Coronavirus quarantine home school educational activity tips, schedules, and learning ideas for school closings for moms.
Kids will LOVE these engineering challenges with craft sticks, cups, and wood cubes. Engaging, open-ended, and creative!
By the time you kids grow to the age of 5 or 6 they will now start going to Kindergarten. My elder one is in that age range 5+ yrs and hence we have started learning science in a fun way with DIY experiments at home. You can find them here and we would want […]
Here’s a fun science experiment that will definitely get a “wow” from the kids. Combine baking soda and vinegar to make sodium acetate, or hot ice! It crystalizes instantly when you pour it, allowing you to create a tower of crystals. Since the process of crystallization is exothermic, the “ice” that forms will be hot […]
Five engineering challenges for kids – with wooden clothespins, binder clips, and craft sticks! It’s a simple STEM activity that kids of all ages will love. Move over, expensive building sets! These simple materials were a huge hit with my boys. The first time we got them out, Owen (almost 7) spent well over an […]
You need to work with your ADHD child's teachers to ensure that their educational needs are met. There are requirements that public schools must meet, but you must ask.
I wanted to share this great activity I have been doing for years at the very beginning of each year. It is a Self-Portrait activity where students get to draw themselves, compare themselves with another student, and present to the class. I love to tell students they are drawing “Selfies” because it makes it more […]
For the last two weeks we have been reading fictional farm stories. We have been using this anchor chart created by Abby Mullins fro...
Grab a TON of FREE Math Mania Games to strengthen your students' addition & subtraction! Snag easy printable math games for 1st & 2nd grade!
Basic vocabulary, like knowing prepositions, is necessary for beginning readers. Teach prepositions with this simple game.
Over 80 amazing, simple proprioceptive activities for kids. Learn benefits of proprioceptive input to calm, focus, and alert.
See and use these argumentative essay topics for middle school to teach the process of delivering well-researched, evidence-based arguments to their peers.
My new obsession this year has been making and using anchor charts for my lessons. Here are just some of the anchor charts I have made this year. Some of these charts are original ideas but many are ideas I have seen and used from other teachers. I am not good at drawing so I use clipart from my computer to add pictures to my anchor charts. I print them out and glue them onto the chart! It’s so much easier and looks so much better than what I could draw! I also laminate my anchor charts so I can use them year to year. By laminating the charts I can easily write and erase on them by using an Expo marker. Click HERE to download the worksheet writing templates for opinion writing, informative writing, step writing, personal narrative writing, fictional narrative writing, and postcard writing that match these anchor charts from my TpT store! Click HERE to download the files needed to make the Sequence of Events and Transitional Word Examples anchor charts from my TpT store! Click HERE to download the file needed to make the Fiction/Non-Fiction Sort anchor chart from my TpT store! Click HERE to download the words I used on these anchor charts on my TpT store!
So, every day when I go to school, I have kids telling me all about their adventures on Minecraft. Well, I had no idea what Minecraft w...
Kids will explore how surfaces affect friction with this fun science experiment! Roll marbles around a cake pan, and test materials to see the effect.
Tired of not knowing what to ask your kids about their school day? Use our Before School Conversation Starters to find out how your children are feeling.
10 Ways School Counselings Can Help Kids With Worry: Use these strategies to help your students manage their worries at school.
*UPDATE* THE AUTHOR OF THIS POEM, MARY SILL, REACHED OUT TO ME AND SHARED THAT THE REAL VERSION OF THIS POEM CAN BE FOUND ON HER WEBSITE – WHENYOUTHOUGHTIWASNTLOOKING.COM! YOU CAN FIND THE ORIGINAL POEM, WITH CORRECT TEXT, THERE, COPYRIGHT 1980. In honor of Mother’s Day, I wanted to share this poem with you… I […]
Give your students a taste of adventure with over 20 free digital escape rooms to try at home or at school. Doing distance learning? These are perfect!
Fabtastic ancient Greek architecture STEM challenge & activities! Perfect for all ages: preschool, kindergarten, elementary, middle, high school, and adult!
Teach characterization using short films to engage students and aid in analysis skills. Pixar films, commercials, and cartoons create a fun lesson.
At the start of each school year, I always talk to my students about their previous writing class experience. I want to know what their favorite and least favorite parts of class were. Without fail,
I've been asked to share my assessments and those that I use. Assessments are snapshots of a child's current ability to perform a certai...
A big part of what we do with children is teach them safe and appropriate ways to cope and express themselves. We aren’t born knowing how to walk and we also aren’t born knowing how to …
Use these STEM Experiments in your classroom to engage your students! Free from The Curriculum Corner and The Boys & Girls Clubs of America.
Synonyms and Antonyms Anchor Chart! This blog post contains the material to create this anchor chart, plus a FREE interactive notebook entry for synonyms and antonyms!
It’s easy enough to tell kids that sounds are caused by vibrations, but that can be a tough concept for them to really grasp! Here are two simple demonstrations that allow kids to actually SEE sound waves in action. This post is the final installment in the Summer STEAM Camp that we have been taking […]
Huge collection of kids summer activities, printables, games, party ideas, coloring pages and summer crafts from the Woo! Jr. Kids Activities Network.
Super Fun Kids Activity For Indoors! DIY "lazer" Maze! Streamers, ribbon, yarn, anything!
She's a reader. There's no denying that. She's also quite driven. At only 11, she has already chosen her desired college, major, and minor. And while I recognize that at eleven her opinions and plans might ebb and flow in the coming years, I also know HER and know that when she gets her sights set on a goal, there's no stopping her determination. That being said, the plan she has penciled in for herself after much prayer and self-evaluation requires a strong literary background. With that in mind, I have spent many months putting together a middle school reading list that will set her on that path. (This post contains affiliate links. Please see my disclosure policy for full details.) The Selection Process Since I'm not a huge fan of most modern reading lists and award-winning books, I have consulted only quality lists from sources that I trust which include THESE lovely gems, The Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling Teens, and The Home Scholar. I have pored over countless titles and have devised a list of 50 that I think represent a worthwhile sampling of different genres, themes, and eras. There is an intentional absence of non-fiction books since she reads so many of these already for our living literature style science and history. In my opinion, middle school is a time to start developing personal opinions and convictions on many topics while under the protective umbrella of home. That being said, several of these books contain gentle messages that will challenge her current belief system. While I don't introduce them to sway her from her Christian worldview. On the contrary, I hope to use these weightier-themed books to slowly help her grow stronger in her ability to filter EVERYTHING through a Biblical lens. My home is a greenhouse...a place where small buds can grow strong and form deep roots in Truth. Up until this point, so much of my daughter's growing has come from exposure to nothing-but-Truth. But now that she is in middle school and currently doing some high school level course work, she needs to learn how to weather the tough storms that the world will hurl at her by being gently released to find the Truth amidst the lies. With that in mind, I plan on reading several of these heavier titles with her. We will each read our own copy separately and dialogue about them as we are able, dissecting the Truth from the lie. The Plan I have placed all of these books on a "shelf" called Middle School MUST READS in my Goodreads account so that she can see the list at a glance. There really is no structured order to it all. She is free to pick any title at any time. I don't necessarily expect her to read all of these books by the time she starts high school. (Then again, she's an avid reader and just might surprise me. She's actually read a handful of them already!) I mostly just want to set a wide variety of books in front of her that will each add an element of excellence to her literary journey without the worldly indoctrination that so many popular books offer. As always, when she finishes a book, she will document it for her annual portfolio and mark it as "read" in my Goodreads account. The Books Classics An Old-Fashioned Girl by Louisa May Alcott Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery Black Beauty by Anna Sewell Call it Courage by Armstrong Sperry Captains Courageous by Rudyard Kipling Little Women by Louisa May Alcott My Antonia by Willa Cather* Old Yeller by Fred Gipson Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie The Black Arrow by Robert Louis Stevenson The Call of the Wild by Jack London The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls General Fiction Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt Black Ships Before Troy by Rosemary Sutcliff Blue Willow by Doris Gates Johnny Tremain by Esther Hoskins Forbes Letters from Rifka byKaren Hesse* Lyddie by Katherine Paterson* Men of Iron by Howard Pyle* Mr. Tucket by Gary Paulsen* Rascal by Sterling North Redwall by Brian Jacques Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor* Sounder by William H. Armstrong Steal Away by Jennifer Armstrong* The Borrowers by Mary Norton The House of Sixty Fathers by Meindert DeJong* The Miracle Worker by Willian Gibson The Shakespeare Stealer by Gary Blackwood* The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo Tree Castle Island by Jean Craighead George* The Cay by Theodore Taylor The Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell* Watership Down by Richard Adams Tales from Shakespeare by Charles Lamb Biographies/Autobiographies America's Paul Revere by Esther Hoskins Forbes Amos Fortune, Free Man by Elizabeth Yates Carry On, Mr. Bowditch by Jean Lee Latham Eleanor Roosevelt: A Life of Discovery by Russell Freedman Joni: An Unforgettable Story by Joni Eareckson Tada Not a Tame Lion: The Spiritual Legacy of C.S. Lewis and the Chronicles of Narnia by Terry Glaspey The Diary of a Young Girl by Ann Frank Up From Slavery by Booker T. Washington *Books that I am not as familiar with and will be reading alongside her. For more great book suggestions, be sure to head to iHomeschool Network and check out the Massive Guide to Homeschool Reading Lists!
Free checklist and tips for developing classroom procedures that build character in students
Experiment #1 What will happen when I put raisins in a cup of sprite? After you do the experiment, you will find out that the raisins DANCE! My students L.O.V.E this experiment and think that it is hilarious that the raisins dance up and down in the Sprite! Click {here} for the raisin experiment Experiment #2 What does our heart do for us? We talked about the heart and it's purpose! Then, we observed our own pulse using a marshmallow and toothpick. What a great time to learn about the heart (Valentine's Day)! Click {here} for the heart experiment Experiment #3 Which object lets the most light through from our flashlight? Using a flashlight, we determined which objects (dollar, black paper, net, plastic wrap, and tin foil) let through the most light. Click {here} for the light experiment clipart and/or fonts by DJ Inkers. www.djinkers.com Is your school heading to the land of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) or STEAM (Same, but add art)? Last year, our school committed to becoming a STEM+A (plus Art) school. So far- I'm loving it!!! It has really got me thinking outside of the box for sure. I'm excited to share with you some ideas that I have with STEM in the future. For now, I've got some posters that I made for our 1st grade STEM+A Intro Day! For our STEM+A Intro Day, we rotated all of the first graders (split into 5 groups) through our classrooms. Each teacher took on one of the letters and taught the students about the meaning of that letter and how we use it in every day life. We want our students to know that STEM is everywhere! Then, we did an activity based on the letter we had. I had Math and we played Pokemon Go Addition (totally made the game up...haha). These posters are great for my students to refer back to. Click {here} to check these posters out!
Out of all the egg science experiment you can do dissolving egg shells should be at the top of every child's to do list (a visual and tactile STEM project)
How to make an indoor boomerang out of paper. What a fun boredom buster science and engineering project for kids when they are stuck inside!
How to teach baby sign language, and when to teach it! This guide has everything you need to know about baby and toddler sign language.
Every great reader has their beginnings in sounding out words!
This colorful rainbow jar is a surprisingly simple kids' science experiment! In fact, you probably already have everything you'll need.
Pick something off this list of family-friendly volunteer opportunities to spread kindness and participate in community service projects with your kids.
Five engineering challenges for kids – with wooden clothespins, binder clips, and craft sticks! It’s a simple STEM activity that kids of all ages will love. Move over, expensive building sets! These simple materials were a huge hit with my boys. The first time we got them out, Owen (almost 7) spent well over an […]
When I first came across this image illustrating attention deficit symptoms in girls, I immediately found myself thinking more about stereotypes than disabilities. It’s what led me to write: Making Sense of Behavior: Girls, Boys, Attention Deficits and Stereotypes. And yet, I still find myself far more concerned with the way that adults tolerate (or don’t tolerate!) such behaviors than about the differences themselves. So when I discovered the counterpart to the original image, I went a little deeper. There are definitely differences in the way that boys and girls demonstrate attention deficits, and science backs this up. But when you look closely at this list for boys, you will recognize more aggressive behavior tendencies than on the list for girls, which brings me right back to square one. I believe that it is significantly less about the behaviors a child manifests and far more about the behaviors the adults in that child’s life will tolerate. Makes sense, doesn’t it? A child who daydreams is far less of a distraction than a child who is constantly hyperactive. It’s much easier to overlook clumsiness than extreme risk taking. This is why we continue to see a diagnosis rate for males over females of around 3:1. Let’s be honest – ok? Read the following sentence and then close your eyes and let yourself notice the first image that comes to mind: “That is a child with a diagnosed attention disorder." So, what was the image came to mind? A boy? A boy doing something “bad”? A particularly challenging male student in your classroom? It’s tough to confront the reality of our own biases, but in order to break the cycle and create change, we must first be honest with ourselves. Personally, I would start by changing the way we manage behavior in the classroom. I think chart systems are biased toward "female" behavior, not to mention the inherent shaming that comes along with such visible classroom management. What will you do? Be sure you never miss a post from Removing the Stumbling Block:
The first post seems to have tickled your fancy, so over the past month I've been collecting photos on the internet, as well as submissions from readers who rifled through their attics to help me compile more preserved moments of historical sass! Found in Good Housekeeping, June 1952 Found he
The end of the year is always such a whirlwind! Here’s a little rewind of some of the things we did in my classroom during those last weeks of school…. We talked a lot about the goals we set at the beginning of the year and reflected on our accomplishments! As we looked back over the […]
What factors can influence children's behavior and trigger misbehavior including tantrums, outbursts and back talk? 14 Factors that Trigger Challenging Behavior
I got my name on the board one time in elementary school. Once! I was no rascal. I'd had an allergy attack, and there was a substitute teacher who wouldn'
Build marshmallow and spaghetti towers to learn about strong shapes and stable structures. A wonderfully sticky STEM challenge
