The connection between social studies and art includes different cultures while using art to explore history in new ways. Read more!
These all about me, back to school art activities for kids are engaging icebreakers. Encourage creativity and build community during the first week back
This is my first ever Picrew! I kept it simple so I could learn how everything works, but I still wanted to publish it for people to enjoy :3 This is for NON-COMMERCIAL USE only! You can use it as a profile picture on social media accounts, but please credit me (especially if you can't see the watermark anymore). And of course: don't claim it as your own art. Send it to your friends and see what kind of kitty they make <3
ALL ABOUT EARTH Get ready for a month filled with so many fun activities to teach your kiddos all about our planet Earth . I teach this unit in April so it coincides with Earth Day. I’ve loaded up this blog post post with read aloud book ideas, free videos you can share with your students,
These all about me, back to school art activities for kids are engaging icebreakers. Encourage creativity and build community during the first week back
Learn how to create simple models and maps with early years students with this free geography printable!
Excellent advice for beginner artists. The tips in this guide provide information on the 10 main things you need to learn and practice to improve your painting skills.
A Kindergarten blog about effective teaching and making learning fun.
ALL ABOUT FRIENDSHIP Friendship and conflict solving skills are so important to teach our kiddos. Our job is to teach them important social skills. They need these tools to ensure successful relationships with their peers and adults. It is tricky, but it can be done! I am sharing some
Kids will have fun while learning where do I Live with this printable activity perfect for preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten students.
These all about me, back to school art activities for kids are engaging icebreakers. Encourage creativity and build community during the first week back
This FREE literature-based unit study introduces students to 16 different countries and cultures around the world.
Little Social Studies Thinkers is a complete curriculum specifically for Kindergarten. It's everything you need to introduce, teach, practice, and assess your kinder friends. It is cross-referenced and aligned to the main topics of Kindergarten Social Studies Standards. -------------------GET THE FULL YEAR-LONG CURRICULUM HERE-------------------- Little Social Studies Thinkers FULL YEAR CURRICULUM for KINDERGARTEN UNIT 4: My Community teaches students about different types of communities and people that live and work in them. It contains lessons on these specific topics: Types of Communities (rural, suburban, city) Diverse Families in a Community Important Places in a Community Community Helpers/Jobs Why People Work Wants and Needs Here are the components of the Unit: -A complete Teacher Guide -8 printable/projectable Books for Read-Alouds -Step-by-step, Scripted Lesson Plans (Twelve, 35-minute lesson plans in all) -Essential Question and Learning Target posters -Anchor Charts -Whole group Games and Activities -Craftivities and Culminating Unit Activity -Student Workbook that follows each lesson -Quick Check for every lesson -Kinder-appropriate Assessment and Rubric for scoring -Parent Letter -A COMPLETE unit PowerPoint to guide your teaching during each and every lesson (all books, targets and workbook pages are included in the PowerPoint to help you save paper) Here is an outline of the lessons for UNIT 4: Lesson 1: MY NEIGHBORHOOD- PLACES AND HOMES Lesson 2: MY NEIGHBORHOOD- PEOPLE AND FAMILIES Lesson 3: PLACES IN A COMMUNITY Lesson 4: PLACES IN A COMMUNITY CRAFTIVITY Lesson 5: COMMUNITY HELPERS Lesson 6: MORE COMMUNITY HELPERS Lesson 7: WHY PEOPLE WORK Lesson 8: WANTS AND NEEDS Lesson 9: WANTS AND NEEDS REVIEW & CRAFTIVITY Lesson 10: HOW WE HELP OUR COMMUNITY Lesson 11: UNIT REVIEW AND ASSESSMENT Lesson 12: CULMINATING ACTIVITY *Please download the preview to see all that is included, including samples of everything!* ************************************************************************** Click below to view additional units: UNIT 1: Citizenship UNIT 2: Then and Now UNIT 3: Holidays Around the World UNIT 4: My Community UNIT 5: Our World K-1 MINI-UNITS: MINI UNIT A: Pilgrims and Native Americans MINI UNIT B: America
Welcome to our series on social emotional learning in the elementary classroom! We are going to be chatting about some effective strategies and procedures you can easily and quickly apply to your classroom for improvement in student self-awareness, self-control, and social skills. During the month of January, we will cover four different SEL topics. January has always been my favorite month to teach, because I was always able to do a reset with the students I already had a relationship with. We could then really hone in and improve SEL skills to in turn take a deep dive into instruction. The less you are having to stop and redirect student behavior, the more time you have to teach. We know that is more important now than ever. This month, we will cover four topics that I felt were most needed right now that could cover the most behaviors: listening, making good choices, kindness, and resilience. Let's talk LISTENING and FOLLOWING INSTRUCTIONS. Why is listening important? Active listening is a vital skill in the classroom, as well as in life. You listen to directions, announcements, instruction, conversation, and more. As a student, I was not always the best listener. I tried really hard to listen, but I lacked the strategies to comprehend what was being said. I was more of a visual learner, so auditory was difficult for me. I think we sometimes forget that our students need to be explicitly taught the strategies and skills we expect them to apply. I have found that students need explicit SEL instruction all throughout the year. The problem is that we don't have the time to do that. I tried to think of ways you could easily and quickly incorporate it into your day, because it's so important to keep your classroom running smoothly and to decrease undesirable behaviors. The best time I feel to teach these, if you can, is first thing in the morning, during morning meeting. I have come up with some quick mini lessons, along with quick and fun activities, to teach each SEL topic. This week, we are going to look at some strategies to increase active listening in your classroom. Listening Strategies and Tips Call and Response The first thing you need to have in place is a call and response. I would only do one or two at a time. One that I always do is: Teacher: 1, 2, 3 Eyes on Me Students: 1, 2 Eyes on You When I teach this, I practice it a ton. It is important that students STOP AND LOOK AT YOU. Do not let them continue what they are doing. They will not be actively listening if they are still doing something else or talking while you are talking. Be firm about that expectation and wait until everyone is focused on you. We want to establish a muscle memory of them stopping, looking at you, and listening until you are finished. It's so important to have high expectations here. There are many different call and responses out there to choose from. Just be consistent with one or two for a while before changing to a different chant. Voice Volume and Tone If you know me, you know that I am not loud at all! Ha! I am pretty quiet so I use that to my advantage in the classroom. The lower I talk, the more they have to really listen. I also make sure that I keep a calm tone when I speak. This is also very important to have a calming environment because they tend to mirror what they are seeing. Something that I have found that has helped a ton with listening is buying a microphone headset and speaker. I just got one off of Amazon. It saves my voice and my energy, and I can use a calm tone that students are more likely to listen to. Keep Directions Short and Direct Stick to one-step instructions. Be direct and clear with your instructions, as well. If you can also add a visual, that will greatly help students. As students get better with one-step instructions, begin to slowly introduce more steps. Echoing One of my favorite and most effective ways to give instructions is through echoing. I will say the instruction in a sing song voice. The students know to echo me when I use that voice. Not only does it help them better comprehend the instructions, they also are busy being engaged which cuts down on opportunities to get off task or misbehave. Read Aloud Books The best way to begin a discussion with students about an SEL topic is through a read aloud. We want them to understand why listening is important. It helps us to be a better friend, we learn more, we are more caring, we understand what to do next, etc. I really love the book, The Worst Day of My Life Ever! by Julia Cook. The character in the story is having a very bad day because he chose not to listen to others. Students get to follow along on how those choices affected his day. His mom gives him tips on how to be a better listener and how to follow instructions that students can also apply. (I have made a resource that contains all of the mini lessons for teaching students to be better listeners, along with quick activities for a week focused on this topic.) Two other good ones are Lacy Walker, Nonstop Talker and My Mouth is a Volcano. Songs and Videos I love to incorporate music to help students better remember a strategy. You will get a song I wrote in the unit call "I Am Listening", but I have also linked some classroom approved videos you can show before or during your mini lesson about listening. Be a Whole Body Listener I Am a Good Listener (begin at 1:00) Why is Listening Important? Listening Game The Dance Freeze Song The Listening Game: Cosmic Kids Listening Mini Lessons Incorporate mini lessons into your morning meeting devoted to listening. I like to focus on one topic or skill per week. These lessons are quick and to the point. I also like to create an anchor chart with my students so that they have a visual reminder to refer to. Students also make a mini anchor chart to add to their SEL notebooks. Listening and Following Directions Activities Practice the Strategy For each lesson, I review the anchor chart and sing the listening song to open the lesson and review what we have learned. I then read a portion of the read aloud, The Worst Day of My Life Ever! I do this similar to an interactive read aloud, including text dependent questions that also start discussions about listening. After the story, I teach a new strategy that we then practice. I will take you through each day of this unit. We already covered day one and the anchor chart, so let's move on to day two. On day two, we learn a new listening strategy and then students listen to the story Go Away Big Green Monster. I do not show them the illustrations; they have to draw the monster by listening to the description. This is a fun way to practice active listening! They love to share their monsters with one another. On day three, we learn another listening strategy and play Listen, Draw, Check. You can use this game in all content areas for review. The game is very similar to Battleship. They have to be really great listeners and follow the directions to match my game board, which we check at the end. On day four, I introduce the students to an SEL animal character. Each character is a different animal and has a poem. For this activity, students have to follow the oral coloring instructions and color their Listening Lion. They also get a copy of the poem to trace. Finally on day five, we read the whole story and then discuss what lesson the author was trying to teach the reader. I then assign a writing activity (differentiated sheets included) in which they have to apply what they have learned about listening and following directions. This is a great way to wrap up the unit and assess their understanding. Listening and following instructions are skills that apply to so many parts of the school day, so they are vital to a smoothly run classroom. When you are having to stop and address behaviors, it is draining. Let's set our students up for success by giving them the tools they need to thrive in the classroom. I would love to hear and share with others if you have any great listening strategies! Thank you so much for stopping by this week! Be sure to come back next week for our next SEL skill, MAKING GOOD CHOICES. The following two weeks will be all about KINDNESS and RESILIENCE. You can grab the Listening and Following Directions Activities below or by clicking on any of the photos!
Everything you need to know about getting involved in Fashion Revolution Week 2020.
Students can travel across the globe without leaving the classroom. Check out these fun geography lessons for any grade and curriculum.
Too many classroom icebreakers require students to take big social risks with people they barely know. Or they don't really help students get to know each other. Or they are just plain cheesy.
(Click on any photo to be taken to the resource) You are going to LOVE this unit. It’s easy to implement, it’s comprehensive, #representation, and your students are going to walk away with a great foundation of important social studies skills. We lay the foundation in literally every other academic area, social studies shouldn’t be […]
The minimum basics and fundamentals you need to know, to improve when drawing objects from imagination, for concept art and product design.
On September 16, the Randolph County School Board took the book Invisible Man out of public school libraries by the request of one parent without asking for public comment on this issue.
Inclusive Classrooms ~ "Promote a safe and welcoming classroom school and community where individual differences are valued..."
Camels are desert animals that can endure extreme temperatures. They are social animals that live in herds. This article is about camels, read on to learn more about these animals.
