Try this simple activity with your child to guesstimate the age of a tree in your yard and nurture her developing math skills while you're at it!

Have you used the Revised Bloom's Taxonomy before? I love the HUGE lists of verbs associated with each level of thinking and it helps me when writing my plans, learning targets, and activities in my class. I made these posters a while back and was struggling this year with finding a place to put them. Then, I remembered my handy-dandy PDF print tutorial about shrinking posters (find more info HERE- for this size, I chose the 2x2 and Landscape options) and voila, usable posters for easy reference: I am loving these little guys- they are 1/4 the size and perfect for kids and teachers alike! We are really starting to dig deeper in our reading groups during the Teacher Time part of Daily 5 and these have come in very handy. I have added them to my bin of Teacher Time Tools and will often have the kids flip to a certain color (the levels are in the colors of the rainbow- red, orange, yellow, green, blue & purple) and generate questions and discussions for our small group based on the verbs listed. These were so much fun as we made our way through our book, Judy Moody! We created our own "Me Collages" when we finished reading (Creating), practiced writing summaries along the way (Understanding), and compared the character of Judy Moody at the beginning of the book with the end of the book (Analyzing). So easy to keep organized and purposeful with these! This packet includes each skill (Remembering, Understanding, Applying, Analyzing, Evaluating, and Creating) on a poster. Under the skill is a question to help give you and your students a big-picture idea of that level, then you can go further with the bullet list of verbs. Cute clip art from Scrappin' Doodles helps make it catchy for your kiddos :) I hope you can use them in your class! They are available in my TpT Store now! Do you and your students use Bloom's? I'd love to hear how- leave me a comment below!

1. Attach an image (photo, magazine, etc.) to a notebook page and write about it. 2. What things will people in the future say about how we live now? (Examples: They ate that? They believed that?) 3. Pick one from each list to make a creature and animal combination. Now write a short story or scene in which this creature appears. List 1 List 2 Vampire porcupine Ninja armadillo Zombie pig Pirate goat Mummy lobster Clown possum Banshee shark Wraith moray eel 4. Imagine a future in which we each have a personalized robot servant. What would yours be like? What would it do? What features would it have? 5. What does your name mean? Free write about names: names you like, names you don’t, how a name can affect a person’s life, how you feel about your own name, why your parents chose your name, etc. 6. Create a brand new holiday with its own traditions, rituals, foods, and activities. 7. What road-trip would you take if you suddenly could? Write about it. 8. List six true sentences that begin with the words “I'll never forget…” 9. Imagine that we lost all electricity, water, and gas for a month without any time to prepare. Write about how your life would change and how you would survive. 10. Make your bucket list for the next 5 years, the next 10 years, and for life. 11. Tell this story: “Well, I thought it was going to be a regular summer doing all our regular things…” 12. List 10 places in the world that you would most like to visit, 10 places you’ve been, and 10 places you would never want to go. 13. Think about hospitality in your family. What’s it like to have guests in your house? Do you prefer to have friends to your house or to go to a friend’s house? 14. Pick a family member of two and write about his or her reputation in your family, or tell a family legend. 15. A guitar pick, a red balloon, and a wicker basket. Write a scene or a poem that includes these three objects. 16. What animal would judge us the most? Write a scene (based on truth or fiction) where two or more people are doing something silly, and they're being observed and criticized by animals. 17. Write about your own worst family vacation memory. 18. Write about your best family vacation memory. 19. Imagine that someone says to you, “Because that's how we've always done it!” Write this out as a scene. (Think: Who said it, what were the circumstances, how did you respond, etc.) 20. What do you think about when you can't sleep? Turn it into a piece of writing. 21. What traditions does your family have? List all of them or just pick one and write about it. 22. Think about your strongest emotion right now (irritation, boredom, happiness, contentment, etc.) and find five quotes about this emotion. 23. What do you struggle with the most? Write about it. 24. Write a self-portrait. 25. What can we learn from contrast? Write a description of something very dark (like a crow) in a very light place (like a field of snow). Make the dark thing seem innocent and the light thing seem ominous. 26. Write about someone who has no enemies. Is it even possible? 27. Think of a person from your past who really deserved a good scolding but never got one. Write a fictional piece where you tell that person off intelligently. 28. Can honesty honestly be bad? Write about someone, fact or fiction, who gets in trouble for being too truthful. 29. The word “fat” carries a negative connotation. Write a story or observation where something fat is celebrated. 30. What animal lives beneath your human skin? A mouse? A cougar? Or what? Explain with writing. 31. Write about the best piece of advice you ever received. 32. Remember a favorite book from your childhood. Write a scene that includes you and an old copy of that book you find somewhere. --> 33. “I was so mortified, I wanted to crawl in a hole!” Write a short narrative (fiction or nonfiction) where this is your first sentence. Illustrate it if you want. 34. Should books ever be banned? Discuss. If no, explain why. You might want to look at a least of commonly banned books. If yes, explain under what circumstances. 35. Ernest Hemingway said to “write hard and clear about what hurts.” Write about something that hurts, whether it’s an emotional, physical, or phantom pain. 36. What if everyone had to wear a shirt with his or her Myers-Briggs personality type on it? What would this change? How would this affect the way people interact with each other? Would you like this or hate it? (If you don’t know your “type,” try this site. 37. William Shakespeare wrote that: “Conversation should be pleasant without scurrility, witty without affectation, free without indecency, learned without conceitedness, novel without falsehood.” Write your thoughts about conversation, or make up dialogue between two characters who are meeting each other for the first time in an unexpected place. 38. Tell this story: “There it was, finally. Our island. Our very own island. It looked beautiful above the waves of fog, but there was still one question to be answered: why had they sold it to us for only five dollars?” 39. Maya Angelou said “I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way s/he handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.” Tell a story in which a character has to deal with one, two, or all three of these scenarios. How does your character respond? 40. You have a chance to go back and completely re-do an event in your life. What is it, and how to you change it? What is the outcome? This can be a real or fictional event. 41. Pick two characters from different books you’ve read this year and have them get in an argument about something (e.g., who has suffered more, who has had a happier life, etc.). 42. The one shoe in the road: why is it there? Write a story about the circumstances that led to one shoe in the middle of the road. 43. You get to guest star on a TV show. What show is it? What happens in this particular episode? 44. What would you pack in your suitcase if you could not go home again? 45. You can only use 20 words for the rest of your life. You can repeat them as often as you wish, but you can only use these words. What are they? 46. What current fashion in clothing do you particularly like or dislike? Why? 47. Choose five symbols or objects that represent you. Why did you choose these things? 48. "When I stepped outside, the whole world smelled like…" Write a scene that starts with that line. 49. Write a poem entitled "Hitchhiking on a Saturday Afternoon." 50. Use these two lines of dialogue in a story: "What's in your hand?" "It's mine. I found it." 51. Write a scene that happens in a parking lot between a teenager and a man in a convertible. 52. If you only had one window to look out of for the next six months, what would you want to see on the other side? Describe the view. How would it change? 53. Write a story for children. Start with “Once upon a time” or “Long ago in a land far away.” Include a dragon, a deadly flower, and a mask. 54. "Did she actually just say that?" Write a scene that includes this line. 55. “Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family. Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one.” — Jane Howard. Write what comes to mind when you read this quote. 56. List five things you want in a relationship. 57. List ten favorite lines from movies. 58. Write about the biggest mistake you made this week. Now write about the best thing you did this week. 59. What is the very first memory that you have? Write about it. 60. What if your pet could only talk to you at midnight for an hour? 61. Write an acrostic poem using your full name and three words that describe you—good and bad— for each letter. For example, S: sensitive, stubborn, smiling. A: artistic, argumentative, agoraphobic M: melodramatic, moody, magical 62. What if you could create your own TV show with all your friends and loved ones as the cast? What kind of show would it be and who would play which parts? 63. Take a photo or draw a picture of every place you go in a day. Put the pictures or drawings in your journal. 64. A to Z: Make an alphabetical list of advice for someone who is about to become a teenager. For example: A: ask forgiveness, not permission. B.: bake cookies. C.: cook something delicious once a month. D: don't compare yourself to others. 65. Find 10 quotes about happiness. 66. Write about 5 things you'd rather be doing right now. 67. Write out the lyrics to your favorite song. Find some pictures to illustrate the song. 68. Who do you spend the most time talking to? Siblings, parents, friends? Make a list of who you actually talk to during the day and estimate the amount of time invested in each individual. Does the list reveal your priorities? Is it proportional to what is important to you? Make notes of what you talk about in your daily conversations. 69. Find a quote for each month of the year. 70. Animals can sometimes seem remarkably human. Describe an experience with an animal that acted in a very human way. 71. Imagine you opted to have yourself frozen for 50 years. Describe your first days unfrozen, 50 years in the future. 72. Imagine that you are an astronaut who has been doing research on the moon for three years. You are do to go back to earth in a week when nuclear war breaks out on earth. You watch the earth explode. Then what? 73. Create a menu from a fictitious restaurant. Make sure the restaurant has a theme, such as Classic Books, and the food should all be given appropriate names (e.g., “Mockingbird Pie”). 74. Preconceived notions are often false. Describe a time when you discovered that a preconceived notion of yours (about a person, place, or thing) turned out to be wrong. 75. Create a story using words of one-syllable only, beginning with a phrase such as: “The last time I saw her, she...” “From the back of the truck...” “On the night of the full moon...” “The one thing I know for sure…” 76. Describe a significant person (teacher, neighbor, mentor, coach, parent, sibling, sweetheart) with as many physical details as possible and as many similes as possible. (E.g., “Her hair was as golden as straw.”) 77. Write about your first name—why you were given it, what associations or stories are attached to it, what you think or know it means. Do the same for your last name. What name would you give yourself other than the one you actually have? 78. Parents are our first and most important teachers. Describe a valuable lesson you learned from one of your parents. 79. Imagine a moral dilemma (for example, you see someone shoplift or a friend tells a blatant lie to her parents about where she was last night) and explain what you would do and why you would do it. 80. Review an obituary, birth, or a section from the police record or classified ads section of a local newspaper. Choose one and tell the story behind it. 81. List the most attractive things about your current hometown. Now list the most unattractive things. 82. Come up with a list of nouns and a second list of verbs, all of one syllable each. Describe a scene or situation, using a minimum of ten words from each list. 83. Where is your happy place? Write about it and include a picture or drawing. 84. Create a how-to manual for something you can do well (make a craft, bake cookies, restring a guitar, apply make up, etc.). Describe the process so that someone else could complete the task based on your directions. Use present tense verbs. 85. Free write on this quote by Samuel Johnson: “Ignorance, when voluntary, is criminal.” 86. Find a favorite quote and work it into an illustration. (Inspiration here.) 87. Make a soundtrack for your life so far. List songs that describe you or different times of your life. (Make the actual soundtrack on Spotify, etc. too!) 88. Sometimes we find ourselves in situations that force us to face our deepest fears. Tell about a time when you had to face one of your greatest fears—or make up the story. 89. You’re a talk show host. Pick two guests. Why did you choose them? Are they people who get along, or people with vastly different viewpoints? Write about the episode. 90. What three books do you think should be required reading for everyone? Why? 91. “What you don’t know what hurt you.” Write a story that begins with this statement. 92. Free write on this quote by Woodrow Wilson: “Friendship is the only cement that will hold the world together.” 93. According to a Czechoslovakian proverb, “Better a lie that soothes than a truth that hurts.” Agree or disagree? Explain. 94. Rewrite “The Tale of the Three Little Pigs” by using people that you know as the pigs and the wolf. 95. There is a saying that you should be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it. Describe a time when you wished for something and got it—and then wished you hadn’t—or make up a story in which this happens to the character. 96. As the saying goes, “rules are meant to be broken.” Tell about a time when you broke the rules and what happened as a result. 97. "That's not what I meant!" Write a story that has this line in it somewhere. 98. A blue trash can, a red picture frame, a teddy bear with the stuffing falling out, and a padlock. Put these four items somewhere in a story, scene, or poem. 99. Write your name in outline letters on a whole sheet of paper. Now fill in each letter with words you like that begin with that letter. For example: 100. Make a word collage of who YOU are. Use pictures too, if desired. **HURRAH! You can now purchase this as a digital PDF ($2) at Teachers Pay Teachers. For more creative writing ideas, check out my free WordSmithery creative writing lessons and my popular Ultimate Guide to Creative Writing Resources! Check out 100 other 100 Things posts from the bloggers at iHomeschool Network! Do you have it yet? The Big Book of Homeschooling Ideas—a collaboration of over 50 authors with 103 chapters— is now available! Don't miss this amazing resource!

Art Education Blog for K-12 Art Teachers | SchoolArtsRoom

Rocks, man, rocks! How much fun does teaching about rocks sound? About as much fun as teaching about soil ! Thanks to Reading A-Z, an Aims ...

Check out this list of tools that will help you organize differentiated instruction in your classroom.

Here's how to use the classic game of Jenga to create your own Feelings Jenga using the emotions from Disney's Inside Out!

Teaching kids about our world, geography, maps, and more. Kindergarten Social Studies Lessons made easy #kindergarten #socialstudies

Artists Inspiring Other Artists to Become Better Educators

This week's activity of the week is an excellent Montessori practical-life exercise for developing poise, balance, and body awareness.

In the past year we have both introduced the Math Journal into our Guided Math program. This has been a great and innovative way for students to communicate their math knowledge. However, we both found the same thing; the students were only using a small part of the page, and we felt most of the journal was going to waste. So we decided we wanted to find a way to cut the journals in half! We made a few phone calls, and got a lot of laughs on the other end. Most of the big hardware stores told us no over the phone. We called a printing store and they would do it, but charge $1.50 a cut. Feeling discouraged, we went to the stores in person, composition notebooks in hand. Our logic was that it would be much harder to turn down a teacher in person. (I mean it is all in the name of education right!?!?) We were finally successful at one of the big hardware chain stores. Ta-Da! One notebook becomes two! Each child now has a manageable sized notebook. Our cart full! We could not thank them enough! While we were there we stopped by the paint department. The employees were kind enough to donate each of us a class set of paint stirrers. We use these as individual shelf markers for the students in our classroom libraries. The kids decorate them with markers and love using them, and our books stay organized! All-in-all a successful trip!

This year I have one 60 minutes class per week with a class. This is just the perfect amount of time to do my gesture/movement lesson. I have taught gesture drawing lessons for a while. You can find an older post here. However last year I started foil figures. I got the lesson from a wonderful site, one my favorites. Check it out here. In 60 minutes this is what we do: A short discussion of gesture drawing, examples. I place one mannequin on each table. Students this year have been using charcoal, which they love, and news print. I give them 1.5 minutes to loosely sketch one mannequin at a time. When time is up, they move clock wise to the next table. There are a total of 7 tables. I encourage the students to draw loosely, over lap run off the paper, change sizes, but fit them all on. The last gesture is of me, in a 2 minute pose or another student. This photo is old, taken years ago! But you get the point. So total of 8 gestures. Then they are to chose one from their sketch to make a foil figure. The above website will show you how to cut your foil. I would suggest playing around with it, before you teach. Foil can be very tricky. I just use the heavy duty from the grocery store. I have a stock of thin cardboard. They are to trace the figure in sharpie on board and color in with sharpie to give look at shadow. This part totally makes the project. I heat my glue gun up and I glue the figures down. This takes all of 60 minutes, any less it will not work unless you limit the gestures to less than 8. I usually keep in a few in the art room and display case for display purposes, if not they go home that day with the gesture drawing as well. Awesome! Make and take!!

How I wish I could just talk about word study and reading all day, but the economic unit I am working on is calling my name. Community help...

Help your middle and high school students excel in essay writing with our Google Slides thesis statement activity! This resource focuses on teaching students how to identify and create strong thesis statements for argumentative and persuasive essays but could also be modified for other essays.You ca...

Looking for fun Comparing Numbers Worksheets and Center Activities for Kids? These hands on, interactive ideas are engaging and fun while working on skills.

STEM Earthquake Challenge - students experiment on cardboard houses & different materials to create the best structure to withstand a simulated earthquake.

Welcome to Squarehead Teachers, where I post my original teaching materials for FREE! Thanks for stopping by. Catch me on Pinterest, Facebook or Twitter! You can never really have enough writing pr…

Summer is finally here! If you like to prepare for the next school year during the summer while you have more spare time, this may be som...

Sometimes, quiet and independent work is necessary. Here is a good start to finding quiet independent classroom activities that will work for your students.

This is a hand-drawn, ready-made 75-minute Slow Flow Hatha Yoga Sequence with a focus on heart openers. The sequence explore positions close to the mat and is suitable for most practitioners, regardless of level of experience. I am a yoga teacher and a self-learned illustrator who began sketching yoga sequences during my first Yoga Teacher Training. It helped me understand the poses and sequences better. It challenged me. I had to test them - both on paper and in reality. What does this asana actually look like? After a while I decided that my pictures might be useful to others as well. My aim has been to make simple sheets with sequences for your own practice or for teaching others. With room to make additions, comments and changes. They are instantly downloadable and are based on the Hatha and Vinyasa yoga styles.
 Several of the sequences in the shop have been planned by friends of mine. A fun collaboration where everyone's strengths come to the fore. WHAT’S INCLUDED?

 Easy to follow, this yoga sequence, Slow Flow Hatha Yoga, covers the whole body. With focus on heart-openers. A full-length yoga sequence. Approximately 60 - 75 minutes long. When down-loading it, you get one road-map and one written description. LEARNING YOGA FROM HOME?

 Use the sequence as a guide

 YOGA TEACHER OR A YOGA TEACHER IN TRAINING?

 Use as it is or for inspiration Personal use only. No permission for resale or editing. Cannot be resold or redistributed.

Create Medieval Letters with our fun craft activity guide template. Buy art and craft supplies at Baker Ross, inspiring creativity

Your students probably already use these tools to write papers or create presentations, but they could be doing other projects you may not have thought of.

Start as you intend to go. Have you heard this line before? My mentor said this to me as I was preparing my lesson plans my first year of teaching. I didn’t really understand what she meant at the time, but then, funny enough…. someone said the exact same thing with me when I had my first da

Social Studies, first grade, centers, belonging, planning, centres, assessment

Colorful? Yes. Comfortable? For sure. Tacky? Depends on who you ask. Hawaiian shirts are among the world’s most polarizing garments. Their vibrant journey to the mainland and beyond is a.

The new year....the anticipation, the excitement, the happy feeling you get when you get a new list, the smell of new crayons, the look of ...

My students come in tomorrow for their first day. I should be getting ready for bed...not writing a blog post! I'm very tired after a ...