Teens Use Games to Reinforce BrainWise in Dr. Seuss Stories with Elementary School Students
Posted On: May 11, 2022
Career Education Center (CEC) high school teacher Stacey Hervey’s students have been involved since 2015 in community service projects with Denver Mile High Rotary as BrainWise teen mentors. (See issues #67, 41, 38 and 27.) This issue features Stacey’s students Jackie Reyes, Aa’ Janais Gaines, and Rachel Lopez and the exciting reinforcement tool they developed using Kahoots and Jeopardy (Issue 71). They created lessons that asked third and fourth graders to identify the 10 Wise Ways used by characters in The Cat in the Hat Comes Back and One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish.
Jackie Reyes, Aa’ Janais Gaines, and Rachel Lopez work on BrainWise lessons at CEC High School
The teens’ lessons engaged more than forty third and fourth graders in a fun and interactive review of the 10 Wise Ways and challenged the children to use their thinking skills. They created fun and interactive questions that asked students to identify Wizard Brain and Lizard Brain behaviors, who were the sources of support, and what were red flag warnings. The children recognized different characters’ emotions, separated fact from opinion, and pointed out the choices the characters made and the consequences of those choices now, later, and affecting others.
The following passages (in italics) and questions (in bold print) show this process.
One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish BrainWise Questions
“I do not like this one so well.
All he does is yell, yell, yell.”
“And some are very, very, bad.
Why are they
Sad and glad and bad?”
What brain is he using when he yells?
What are the Consequences Affecting Others when he yells?
Name a Wise Way that would help a bad fish.
What Wise Way would help a sad fish?
“I think this is called a Yink.
He likes to wink.”
“It is fun to sing if you sing with a Ying.
My Ying can sing like anything.”
Is a wink an inside or outside Red Flag?
Is this a Fact or an Opinion?
The Cat in the Hat Comes Back BrainWise Questions
“That cat is a bad one,
The Cat in the Hat.
He plays lots of bad tricks.
Don’t you let him come near.
You know what he did
The last time he was here.”
“And then I got mad.
This was no time for fun.
I said, “Cat! You get out!
There is work to be done
You get out of this house!
We don’t want you about!”
What Red Flags warned Sally that the Cat in the Hat was going to cause trouble?
The girl confronting the cat is upset. What floor was she on her Emotions Elevator? What Wise Way could she use to calm down?
“To take spots off THIS bed
Will be hard,” said the cat.
“I can’t do it alone,
It is good I have some one
To help me,” he said.
He helps me a lot.
This is Little Cat A.”
Name the Wise Way that helps you find resources who support you.
These examples show how easy it is to help children use the 10 Wise Ways to explain problem behaviors in stories. Using games such as Kahoots and Jeopardy creates a fun teaching atmosphere. Kahoots needs devices like chrome books and online Jeopardy needs a link and screen, but Jeopardy can also be taught using hand-made game boards. Amidst the fun, teachers and parents can assess the children’s answers and identify individuals in need of more help learning BrainWise concepts.
CEC Students Use Kahoot and Jeopardy Games to Reinforce BrainWise
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