Exciting Homework

I don't love homework and neither does my class. I wanted to find a way to make homework exciting, creative and enjoyable. I am constantly on social media sites looking for new ideas, scanning hundreds of Pinterest boards, checking out resource sites and reading my Twitter feed. My goal is to ultimately make my classroom learning so amazing kids are excited to come to school and attendance improves. The same goes for my homework. It is important that I set something because I am getting my students ready for High School.

 I wanted to share this idea I found on Ms. Lopez in the Art Room (this is a fantastic site for getting art ideas). They are autobiography maps, this is a create way for students to tell you more about themselves that they may not know and it is aligned with the curriculum and NCEA with visual literacy. Students are creating a map with a key and compass that is a symbolic representation of themselves.

I wanted to one up this again and include a research aspect to their homework on their name. Students had to find out where their name came from, what it meant, why their parents chose it and write a little description about themselves. This was so engaging for them and so interesting for the rest of the class. Definitely a homework task I will be setting at the start of next year!