Simple, yet effective social responsibility strategies you can try today to teach kids to be more responsible, make good choices and set attainable goals.
Over 80 amazing, simple proprioceptive activities for kids. Learn benefits of proprioceptive input to calm, focus, and alert.
There's a lot of ground to cover when you teach creative narrative writing. Here are 5 creative narrative mini-lessons you should be sure to use!
If you want to know how to teach kids about germs and the importance of proper handwashing, this collection of germ activities for kids will not disappoint!
Doesn't just focus on "what" kids learn, it focuses more on "how" kids learn best... Knows the difference between something that is hard, and something that is rigorous... Makes learning both relevant and meaningful... Recognizes we're preparing our students for a world that doesn't yet exist using technology that hasn't yet been invented to solve problems we haven't even thought of... Embraces the notion that education should be done "with" our students, rather than "to" our students... Provides opportunities for students to explore, discover, create & experience failure... Accepts that the world is a playground for learners, and learning can no longer be contained to the four walls of a classroom... Understands that you can't be "data-driven" unless you actually make adjustments and modifications to your instructional practices as a result of that data...
10 fun and educational ESL activities for busy teachers! Try these games and activities in your classroom (or virtual classroom) today!
Blog Description Here
Learn the step-by-step process to plan project based learning in this blog post. Then download your free PBL planning guide!
To help you remember the spirit you felt, here is one quote from each April 2024 general conference talk.
Do you like to prank your students with harmless and silly pranks? They can be a great way to build relationships. Come get some fun ideas!
Find properties of matter activities and high-engagement science experiments that will excite your second grade scientists! Learn creative teaching ideas you can use tomorrow in your 2nd grade classroom or homeschool.
Force and motion have to be one of my favorite units to teach! First, you can teach it at any time of the year. Movement doesn't happen at certain times of the year. It's everywhere all the time! Second, it's fun to teach because it's hands on. And that's what kids love. It keeps them
I’m lame. I’ll just admit it. I usually forget to plan something cool for April Fool’s. I’m the one looking for a last-minute joke to play so I don’t expose myself as …
So absolutely no judgment for teachers who use paint chips for lessons because #itsforthekids , but if you are like me and feel a little sheepish stuffing 100 of these into your bag at the hardware store, I have a solution for you! First, here are my favorite paint chip poetry lesson plans: Paint Name Haiku- Paint names ... Read More about Paint Chip Poetry Without the Guilt + Literary Paint Names
The biggest barrier to teaching coding is the misconception that it is another skill that needs to be taught. In reality, coding is simply a tool that can be leveraged to teach standards in a more powerful, creative, and connected way!
I recently developed a slight obsession with Shrinky Dinks. It was one of my favorite crafting activities as a child, and now as a mom, my daughter is having fun with it too. If you’ve never used it, it’s basically thin sheets of plastic that you can cut and color and then bake in the oven, […]
We spent the last two weeks learning about animal classification. This all came about last year when we were doing our rain forest animal reports. Many of
Simple Science experiment that shows how liquid impacts a magnet.
Free printable games and activities to teach kids about healthy eating. Healthy eating activities for kids.
Children need the experience of feeling emotions and practice tolerating them to develop self-control and emotional intelligence.
Even my students who “don’t have time” for homework spend 2-3 hours a day on Facebook, YouTube, and Netflix. Our students consume media in amazing quantities, and it’s said that traditional advertising doesn’t work on their generation. As advertisers become more and more savvy in an attempt to break through to their younger listeners, it’s important that students understand how to identify the ways in which a speaker could be manipulating their emotions and instincts. Here are some activities for helping students develop an awareness of persuasive techniques. You can use these to start a larger conversation about being an informed viewer (and citizen!) in today’s media-driven climate. 1. Introduction to Rhetoric Use this activity to introduce (or refresh) ethos, logos, and pathos. Students watch two videos and complete a Doodle Notes worksheet, eventually synthesizing the concepts. My students really enjoy watching these short, animated videos a couple of times in order to make sure they “get it”, and the Doodle Notes provide a nice visual to help them remember the important ideas! You can grab them here. 2. “Buy My Pencil” In this activity, students try to convince each other to buy a pencil. They will employ a variety of persuasive techniques, even if they do not yet have the names for all of them. This is because students absorb persuasion constantly, and demonstrate various techniques on a hunch. After a few minutes of letting them try to sell a partner their pencil, call students back together and have them describe the techniques they used. To extend this, you can have students perform these impromptu skits in front of a larger group or in front of the class. This is a great way to get some informal public speaking practice, and I’m always a proponent of making public speaking less intimidating. 3. Introduction to Persuasive Techniques I use this interactive PowerPoint will help students put names to the techniques they’ve grown up hearing and using. Students will be able to identify techniques in context and apply their knowledge of ethos, logos, and pathos. To break up the term-definition monotony, I have students “buzz in” to identify the techniques in some example ads. I also include Think-Pair-Share to get them to generate more examples of various techniques they’ve seen in recent commercials. 4. Persuasive Tweets A fun bellringer or exit slip activity for practicing persuasive techniques is Persuasive Tweets. In 140 characters or less, students can use one persuasive technique to sell something. I’ve had success giving all students one item (similar to “Buy My Pen”) and having them draw a persuasive technique from a hat. You can download my list of persuasive techniques for this activity here. 5. News Literacy Project The News Literacy Project is a new tool that I would like to integrate into my curriculum throughout the year to help students determine the credibility and levels of bias in various news reports. I’m still in the early stages of exploring this project, but they have online modules that take students through the steps of developing media literacy. According to their site, “As students progress through the checkology™ platform, journalists from The New York Times, The Washington Post, BuzzFeed, NBC News and other news outlets are joined by experts on the First Amendment and digital media to guide them through each lesson’s core concepts. These e-learning experiences use real-world examples of news and information that test students’ emerging skills and lead them to mastery.” This has huge potential to help our students become informed, discerning citizens! Wow! 6. Commercial Analysis My students really enjoy applying their new knowledge to commercials! This is a perfect activity to use in this post-football time of the year. Students are still talking about commercials aired during the Super Bowl, and you can find a “top ten” list of commercials to bring to class (vetted first by you for content). Have students choose a commercial, and follow this step-by-step analysis of persuasive techniques. They can complete this alone or in pairs, and can present in small groups. For an added bonus, let them show the commercials in class. Persuasive Techniques are a great way to get students engaged and thinking. You can help develop their media literacy and challenge them to consider the incoming messages. 7. Pop Culture Analysis I LOVE implementing short texts, like music, songs, video games, and more. I simply can't stand the hours of research it entails to find the right short text...so, we've done that part for you with a Pop Culture Analysis Bundle that features... 🎵 15 short texts (see the titles below) 📽️ 15 easy-to-implement standards-aligned lesson plans 📺 Options for discussion strategies 🎮 Editing capabilities to personalize & differentiate This resource also includes the first digital escape game of Terminus and a week of Poetry Bell Ringers. Each Pop Culture Analysis lesson plan includes… ✨ Background information on the short text ✨ Any pre-knowledge (if applicable) ✨ An objective to guide their learning ✨ An anticipatory activity ✨ A group analysis ✨ A wrap-up activity ✨ Extension ideas to continue the learning You can learn more about this resource and even find a FREEBIE of one lesson over at this blog post! Check out these great resources by other Coffee Shop authors: Logical Fallacies by The Daring English Teacher Media Literacy/Advertising Activities by Addie Williams Analyzing Music Videos by Stacey Lloyd What are your favorite resources and activities for teaching persuasive techniques? Pin this article for future reference. :)
Prepare your students for state testing with these tips and ideas! Learn a variety of test taking strategies, ways to motivate your students before testing, and get some ideas on how to engage them during test prep!
Domain and range is a skill that can be challenging for students & thus challenging for teachers. Here are the best ways to teach domain and range.
Are you struggling to meet the needs of all your learners? Learn how to differentiate for EVERY student without spending hours prepping!
Teaching wind to preschoolers is important, yet merely discussing the topic isn’t enough. Keep your class engaged by incorporating wind-themed activities. Not only will these activities teach them about the wind, but they can also help develop many other essential skills. Take a look at the wind activities presented below and add them to your ... Read more
Hello Everyone! What a great day to start a study on clouds!! Dark clouds this morning releasing a deluge of rain! By 1:00 beautiful clear sky with just a few cirrus clouds! Perfect example of our ever changing skies. I'll share our Cloud Unit in a second, but first I wanted to show some pics of our whole group math lesson. We are continuing our study of place value. After all the activities we did last week, it was time to see how all of this fits in relationship to other numbers. I pulled out our bigger than life 100 board and handed out some mystery picture clues. Each clue described a number in place value (tens and ones). The kids took turns putting their cards on the number for which their clue stood. When we finished putting all the clues down, a cloud was revealed! Use your imagination! It looks like a cloud, right??? The kids loved working together to create it!! I'm not even sure they realized they were growing their number sense!!! I did put together a little integrated cloud unit. We are going to try to get most of this in this week!! The unit also includes some poetry, another science activity and more!! You can get it if you click HERE!! Stay tuned for more cloud fun later in the week! Until then, have a wonderful week!! Thanks for stopping by for a peek!! Joyfully! Nancy
Help your students understand how nonrenewable resources do not last with this hands-on science activity that is perfect for any elementary teacher!
Managing middle school classrooms can be challenging. Consider using these five ideas to help make managing middle school a little easier!
Friend April 1986 Try to figure out what the riddle is about (missionaries). Read the rebus clues. From the list choose the word that best describes the picture and draw a line from it to the pictu…
Another fun activity! In April, we planned an activity that focused on topics that pertain to Emergency Preparedness. We had such fun ...
First piano lessons- easiest way to learn the notes is a fun animal memory game that teaches the names and positions of notes that Kids love!
Teaching about plants? Get this FREE photosynthesis game to use in your classroom today. This student favorite is print and go ready!
This week I introduced visualizing to my little ones with a super easy and powerful lesson! Visualizing is such an important comprehension standard in primary grades! As our students delve […]
Have you ever thought about using wordless videos in your speech therapy lessons? It increases engagement! Start with these videos...
Enhance classroom management with a sand timer! Discover simple tips to promote student listening in kindergarten with a 2-minute sand timer.
Download This Writing Worksheet (PDF) When it comes to writing dialogue, you could do worse than follow the rules of Just a Minute: no hesitation, no repetition, no deviation. Theatre scripts provide excellent inspiration for good dialogue, being composed of little else, and having been written with speech at the forefront, without film’s excessive reliance on visual…
Or, no one can avoid getting older, but everyone can prevent premature vocal aging by maintaining vocal and physical conditioning. April Brookins Duvic, Presenter – Vocal Music Program Direct…
HyperDocs make room for more interactive, personalized, and student-directed learning. Let's look at how they work.
During poetry stations, students move around the classroom doing various activities related to poetry. The station activity in this blog post has students read an engaging poem and respond to the poem in an unconventional way. If you’d like to replicate this activity in your classroom here are the s
I happened across this Thinglink by April Requard as I was perusing Pinterest this weekend. (You can follow her on Twitter at @aprilrequard.) In our district the SAMR (Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, Redefinition) model is becoming a hot topic of conversation. We have had several inservices this year in which this acronym has come up. As we continue to venture down the path of going 1:1/ 1:2 in our district, we want our staff to be prepared for technology integration beyond the substitution level as we continue to raise the bar for our students, as well as for ourselves. This Thinkglink gives some nice examples of apps that fit under each of the categories and when you click on the nubbin (the little round circle by each app) you'll get the name of the app and a little more information about that app I've personally used many of these apps in my classroom, yes, even the substitution apps. I truly believe that even substituion apps have a place in the classroom if it ties in with your curriculum and is not just being used for the sake of using technology. For example, my class used the Drawing Pad app last week to record our mental images from a story. Could we have done our drawings on a piece of paper with crayons? You bet we could have, however, the engagement factor in my room went up 10 fold by using our ipads and having the variety of colors and tools available that we wouldn't otherwise have had. Plain and simple, the drawing of our mental image on the iPad was substitution. Taking this simple idea to the Augmentation level, we are able to share our images globally via our class Twitter account or with any of our buddy classes around the Unites States. This is something that we weren't able to do with just paper and pencil. It is definitely a functional improvement and one which my students look forward to. The more I embed technology, the more I find myself questioning my use of the technology in my curriculum. Is it simply substitution and if so, is it worth doing? Sometimes the answer is still yes, but other times, no- the time needed doesn't justify the results. How can I take a technology integrated project and take it to the next level? As I've become more comfortable with managing a class set of iPads and more comfortable with curricular components, I often find myself looking to take a project to a new level. I truly believe that as educators technology integration is an path that we need to become comfortable with and sooner rather than later. That being said though, we also need to allow ourselves to move through all four phases of the SAMR model. Not every lesson every day will be at the modification and redefinition level. There is a time and a place for substitution and augmentation within our day. How are your using the SAMR model in your classrooms???
