The Dollar Tree: A Great Source for Teachers!

There was a lot of mystery surrounding the Creativity Lab. Ms. Rice was adamant that Bry and Megan kept the little knowledge that they had about the lab a secret. So, needless to say, I had no idea what I was walking into this morning.

Let me tell you, the Creativity Lab was awesome! We loaded into a PSU van, drove to the Dollar Tree and were encouraged to purchase $5 worth of items to enhance on of our lessons.

Spending $5 usually is a breeze for me, but today, I struggled. I wasn't feeling well and I was super tired, so the last thing that I wanted to do was think. But, with a little help and encouragement from my peers, I came up with the idea to purchase items that could be used for an interest approach for my soil formation lesson (which needed some revamping, anyways!). 

I purchased a pack of balloons, fake watches, stones, large sunglasses and plastic bugs. I will put these items in a bag, hand out the bags to each group and challenge them to come up with a list of the five soil formation factors, based on these items.

While some of the item's connections to the soil formation factors are pretty straight forward (i.e. the watches and time), I had to stretch myself to connect the others. For instance, topography was almost impossible to create. I settled on balloons, because they represent the rolling hills and mountains.

I think that as a teacher, the Dollar Tree will be a great resource for me, if I am able to stretch myself to think outside the box. I am planning on looking over all of my lessons, and thinking critically about how they could be revamped to include more creative approaches. 

 This lab certainly forced me to use my creativity to connect items with my content. I think that this was a great exercise, and a fun "field trip" for our last day of lab!