One of my favorite units to teach is Germs. I really love teaching any health unit, but germs is such a relatable unit for our kids. It's perfect to teach at any time of the year, but especially during cold and flu season. Germs Pacing Guide I use a lot of Brain Pop, Jr. videos, picture books, and a few paper resources in my unit. I also have a couple of hands-on, fun activities to add in when we have some extra time. My favorite germ books are: A Germ's Journey by Thom Rooke, MD Sick Simon by Dan Kroll Do Not Lick This Book by Idan Ben-Barak Blow Your Nose, Big Bad Wolf by Steve Smallman Germs Make Me Sick! by Melvin Berger The Bacteria Book by Steve Mould Achoo! The Most Interesting Book You'll Ever Read About Germs by Trudee Romanek There are a lot of really good ones. I have them all linked on my Amazon page for you. One my favorite activities to do is a germ experiment to model the importance of washing with soap and water. Get out the glitter and lotion for this one. This is basically what I do: 1- Put lotion and glitter (germs) on everyone's hands. 2- Have them all shake hands, give high fives, share pencils, etc. This shows the spread of germs. 3- Try washing with just water and shaking dry. 4- Wash with soap, water, and dry with a paper towel. You'll model how to wash hands properly and how easily germs are spread. It's easy, and the kids always really like it. Another one of my favorite activities is to make germ models out of Play Doh or modeling clay. I have them pull up pictures of germs on the iPads, and then choose one to model their germ after. You can even have the kids do a little bit of writing about that particular germ. Is it a bacteria? Is it a virus? What symptoms does it cause? Add a little bit of whimsy by adding some googly eyes. Another crafty idea is to make blow painted germs and then have the students write facts about germs or specifically bacteria/viruses. Blow painting is so fun, and most of the students will have never done this before. Here's a video to model it. You'll need: tempera paint, water, straws (1 per student), cups, and white construction paper (1 per student). 1- Add tempera paint to a cup, and mix in about 2 tablespoons of water. I'm not exact about this. The consistency needs to be thin enough to pick up and blow but not so thin that it's a watery mess. 2- Students will each get a straw, and they'll use the straw like a medicine dropper to pick up the paint. If you have medicine droppers, use those. They'll be easier. I just don't have any of those. 3- Gently blow the paint onto the paper. 4- Add a few different colors, and blow until you like the shape. 5- Once the germs are dry, draw on a little mouth with a Sharpie and add googly eyes. You can download the writing paper here. Throughout my unit, my students work in their germs flip books. We don't do the entire thing at once. We do a page or two at a time, as they coordinate with the day's lesson. I love using a flip book, because it's pretty printer friendly and the kids find them engaging. At the end of the unit, they have something to show their work and study from. You can find my germs flip book here. I also created a set of simple worksheets that coordinate with the lessons and the flip book. I typically make them into a packet, and we work on them with different lessons. The puzzles are nice for early finishers. The worksheets are found here. Germs Worksheets I always feel like when teaching about germs, it's important to teach about healthy habits and leading a healthy life style- Nutrition, sleep, mindfulness, etc. Balance Your Lunch Tray Game Please Don't Pick Your Nose Poem Here's a list of all of the resources that I use for my germs unit. Some are in my Google Drive, and some are on TPT. Germs Flip Book Germs Worksheets Please Don't Pick Your Nose poem Bacteria and Virus writing papers Balanced Your Lunch Tray Game Hand Washing Posters and Song Pin me to save for later!
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Citizenship is such a fun topic to teach students. Watching the light bulb go off when they learn that they are here to serve the world is inspiring. So where should we start when teaching citizenship? Some key points to teach while addressing citizenship include: What makes us a citizen? Rules and Laws Rights and Responsibilities Contributions to Community Lessons are so much better when you add in a hook that engages children. We always like to start this unit off with an explanation of why we need to be a good citizen. This includes contributions to our community. Consider using Kid President to explain the hows and whys of contributing to our community. I've included a video link for you below. These books are a good place to start if you need material to read to your students for citizenship. Every teaching unit needs engaging activities that present students with a hands-on learning experience. A great example of an engaging educator is Debbie Clement. I've compiled a pinterest board with a creative project from her and some other suggestions for you. Time is always an issue in the classroom for me. Due to this, I created materials that I could use quickly and efficiently. If you are in need of any more materials check out my unit. Take care!
Podcasts are getting really popular these days – you can listen to them anytime, anywhere. More and more people are starting their own podcasts, but there's a tricky part: coming up with cool and new stuff to talk about.
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The Idea Web with Lines (by Study with Murphy) is a brainstorming web I have developed for my students. My students benefit from having the structure of lined paper when writing, which many graphic organizers do not contain. My store specializes in developing visually simple graphic organizers and other learning tools for use with Special Education students across content areas, including literacy and mathematics in grades K-5. Included in this document: an idea web/topic web for brainstorming that has lines for students who struggle to write on unlined paper.
Podcasts are getting really popular these days – you can listen to them anytime, anywhere. More and more people are starting their own podcasts, but there's a tricky part: coming up with cool and new stuff to talk about.
Teaching photosynthesis in upper elementary science does not have to be boring. Check out this idea on role playing how photosynthesis works!
Free Worksheets PRESCHOOL WORKSHEETS ⭐ ⭐ KINDERGARTEN WORKSHEETS ⭐ Alphabet WorksheetsFree Alphabet Letter Printables, ABC Tracing, Blank Templates. Coloring Pages, Mazes, Worksheets, Activities.... Math WorksheetsAddition, Multiplication, Place Value, Fractions, Number Order, Rounding, Comparing, Measurement
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An extensive list of travel content ideas and different travel topics so you can come up with content for your travel articles and blog posts.
Let me take a minute to address my post regarding Staples new rewards program for teachers. I thank everyone who commented. It seems I am not alone in my dismay with this revised program. Please, reach out to Staples and let them know how you feel, whether you agree with me or agree with them. It is important for our voices to be heard either way. I would love to see them revert back to the old program or at least offer up some reason as to why the change was necessary. * * * * * * * * * * * * I wrote a post a while back about foldables and lapbooks. If you haven't seen the post, go visit. I was able to link to some great pdfs of foldable books by Dinah Zike, the queen of all things foldable! :-) I used some of her foldable ideas on lapbooks my friends were working on recently. I have done lapbooks on occasion before, but they are not a staple in my teaching for one main reason; they take a long time to get done! While I do believe they are worth every minutes spent on them, the current curriculum I have to follow does not allow me to linger. I know that they can be done in less time if you do them on a smaller scale, but mine always seem to take on a life of their own! I like doing them because you can really do so much with them. Most importantly, my friends love the project feel of it all. Every time I have done them, my friends are always eager to work. Also, when they see their final project completed, they are a little in awe of themselves. Love it! In our guided reading groups, my friends were working in three different books, one on volcanoes, one on King Tut, and the last on the history of Jazz music. Speaking of which, on a total aside, do you know the Cheesecake song as sung by Louis Armstrong? If you don't know it, watch this! I show this to my friends every year, and we end up singing it all year long. I promise you will have this song stuck in your head! And, just wait for Bing Crosby to come hopping through! Too funny! Isn't that just great!!!! We will often substitute the word cheesecake with pizza or tacos or any featured lunch menu item. Any two syllable word will work. Most of my friends are also in their second year of instrumental lessons, so they love seeing some of the instruments they play featured. Anyway, back to lapbooks! I thought I would show you some of what we did. I forgot to get pictures of the Jazz books, but here is some of what my friends did with Volcanoes and King Tut. Be warned, many pictures to follow! One of the big lessons for this activity was getting my friends to effectively summarize and show synthesis. I'm happy to say they did a very nice job. What was also another perk was the interest my friends had for the books they didn't read. Once they saw the various lapbooks, they wanted to read all the books. I have to say, I do love doing lapbooks with my friends. But, for me, it can be very time consuming. It also requires a lot of pre-planning. You have to have the foldable papers cut to size and ready to go. You also have to carefully plan what you will be doing with each section. You also need to be prepared for that friend whose fine motor skills make a mess of the folding! Always have some extras ready to go! Having said that, I will definitely be doing lapbooks again next year. :-)
I hear from a lot of my clients and students that you want to be more client-focused in your copywriting. So, today I want to give you 88 client-focused words that you can start using in your copywriting that help convert!Let's hit it.
Calling all B2Bs, are you stuck for ideas when it comes to social media and content creation? Don't worry as the team at Get Wordy have created 100 B2B content ideas to help you out. Use them to write your very own blogs, split them up into social media posts or send out an engaging email. Either way, each of these B2B content ideas will help to engage your target audience and show off your authority in the sector.
Help your students understand and create timelines with this engaging, interactive collection of timeline projects and activities that would work for reading, social studies, or any content area! This resource is full of 12 different timeline variations that are sure to engage your students while teaching them this important social studies (or even reading graphic sources) skill! It's perfect for projects or practice once a month! It is also great for morning work, fast finishers (or early finishers), centers, homework, small group work, partner work, individual classwork, or even whole group! It is also perfect for tutors or substitutes. This activity helps your students practice chronological order, practice identifying the most important details (determining importance), and other significant information related to historical or timeline events. Plus, it aligns well with the Reading Common Core! File Type PDF (Acrobat) Document File Be sure that you have an application to open this file type before downloading and/or purchasing.
Looking for inspiration on posts about mental health? Here are some mental health blog topic ideas for your content calendar:
The culture of blog posts has changed drastically in the last 10 years. Back then, you were able to get away with writing 500-word fluff stuffed to the brim with keywords for a better ranking on Google. In today’s online world, though, it’s more important than ever that your posts provide genuine va
This time of year we can capitalize on our student’s independence, understanding, and academic maturity! With all that greatness comes a little too much familiarity of routine for some. We...
Learn about the butterfly life cycle by making a life cycle cup with this free printable.
Minds in Bloom is pleased to present Bethany Lau with her post on teaching heredity. We think you'll enjoy it! Science in elementary school should be all about fun. In fact, science at all levels
Teaching photosynthesis in upper elementary science does not have to be boring. Check out this idea on role playing how photosynthesis works!
Lots of choices of Growth Mindset bulletin board ideas
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One way to start a new topic is to create a KWL Chart (a 3 column list) with your students. Magnetic Energy In the 1st column, list what the students think they Know about the topic. In the 2nd column, list what they Wonder about the topic. (They can list their questions about the topic here.) After the topic/unit is complete, in the 3rd column, list what the children have Learned. Animal Magnets Bought at a Hardware Store After the students (and teacher) have filled in the 1st and 2nd column of the KWL Chart, give each child a magnet. Any magnet will work! Refrigerator magnets will work great! Have students explore (go around the house or classroom) and find 10 or more items (refrigerator, dishwasher, file cabinet, steel door, etc.) that the magnets "stick to" or are "attracted to". Caution the kids to stay away from the computer!) They should list these items in their science notebooks. (Younger kids could look for less objects and sketch pictures instead.) You can make it a contest and see which child can list the most items that the magnet will attract. Children can then share their lists with each other. Ask children what they think all these items have in common. Share with the children that magnets will only attract items made of iron, steel, nickel, or cobalt. You can visit Learning Workroom's website for a FREE KWL Chart that you can download and print. Click here: http://www.LearningWorkroom.com Then go to: Free Worksheets Here are some good children's books on magnets. Magnets- Pulling Together - Pushing Apart
This graphic by teachbytes organizes different ideas for using pinterest in the classroom according to Bloom's revised taxonomy.
Lesson 1 Content Objective: Students will build background knowledge about the food chain after watching a video and listening to a book about it. Language Objectives: Ss will respond orally to questions after watching a video clip about food chain. (Listening & Speaking) Ss will complete a graphic organizer to illustrate an example of the food chain. (Visual literacy) Materials Pictures cards: horse, giraffe, elephant, zebra, rabbit, cow/ eagle, lion, bear, leopard, tiger/ dog, turkey, pig Venn diagram Discovery Channel:: What is Food Chain? Non-fiction book, “The Food Chain,” (from readinga-z.com) Graphic Organizer, Animal pictures (plant, grasshopper, frog, fish, bear) scissors, glue, marker and color pencils Warm-up ü Ss will look at the pictures of animals on a pocket chart and classify the name of animals to each category: Plant Eater (herbivore), Meat Eater (carnivore), and both (omnivore). Use Venn Diagram to talk about ‘meat eater’ vs ‘plant eater’ Guided Practice ü Use realia to show Ss that a chain is made of links. ü Introduce term “food chain” by watching a video clip (discovery channel: What is Food Chain?). ü T distributes copies of book The Food Chain. Ss will read through and discuss pictures and ideas on each page. Independent Practice ü Ss will be given a graphic organizer and animal pictures. Ss will color and glue the pictures on a graphic organizer of the food chain sequence. ü Ss will orally explain their food chains to the teacher. Lesson 2 Content Objective: Students will build background knowledge about the food chain after watching a video and listening to a book about it. Language Objectives: Ss will write sentences to recall the sequence of events from a non-fiction book. (Writing) Materials: Blank sentence strips, sentence frame Guided Practice ü Students will be given five blank sentence strips. ü Ss will write sentences to show the relationship between a producer and a consumer. ü Ss will be guided to write five sentences in sequential order. The first sentence will be given and Ss will copy or write: The plant grows. ü The sentence frame will be provided: The_________ eats the __________. Independent Practice ü Ss will write four more sentences to describe the picture of the food chain shown in their graphic organizers. ü Ss will read each sentence to sequence all sentence strips in sequential order. ü If time allows, Ss will play food chain games online. http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/content/animals/kidscorner/games/foodchaingame.htm Food Chain Graphic Organizer Food Chain Pics
Use this self-assessment card to allow your students to quickly assess themselves after your activity or lesson. Students can use a vis-a-vis or expo marker to assess themselves on this laminated card. The teacher can quickly assess how the class did on the new topic/content. This product goes well with the self-assessment whiteboard emoji display in my store (also FREE!) Feel free to e-mail with any questions: [email protected]
What bin do these items go into? This recycling sorting game is a fun way to introduce kids to the basics of re-purposing waste!
