Explore zoos, aquariums, museums and destinations around the world without leaving home. Here are 20 virtual field trips you can take with your kids.
You stayed up late pulling together an awesome activity that is sure to be a slam dunk with your students. You go in early to make the copies and put everything in its place. When
Word mapping activities are the best way to get sight words to stick! Word mapping uses the Science of Reading for mapping graphemes to phonemes...
Word mapping activities are the best way to get sight words to stick! Word mapping uses the Science of Reading for mapping graphemes to phonemes...
Metaphor, simile, onomatopoeia, alliteration, hyperbole, personification, and more!
Rainbows look like swipes of brightly colored paint hanging in the sky. Have you ever wondered how they got there?
Hi everyone! It's Kim again from Elementary Antics and I am so excited to share about The Blurt Box! A couple of years ago I had a pretty tough class. I had some amazing kiddos, but a few of them just loved to talk, push each other's buttons and were extremely impulsive. I tried proximity control to help these students' behaviors- they sat next to my desk or table when working independently, in the very front row at the carpet, etc. I tried partnering them with another student that modeled good behaviors, partnering them with a student that they could "help", praising good behavior, sticker charts- I basically felt like I tried everything I knew. At that point I wasn't a new teacher and I had always had excellent classroom management, but I felt like I was failing. I was constantly having to stop during lessons to redirect someone's attention, remind someone to stop talking or stop calling out despite going over the expectations beforehand each time. It was driving me nuts and I felt badly for the kids who were always paying attention and following the rules. After some reflection, I determined that the main behavior that I needed to target was the blurting or calling out in class and during whole group lessons. I had a handful of kiddos that were doing this consistently and it was disruptive. So, I turned to Google and started searching for an idea that might help me since everything I had tried before just wasn't cutting it. That's when I found The Blurt Box, well it wasn't called The Blurt Box per se, but that's what we called it in my classroom. The idea was basically this: Use nonverbal signals to stop the blurting- red paper squares. The first thing I did was call my kiddos to our carpet (class meeting area) and explained to them again exactly what blurting was and why we were not doing it. I made a sign on a 8x11 piece of paper that said "NO BLURTING" and taped it to my easel and onto my whiteboard. I told them that anytime someone blurted out when it was inappropriate to do so I would not be reminding them of our rules again. I would simply point to the sign and hand them a red square. That's it. At the end of the lesson, or when it was appropriate, they would write their name and date on the square and put it in the "Blurt Box". At the end of the first day, I dumped out all of the red squares and tallied up the squares for each student. The students with red squares had them stapled to a behavior sheet which was sent home and signed by a parent. This was just to show the parent that their student needed to start showing a little bit more self control and reign in the impulsive behaviors. Any students that did not receive any red squares that day got a green square. And any student that had a green square that day got a special treat (I was implementing this around Halloween so my treats consisted of little erasers {Target Dollar Deals section}, cool googily eyed stickers, pencils, etc.) and a behavior sheet with their green square stapled to it to be signed by a parent and returned. Every time a green square behavior sheet was turned it it was put in a special basket and I would draw a couple of names throughout the day to get a special something as extra incentive- usually a small candy like Starburst or Smarties. I did this every day for one week. I know it sounds like a lot of work- and it was. I had to plan to leave an extra 10 minutes at the end of my day every day that week to tally the squares and hand out behavior sheets and treats. But, IT WAS WORTH IT! The first day we had over 60 red squares and by the end of the week we had 10! Even my paraprofessional who would come in about an hour a day was commenting on how amazing the students were doing- especially my couple who were the extreme cases. Most students went from a red day to a green day by the end of the week. And those who didn't made huge improvements in the amount of times they were calling out and I made sure to celebrate those accomplishments with them and make sure their parent knew about them too. I obviously could not keep up the daily tallying forever, so after the first week I still gave out red square each time someone blurted or called out at an inappropriate time, but I only gave out a green square if they had no red squares after 2 days, then 4 days, then each week. After a few weeks, I just would point to my sign and that was it. This method was a huge success for me and I hope it can help you the year you find yourself with a class full of blurters! Follow my Classroom Management board on Pinterest for more great ideas!
Is your fourth grader learning about electricity? This worksheet is all about circuits, tests her skills and reinforces the concept of how a circuit works!
Who doesn't love science experiment?! It's such a great way to teach the scientific process. Students are always engaged and learn quickly about hypotheses, making important observations, and drawing conclusions. Sink or Float I always use this experiment to introduce the scientific method. It is simple, quick, and to the point. After introducing and discussing the scientific method, I practice this experiment. Students ask questions, make a hypothesis about which objects will float, they design an experiment, act the experiment out, and draw conclusions. All of these steps can be found in these Science Journals. You can grab them by clicking here or by clicking any of the pictures. Students begin with different objects from around the classroom. Be sure to pick some that will sin and some that will float. Pom poms and sticky notes are good objects that float. I also used a counting bear and an eraser. Students then fill a cup with water and drop each object in. They will record their observations and decide if their hypotheses were correct. Stomach Acid Experiment A colleague had told me about this experiment to show how stomach acid breaks down food during the digestion process. It sounded so cool so I just had to try it! It was perfect timing while we were studying the digestive system. The experiment is simple: Get fruit (frozen or fresh), lemon juice (or lime), and baggies. Put the fruit in a baggie and soak in lemon juice. And that's it. The acid in the lemon acts as stomach acid would and begins to break down the fruit (or food) that is in your stomach. You can pick up these Science Journals in my store by clicking here or on any of of the pictures. Celery Experiment This is a popular one, but still so much fun each time. Summary of the celery experiment: you put celery stalks in water with food coloring and the color travels up the stem into the leaves and changes colors. Students start by making a hypothesis, or prediction, about what will happen. They continue to plan and carry out an experiment (with your help of course!) Students love to write down their observations each day and see the progression of the food coloring traveling up the celery. This is a great experiment to do while studying parts of a plant. It amazes students to see the celery changing to the color of the water.It is a great way to show how stems bring water to the leaves of plants. You can pick up these Science Journals in my store by clicking here or on any of of the pictures. These simple anchor charts help remind my students the steps of the scientific process. Grab them for FREE here in my store or click on the picture. Happy Experimenting!!
Teach kids self-regulation in the classroom and beyond with this collection of super fun Zones of Regulation activities, games, worksheets, and lesson plans!
Discover the science behind an ages-old 4th of July tradition with this firework diagram.
Do you have a teen with autism that is interested in dating? Check out our post to help you understand the complex social situation of dating for your teen with autism...
The Be a PA Blog
Hello, everyone! SO happy to be back this month with another really fun free printable (or 26!) for you. I’m Kiki from Kiki and Company and am so excited to be here. It is Back to School time. Can you believe it?! My kids are SO excited to start school and when I thought about the...Read the Post
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