Learn How to Knit Brains with Free Knitting Pattern + Video Tutorial by Studio Knit
Learn how to implement and use brain breaks for kindergarten and first grade learners in the classroom to boost learning and engage students.
Does your child struggle with auditory attention? Find tons of fun and easy activity ideas to help improve the attention, processing speed and memory.
Do you teach a wiggle worm? Or perhaps your learner(s) have been sitting for a while and you can see the energy level going down. Enter wiggle brain breaks! These wiggle brain breaks can help wake up and recharge the brain, something I particularly need after lunch! *This post contains affiliate links. **The free printable can ... Read More about 20+ FREE Wiggle Brain Breaks
How to perform the paper cutting brain teaser, Dot in the Corner, a fun puzzler to learn and use to bamboozle your friends!
Brain breaks are a great classroom management tool to use regularly in your classroom. Brain breaks are short, 1 to 2 minute, activities that can…
Theme is such an important concept when teaching reading. Students are asked to determine the theme of a text over and over again. However, many students struggle with how to identify the theme. That's why I'm sharing some of my favorite ways to teach theme. You'll find theme lesson ideas, theme activities, and theme passage suggestions to help your students finally figure out how to find theme! Sometimes when thinking about theme it is easiest to think about what it is not. Theme is NOT the subject of the text. The subject would be a single word like "childhood" or "friendship." It is NOT a summary. A summary would be several sentences describing the text. Instead, it is the underlying idea of a text. It is what the writer wishes to convey about the subject. Therefore, it is usually written in a phrase or clause. When teaching theme, I find that it's best to introduce the critical components of theme through notes and a class discussion. My favorite kind of notes are theme doodle notes, of course. Since doodles are more engaging, they're a great way to get students focused as you begin teaching about theme. Once students have a general understanding of theme, you might want to have a discussion with students. During the discussion ask students to think of texts that have a theme like "Be careful what you wish for" or "Never give up on your dreams." Then, have students discuss the theme of fairytales or fables like "Beauty and Beast" and "Goldilocks and the Three Bears." The notes and discussion will drive home the idea that the theme is not a single word subject, nor is it a multi-sentence summary. Students will realize that the theme is a truth about life revealed in a phrase or clause. A work's theme can apply to multiple texts. When you teach about theme you'll want to help students realize that themes need to be general enough to apply to many different texts. Take the theme "Be careful what you wish for." That theme can apply to "The Little Mermaid," "Jack and the Beanstalk," and even "Macbeth." It's important for students to realize that themes are universal. You'll also want to expose students to different genres of writing so that students understand that themes are evident in all writing including fiction, nonfiction, prose, and poetry. I've compiled different genres in this theme unit. Since poems are short and compressed, I love using poems to help students develop an understanding of theme. Take a poem like, "Life Doesn't Frighten Me" by Maya Angelou. In Angelou's poem, the speaker is a child. Angelou's message and the poem's theme is to "be brave when faced with your fears." You might share poems like this or some of my other favorites to help students read several texts and practice determining universal themes. The theme is the message that the writer wishes to reveal about its subject. It's what the reader is supposed to learn about life after reading the text. Therefore, it is usually not directly stated in the work. Instead, students will need to think about the plot, conflict, characters, and setting and then make an inference or educated guess. When students consider all the elements of the text, they'll need to infer the theme. One way to help students understand that the story is built around the theme is to have them develop their own stories with a theme in mind. At first, you can have students do this by providing them with themes that they will need to portray in a comic strip or skit. For instance, you might have students doodle a comic for the theme "Two heads are better than one." Or, you could have students work in small groups to come up with a skit that has the theme "Friends always show up when you need them." By writing their own texts, students will begin to see how the theme is infused throughout the work. As students determine the theme of a passage, they'll need to consider a text's plot, characters, conflict, and tone. In other words, they need to think about the entire writing piece and reflect on its message about life. That can be challenging for students. That's why I like to give students many opportunities to practice finding the theme. Task cards and mini-passages work especially great for this. I've taken the idea of theme task cards even further with Learning Take Out activities. Students read fiction and nonfiction passages that they grab from take out containers. The passages are the perfect way for students to develop the ability to identify a text's theme. ------------------------------------------------- As you can tell, there are many ways to teach theme. I think the more chances we can give students to develop their reading skills, the better! If you're looking for some ready-to-teach resources, grab these THEME resources: ⭐--- FINDING THE THEME MINI-UNIT - Doodle Notes and Activities ⭐--- THEME UNIT - 3-Day Theme Unit ⭐--- LEARNING TAKE OUT - Theme Task Cards Thanks for stopping by! Mary Beth P.S. Here's my latest resource for teaching theme!
Crossing the midline activities for kids. What on earth are those? Sometimes in the educational world we start speaking a slightly different language than 'normal' people. Not that teachers aren't normal ... though ... you do need to be a little insane to work with small children all day long, don't you? Anyways. I had
Try these fun brain break ideas to help active kids stay focused and learn at their best like yoga, Go Noodle, and printable cards.
Giving students fun brain breaks in the classroom, can actually improve their learning. Check out these quick brain breaks that you can just grab and go!
Here are 10 super fun movement songs for kids to get them up and moving! These are great brain breaks as well.
Your baby is growing up quickly and is having a whale of a time making discoveries and exploring new things. Of course, your excitement to knows no bounds. However, for your child to master important motor skills, it’s vital that she has good bilateral coordination.
Retained Spinal Galant Reflex causes Poor concentration and attention problems, bedwetting, chronic digestion problems, fidgety kid and hip rotation problems. Share on FacebookTweetFollow us
This simple, 8-minute morning workout for kids helps improve focus and learning. Includes printer friendly instructions & poster.
Free Printable Brain Lobes Pdf Coloring Pages. High quality free printable coloring, drawing, painting pages here for boys, girls, children ...
By Maria Aldrey of Groovywink, offering 1-on-1 productivity training for busy freelancers. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram. The day in 2015 I took
Crossing the midline activities for kids. What on earth are those? Sometimes in the educational world we start speaking a slightly different language than 'normal' people. Not that teachers aren't normal ... though ... you do need to be a little insane to work with small children all day long, don't you? Anyways. I had
Crafts, activities, and printables you can use during your brain or nervous system unit study
Awesome illustration of the PARA organizing method I teach from @Silly_Strokes, who is part of cohort 14
Brain dump planner is a simple yet effective tool that allows you to unload your brain's contents onto paper and organize them in a structured and actionable format. Download and print!
Discover the best diet for the brain with the 11 most important foods for brain health and how to improve brain function naturally.
Learn how to make a simple bag with this simple tote bag tutorial. A great beginner sewing project.
We are currently doing a short study of the human body. We recently finished up our unit on the Brain and Nerves, and here are some of the activities we did and resources we used.
To learn why crossing the midline is key for everything from emotional regulation, fine and gross motor skills, reading and writing, and better behavior, click through to read this post now or pin for later! #brainintegration #crossingthemidline #braingym #emotionalregulation #childdevelopment#learntoread
These crossing midline activities support development of crossing the midline plays in functional tasks like learning and self care.
Spending the first week of school teaching classroom expectations and procedures is essential for a successful year. Glue is a tricky school supply for many little learners and there definitely needs to be instruction dedicated to teaching learners how to use this tool.Glue BottlesWhen learners are not taught how to use their glue correctly things
Learn 8 tips how to treat ADHD in adults without medications. Learn lifestyle changes for ADHD management in adults and tips for living with ADHD.
Chronic inflammation isn’t as noticeable and it can go undetected in your body for years. Learn how eating an anti-inflammatory diet...
In this post you will discover six innovative brain breaks to energise your classroom and keep students engaged.
Tired of the same GoNoodle videos? Break out of your brain break rut with these 6 new ideas that your students are sure to love.
This week we celebrated Choose Respect Day at our school to combat bullying. It was a very powerful day which included Choose Respect t-shirts for everyone, a wonderful play put on by the Grade 6 class (I definitely teared up it was so great!), and a few adorable, thoughtful crafts! Check out the picts below! Students had to brainstorm positive ways to be respectful and decorate their t-shirt with them. Also, we made handprints with a cross in the middle. Black tempura paint, white acrylic paint, flourescent pink paper and squares of black construction paper were all that was required. They turned out beautifully. Thankfully, I had a lot of help with the hand print portion! Black paint is hard to get off! Thanks to the amazing crew of teachers and staff at St. Joseph School! We are an amazing team! This coming Monday my little nutty crew:) is in charge of the assembly. Our virtue is perseverance! It's a BIG word for grade 1 but they pull it off! We created some I Can poetry and read with the proper tone it is really cute!! I CAN paint. I can't read hard books, YET!! I can dance, I can ride my bike. I can sing. I can't whistle, yet!! You can learn about perseverance in my new packet of printables and activities. It features the activity above, as well as a T-shirt inspired craftivity like we did for Choose Respect Day! This is just a little hint as to what we have been up to for Career Day! More pictures and ideas to come in the next post! Stay tuned!!!
Students need to get their wiggles out after sitting even for a short period of time! These 12 FREE Brain Breaks will give you some fun ideas to try in your 1st - 5th grade classroom.
Tired of the same GoNoodle videos? Break out of your brain break rut with these 6 new ideas that your students are sure to love.
Create countries, states, farms etc that you can mold, shape, paint and label! This topographical salt dough map is easy and so fun to create
Here is a set of 96 FUN & ENGAGING Brain Breaks, which are perfect to refocus and reenergize your students during lessons. They are simple and fun quick movement cards with student-friendly directions. There are enough brain breaks that you won't get tired of them. On each brain break card, ther...
