A few weeks ago, BIC sent me a package of some of their new back to school goodies. There were 3 different 4-color pens in the box. I remember how fun these were when I was growing up but I always remember that they didn’t work well back then. Of course, I probably got the cheapo kind from the school store. Anyway, I thought I’d give them a try again and see what I could use them for in the classroom.
Let me just tell you, I am loving them so I thought I’d share some different ways you could use 4-color pens in your classroom. It’s something that I’ve never really thought of before but it may save you a lot of time in the long run instead of having your students pull out 4 different colors of crayons. We all know how that goes. Someone can’t find a red. Someone’s crayon snaps in two. Yep, we’ve all been there and know how frustrating that can be.
So here are 3 bright ideas for using the 4-color pens:
(1) Use them to edit writing.
We’ve been working on finding different things in our writing with different colors. For example, my students have to circle misspelled words in blue. We circle letters that need to be capitalized in red. The 4-color pen makes this so much for fun for the kids and so much easier on the teacher.
(2) Rainbow writing made easy
Students can use the pens to write their sight words or spelling words and trace over them in different colors.
(3) Color code your evidence when close reading.
When
we find evidence in our passages when close reading, we often underline
the sentences using different colors of crayons. For example, the
answer to question # 1 is underlined in blue. The answer to question #2
is underlined in red. The 4-color pen makes this so much easier. Just a
click and you can move on to another piece of evidence.
(4) Recording student data
If your school is like my school, you have color codes for different levels like basic and advanced. When recording weekly data, it’s easy to use the 4-color pen to color code for the different levels.
I hope you enjoyed this bright idea. For more Bright Ideas from over 100 bloggers, please browse through the
link-up below and choose a topic or grade level that interests you.
Thanks for visiting!
Ohhhhh, I LOVE the idea of using these for editing! So much simpler than my multiple bins of different colored pens! Thanks for sharing!
Blair
Courtney, my dear, you are a genius! Now, if I could only get my kiddos to bring in pens..LOL
I need these NOW! I love the idea of using them in a spelling center for rainbow writing!
Linda
AroundtheKampfire
Sometimes it takes little tricks like this to keep the engagement up! Great idea! Now to find some pens!!!
Jennifer with Simply Kinder