Hands-On Is Minds-On Want to Engage Every Student? Break out the
Old-Fashioned Scissors and Glue Second-grade teacher Becky Hicks
has learned that there is no substitute for activities that
require kids to use their hands as well as their minds. During
literacy hour in Hicks's class at Blanchard Elementary School in
Cape Girardeau, Missouri, students pair up and head to one of 16
"corners," or centers, to tackle hands-on vocabulary, reading,
and math activities. In the ABC corner, students thumb through
clues to find mystery words. In the math corner, students stack
buttons, plastic fruit, and toy bugs to create graphs. And in
the spelling corner, they manipulate alphabet puzzle shapes to
piece together vocabulary words. In corners, Hicks's students
practice what they know by playing teacher. "Look closely at the
clock's hands," one student says to her partner in her best
teacher voice. "Which one shows the hour, and which one shows
the minutes?" Some explain their work to other students by
showing them how t