ability to reason analogically (reasoning used to identify, evaluate, and solve an analogy) are important problem-solving skills. Problem-solving is an essential part of mathematical development. Analogies teach students to break problems down into their component parts, making it easier to recognize familiar formats that enable students to produce solutions. The Level 2 Math Analogies asks students to draw and verbalize their answers. The drawings develop fine motor skills, and the verbalization develops communication skills. The analogies in this book are designed around the grade-appropriate standards identified by the National Council of Teaching Mathematics.

It's never too early to start building thinking skills—skills that will spill over into other areas of the curriculum and into real life. Primarily Logic consists of a series of units designed to introduce logical thinking to young students. It is an excellent, easy-to-use starting point for teaching well-established forms of logical thinking. Each skill is introduced with examples, and then worksheets give students an opportunity to practice the skill. Group lessons and worksheets provide practice in: finding relationships, analogies, thinking logically using “all” and “none” statements, syllogisms, and deductive reasoning using logic puzzles. Logical thinking is both enjoyable and challenging for students as they build a sound foundation for further instruction in critical thinking. Suggestions for related activities are included in the Instructions for Teachers section.

An analogy is a comparison between two things. It points out the similarities between two things that might be different in all other respects. Analogies cause us to think analytically about forms, uses, structures, and relationships. This all-time favorite resource not only gives students a chance to practice solving analogies, but also invites them to open their minds to a completely new way of analyzing the elements of analogies. Each page introduces several categories of analogies. Each category expands students' way of viewing the world and contrasting and comparing elements. Thinking Through Analogies also instills the tools whereby students can create relationships to enhance their creative and formal writing, as well as to heighten their critical thinking in test taking.

In Writing Detective®, students in Grades 3-6 act as investigative reporters writing articles for a local newspaper. To write the article, students must use higher-order thinking skills to synthesize clues they identify in the story to solve the mystery. Every activity requires students to put clues together and then evaluate the evidence to infer or deduce what happened in the story. The stories are high interest to make it easy to motivate students to do the analytical work needed to piece together the evidence and write the article. Before writing, students complete an outline detailing When, Who, What, Where, and How or Why. These fun, easy-to-use activities develop reading comprehension, higher-order thinking, and writing and organization skills. Answers for the Reading Comprehension questions and Outlines as well as Article sample answers are provided. There is a simple scoring rubric to make grading easier.

Are you looking for a motivating way to combine problem solving, visual discrimination, and language? Word Bogglers is just what you need. A word boggler is a puzzle, a brain teaser, and a lesson in language, all rolled into one. These clever visual puzzles use words and phrases to build flexible thinking and word literacy. Each word boggler is a word or phrase that has been written so that its meaning is conveyed via the position, number, or size of the words and letters. Some of the puzzles are words while some are familiar idioms and clich?s. Thus, this book brings an opportunity to develop vocabulary and knowledge of often-used phrases in the form of motivating brainteasers. Each page features six of these visual puzzles. Students analyze the way the words are written (size, position, and direction) to solve each boggler and match it with its definition. A way to further reinforce the understanding of each phrase is to have students use the phrases in a written sentence. You can use these puzzles in a variety of ways, including: putting them on the overhead for a quick daily thinking challenge, using them as starting points for daily writing exercises, using an entire page for a weekly challenge, forming groups to work together on solving the puzzles, using them in a learning center, and having students make up their own puzzles. Bring Words Bogglers into your classroom today. The result of using these word puzzles is lots of fun, lots of challenge, and increased knowledge of the meaning of common idioms and words. Grades 3–6.

Understanding analogies and the ability to reason analogically (reasoning used to identify, evaluate, and solve an analogy) are important problem-solving skills. Problem-solving is an essential part of mathematical development. Analogies teach students to break problems down into their component parts, making it easier to recognize familiar formats that enable students to produce solutions. The Beginning level Math Analogies asks students to draw and verbalize their answers. The drawings develop fine motor skills, and the verbalization develops communication skills. The analogies in this book are designed around the grade-appropriate standards identified by the National Council of Teaching Mathematics.

Students carefully analyze each Mind Benders® story and its clues, identifying logical associations between people, places, and things. The key is to start with the most obvious associations, then deduce less obvious associations until everything finally fits together. Includes step-by-step instructions and detailed answers.

Understanding analogies and the ability to reason analogically (reasoning used to identify, evaluate, and solve an analogy) are important problem-solving skills. Problem-solving is an essential part of mathematical development. Analogies teach students to break problems down into their component parts, making it easier to recognize familiar formats that enable students to produce solutions. The Level 2 Math Analogies asks students to draw and verbalize their answers. The drawings develop fine motor skills, and the verbalization develops communication skills. The analogies in this book are designed around the grade-appropriate standards identified by the National Council of Teaching Mathematics.

One-Hour Mysteries offers five motivating mysteries that your students can solve using clues and logical reasoning. Your students will become crime scene investigators, analyzing clues found at a crime scene and applying forensic techniques in their analysis. Each mystery includes a complete set of teacher instructions and reproducible handouts that may be photocopied for classroom use. This exciting book features the following mysteries:Mystery at the Mall, The Coaster Caper, The Case of Santa's Blackmail, The Case of the Missing Tiara, and A Hollywood Crime. What better way to motivate critical thinking than with a whodunit? Skills include deductive reasoning, inferring, taking notes, organizing data, and analyzing evidence. Get ready for real thinking combined with cloak-and-dagger fun!