It always amazes me how fast the new school year flies by!  I’ve been busy refreshing a couple of my back to school lessons.  The Reading Brain Hat activity was one of the first ones I chose!

As a teacher and a librarian,  I spend a lot of time talking about getting your brain “ready to read”.  One way that I do this is to introduce the BRAIN HAT.  I tell my students that “putting the brain hat on” turns on your brain and gets it ready to read!  I wanted to show them how when you read, your brain needs to be actually DOING something, not just reading the words (although that part is important as well).

Where To Find The Brain Hats

I originally found this awesome brain hat late one night back in 2013, and thought it would be perfect to demonstrate the “thinking” that goes on when I am reading a Fiction story.  It even says “Think” on the underside of the flap!  (You can read more about that original lesson here.)  I tried to find the BRAIN HAT again recently as a gift, and sadly it’s not longer available.  However, I did purchase this “Thinking Cap” on Amazon.com instead.  I think it’ll still work great!  You can also have your students create their own “brain hat” by downloading this awesome template in color or black and white here!

Here’s how I’ve used activity:  

I originally used thought bubbles to represent the Fiction Story Elements (characters, setting, events, problem, solution).  I hot glued the thought bubbles to popsicle sticks. Then I added a Velcro circle to the bottom of each popsicle stick. Finally, I put the matching Velcro circle around the rim of the hat.   We would review each of the Story Elements on the hat before reading the story.  When I was finished reading, I would ask the students to retell the story as I removed each element.  Recently, I had an inspiration that your brain “lights up” when you remember details from a story.  Immediately, I started updating this activity to use lightbulbs instead of thought bubbles!  Each lightbulb includes the name of the story element and graphics to help my non-readers. I also included a quick definition of each element.

During the first lesson, I explained to the students that it’s important to get your brain turned on before you read.   I put my actual brain hat on, and I had them pretend to put theirs on as well.  As we began to read the story, I would pause and put a popsicle stick on the hat, and we would talk about what that story element meant. By the time the story was done, my brain hat was filled with the CHARACTERS of the story, the SETTING, the PROBLEM, the SOLUTION, and all the EVENTS that happened throughout the story.   I then had them help me go back over all the popsicle sticks one more time, this time taking them off as we retold the story.  I reminded them that when they finish reading their stories, they needed to have that information in their head as well. 

Generally, I use this activity with my Kinder and 1st graders. However, 2nd and 3rd graders can use the review as well.   As a result, I created a few alternative vocabulary words (Setting & Time, Plot, Conflict, and Resolution) to use with my older grades.  I also created an activity page and bookmark to help the students practice using their BRAIN HATS in the classroom.

Are you interested in using this BRAIN HAT activity with your students?  You can find everything you need here at my TpT Store here. 

I hope you found this useful! 🙂