Add a little pizzazz to your lessons with some United States History Activities that your students will love!

Here are five things every teacher should do for a successful back to school year. In this post, I'll share the top five necessities.

This activity is an I have Who has game focused on consequences, a group activity that gets students interacting and requires them to really focus.

Need a fun, easy team-building challenge for back to school? We have you covered with our favorite three back to school STEM icebreakers! Whether preschool or high school, read on for STEM activities and modifications to get your students moving and working together as a team!

drama activities and games for elementary students

Want buy-in from teachers for counseling lessons? Tie in your topics to their curriculum! Find out how I collaborate to blend STEM in counseling.

Whether you are a seasoned pro or new to teaching with STEM, these first-week activities for STEM are sure to be a hit in your classroom.

If you need STEM projects ideas, this is THE place to go! This is a collection of over 200 STEM projects and activities that kids love!

As a teacher, I am sure you have been overwhelmed! The last week of school, the first week of school, right before report cards go out, parent conference week, during an observation, and so many more occasions are when we all get that feeling that it's just too much. That is the exact situation I

Every once in a while, I create a product for my classroom or my TPT store that I get just giddily excited about. Products that are unique and that I know kids and teachers will both love. I felt this way when I released my escape rooms for early childhood, and I'm feeling it again with my latest project: STEM Safari! I've been working on it for weeks, and I am thrilled that it is finally live! STEM Safari is an organized approach to implementing STEM in your classroom, and so much fun! Each STEM session, a student picks a challenge card to complete. There are 5 different types of cards: 1. Elephant Engineering (engineering challenges) 2. Cheetah Challenge (challenges with specific parameters in place) 3. Rhino Riddles ("How can you...?" challenges) 4. Warthog Wonderings (reflection questions and challenges) 5. Buffalo Building (free choice building). I wanted to prevent students from always picking the same type of card, such as the free choice building, which is, of course, valuable, but doesn't do as well with developing problem-solving skills. To do this, and to encourage my students to try new things, they each have an Animal Checklist. Every time they complete a specific type of challenge, they check it off. When they have completed all 5 of the different challenge types, they color in one country in their STEM Safari Africa map. Then they "journey" to a new country and start again with a new animal checklist! This way, the fun just keeps going, but they have a way to track how many challenges they have completed. There is also a STEM Safari Journal included, which helps build their reflection skills. Any of the Warthog Wondering cards that say "write about it" can be completed in their STEM Safari Journals. There are also a few "design" challenges in the Elephant Engineering cards that can be completed in their journals. As they continue their STEM Safari journey, the reflections they have completed in the journal will help them polish their problem-solving and engineering skills. I love doing STEM projects with my students! It is amazing to see what they can accomplish with a few basic supplies and some open-ended directives. However, storing all of these supplies can be a challenge. Included in the STEM Safari kit are tons of supply labels with photographs, to help keep everything neat. Here's a close-up example of a supply label. I even included some editable labels so that you can customize them for any supplies you have on hand! I really hope that your students enjoy STEM Safari as much as mine do! Click here to purchase in my shop, or here to purchase in my Teachers Pay Teachers store. There's just something about open-ended, hands-on learning that gets kiddos excited. I would love to hear how you use STEM in your classroom; drop me a comment below! Happy teaching!

Have your students create their own printing press when they learn about Joahnnes Gutenberg

Need free entrepreneurship curriculum, lesson plans, and projects? Here's entrepreneur lesson plans for high school, middle school, and elementary.

Teamwork in STEM- Article featuring three STEM Challenges, posters, team-building activities, job badges, helpful tips, and more! 6 Ways to Focus on Teamwork

It's so important to have students practice solving unknown word meanings every day. Grab some ideas to implement word analysis strategies instruction in your upper elementary classroom right away!

Some of the most popular posts on this domestic blog of mine are simple art projects for kids. When my husband was a fifth-grade te...

These simple four ways to increase classroom student engagement and motivation are the key to running an effective classroom.

Explore the 5 senses with a cool candy! This fun and simple to set up Pop Rocks experiment is sure to be a hit with kids.

STEM Bins for Elementary Students “I’m finished! What do I do now?” How many times during our teaching day do we hear these words from our students? Oftentimes, it is much too often, and students are provided a handful of the same options to keep them busy until our next transition. Sometimes students are instructed...

STEM Projects that are perfect for new STEM or classroom Teachers. Easy prep, easy materials, and full of problem-solving. Lessons already planned for you!

You have just been asked to be the teacher sponsor of your elementary school's student council. But you have no idea what you are doing. Where do you start? When will you meet? What do elementary student councils do? Once upon a time, I was in those shoes. Don't worry. I learned it's easy to get started and the whole goal is to engage the students in learning leadership and service to their school and community. What does an Elementary Student Council do? The school's student council will provide students with learning opportunities in leadership, service, teamwork, and school spirit. An elementary student council helps its school with organizing special projects, events and fundraising. The students, with the guidance of their sponsor, can plan fun events like school carnivals, pep rallies, and special assemblies. They can raise money to beautify the campus, add to the playground, or put picnic tables in the schoolyard. Student Councils can also provide service to the community. They do this through food drives, winter coat and blanket drives, nursing home visits, Toys for Tots and local community beach or park clean-ups. In elementary school, the student council faculty or staff sponsor will take much of the lead in the events and activities of the group. But, as the students meet throughout the year they learn lessons in leadership and teamwork that will help them achieve success. The hope is that they will continue to have an interest and participate in student council when they get to middle and high school. Student Council Meetings When I led our school's student council we would regularly meet once a month. Our elementary council included two students from each class in the 3rd, 4th and 5th grade. The class voted on the two members they wanted to represent them on the student council. You can gather your students this way or open it up to anyone who is interested in joining can be on the council. At our first meeting of the year, I would have the students do an icebreaker activity so they could get to know each other. They would then brainstorm ideas of projects they could do based on needs of the school, students or community. After selecting the goals for the year, we would put them on a yearlong calendar. Each monthly meeting would address the project or event that is scheduled and would also have a leadership or teamwork lesson that I would lead. Sometimes additional meetings would need to be scheduled so students could complete tasks to meet the goal. Student Council Officers Student Council Officer positions can vary from school to school or district to district. In most student councils you would have a President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer. Some Student Councils also include officers such as Historian or Parliamentarian. Officers come from the council membership but we had the entire student body in 3rd-5th grade elect them. They ran a campaign where they put up posters around the school and made a speech over morning announcements the week before the election. My student council had a President who led the meetings and worked closely with me to plan and prepare for them. The Vice President assisted us and took over as leader when the president was unavailable. We had a Secretary who would write out our agendas and take notes during our meetings. The Treasurer would help me collect funds and count money during fund raising events. They would also keep simple records of the council's budget and funds. The officers would also be our school representatives to the district and our city. For example, when it was our school's turn to lead the Pledge of Allegiance at the school board meeting, our President and Vice President were the students we sent. These elementary aged officers were learning how to be leaders by experiencing some easy responsibilities in running the council. Service Projects Our student council did at least one service project a year. Most of the time we did several. One project we always participated in was the community food drive around the holidays. The student council made posters to advertise the drive and put them up around school. Each classroom would make a decorated collection box to put outside their door and collect food from their class. There would be a contest for the most creative decorated box and the winning class would receive a popcorn party complements of the student council. There would also be a contest to see which class and grade level would bring in the most food. Student council members would be in charge of collecting and counting food from the boxes each Friday and helped deliver them to the community drop off location on our assigned day. The students loved helping their community each year during the holiday season with this food drive. Fundraising In order for the student counsel to meet many of their goals they need to fundraise. Our council used funds for a variety of events: Classroom contest rewards, beautification of the school grounds, Easter egg hunt for neighboring head start program, Christmas Caroling field trip, Teacher Appreciation Week, and the end of year student council celebration. We had one main fund raiser that they did multiple times during the year. We sold Candy Grams. They were a big hit near all the major holidays at our school and we were able to raise all the money we needed. Visit this post to learn more about how to use Candy Grams as a fundraiser. School Spirit Another thing our student council did was help promote school spirit. They worked with administrators to help plan spirit weeks on our campus. We had special dress up days during Red Ribbon Week, National Library Week, and Texas Public School's Week. They helped think of fun ideas to get everyone involved. Some of their favorites are crazy hair day, twin day, sports day and pajama day. The staff and students all like to participate in these days to show their school spirit. If your school does not have a student council it would be a great opportunity to talk to your administrator about starting one. Start small with just one or two projects and see how it will grow. You will always find a group of students who want to work to make the school and community a better place. Until Next Time....

Student engagement on the first day of school is more important than you think. Upper elementary and middle school students need to be hooked into loving being back to school o instill curiosity and an interest in science. Including hands-on activities does not have to be costly or time-consuming. Providing fun learning experiences is most ... Read more

Are you looking for tips and tricks for working with partners in the classroom classroom? Read on to learn all the hacks!

These fun Friday ideas are some of my favorites and my students love them too! Why not give them a try? You won't be disappointed.

Easy to set up family night fun that's also educational.

Ready to "cook up" a great first day of school? It's easy with this recipe for a successful start to the school year! PREP: ➤ Think about how you will set the tone for your classroom on the first day of school. ➤ Plan to keep students engaged and active. ➤ Prepare to build a positive rapport with students from the first instant that they become a part of the classroom community. INGREDIENTS: ➤ Warm-Up Activity ➤ Get-to-Know-You Activity ➤ Game that gets students out of their seats ➤ Get-to-Know-the-Teacher Activity ➤ Writing Prompt ➤ Extension Activity Once you've gathered your ingredients, you can get "cooking!" (CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FREE RECIPE!) PROCEDURE: STEP 1: Begin with a warm-up activity. Place an activity on students' desks that they can complete independently. You might try a simple survey or poster. An All About Me poster is a quick way to learn about students. You can even gather them together for an awesome classroom display. Or, a survey is a wonderful way to collect information about students. You might include questions about where students like to sit, their favorite way to learn, and activities that they enjoy so that you can start connecting with students. Another awesome warm-up activity is an "All About You" name tag. Students answer questions about themselves while coloring in a name tag based on their responses. Then, students can place the name tag on their desks to help you learn your students' names. This activity is particularly awesome if you have multiple sets of students. You can collect the name tags and re-distribute them each day during each class while you learn names. Oh, and as a bonus, you can gather them together and leave them with substitute teachers throughout the year! If you'd like to check out ready-made Back to School Warm-Ups, just click here for the poster, here for the survey, and here for the name tags. STEP 2: Mix in a get-to-know-you activity. Give students a chance to share about themselves and learn about their classmates with an engaging get-to-know-you activity. One of my favorites is a doodle-inspired mini-book. Students transform a single sheet of paper into a doodley mini-book all about themselves. After students make the mini-book it's fun to hang them on a clothesline. Then, as students finish their work during the first days of school, you can encourage fast-finishers to grab a classmate's mini-book and learn about him or her. Check out the doodle mini-book HERE. Or, you could have students create this 3-D About Me Activity. Students create an infographic-style book about themselves. After answering some simple questions, they do a little cutting and gluing to create a 3-D "About Me" display. These are especially fun because students can set them on their desks and then everyone can tour around the classroom and learn about their peers. (These are awesome for Open House too!) Learn more HERE. STEP 3: Scatter in an activity that gets students moving. Since students crave opportunities to get up and out of their seats, plan to get your class moving on the first day of school. You might have students complete a scavenger hunt or even play a learning game that requires students to move around. I'm a huge fan of this simple get-to-know-you activity that gets students moving (and you can download it for FREE here.) First, students make paper airplanes. They write their name and 3 interview questions on the wings. Then, students line up shoulder-to-shoulder and launch the planes. Next, they pick up a classmate's plane, find him or her, and ask the interview questions. You can repeat the airplane launch as often as you'd like! Find everything you need to do this activity in this FREEBIE. If you'd like to combine movement and learning on the first day of school, then you and your students will love this Back to School Doodle Infographic. First students fill in the infographic with facts about school. There are 21 facts and you can hide them around the room to get students moving. Then, they put together the infographic to make a fun and doodle-y poster! Check it out HERE. STEP 4: Sprinkle in a chance for students to get-to-know-you (their teacher). On the first day of school, students are very curious about you. They want to learn about you, so you'll want to be sure to share about yourself. You can give a simple biography of yourself, or you might try these easy and engaging activities: Create a teacher interview question along with 4 or 5 prize cards for each student in your class. Then, tape the questions and the prize cards under students' seats before class begins. During class, explain to students that they all have something under their chairs. It might be a question and it might be a prize. If they get a prize card, have students keep it quiet. Then, call on students. They can either read a question for you to answer or reveal that they won a prize. If they won, you might give them a pencil, piece of candy, or a homework pass. You can find all my favorite questions HERE. Or, you might have students complete a "Teacher Guess" about you. First, they predict the answers to questions about you. Then, as you reveal the answers, they earn points for every correct prediction. It's a fun activity that students truly enjoy! You can check it out HERE. STEP 5: Add a fun writing prompt to your back to school activities. A writing prompt is a great way to gather a baseline for students' writing on the first day of school. You might give students a simple prompt about their summer or goals for the new school year. However, I love to add a fun creative writing prompt into the mix. For example, with this writing prompt students select a setting, character, problem, and 3 random objects. Then, they need to work them all into a story. It's fun, engaging, and a great way to see where your students are starting the school year. Find this writing prompt HERE or check out this collection of 10 creative writing activities. STEP 6: Top it off with a review of tomorrow's warm-up. Set students up for success during your next day of school by quickly reviewing what they will need to do when they arrive to class. If you're planning to have students work through warm-ups like these This or That ELA warm-ups where students choose to do the "this" or the "that" activity, then you might quickly review what will be waiting on their desks when they arrive. Taking the time to preview tomorrow's warm-up is a great way to set expectations for students! If you're looking for some daily warm-ups, you might want to check out these This or That ELA warm-ups or these This or That Writing warm-ups! STEP 7: Don't forget to have an extension activity just in case your lesson ends early. I love playing games like "Move If You..." which you can find for FREE HERE. While you may never get to the extension activity, it's a lifesaver if you need it! TIPS: When you're following this recipe for a great first day of school, you might want to: ➤ Greet students at the door and answer these questions for students right away: ➨ Where do I sit? ➨ Am I in the right classroom? ➨ What should I be doing right now? ➤ Also, be prepared to manage students' behavior on the first day of school. Ensure that you have a positive classroom management system in place and ready to use if you need it! Well, there you have it, my recipe for a great first day of school. Be sure to download all the ideas with links AND the FREE airplane activity HERE! CHECK THIS OUT! I've put together a 100+ page guide for back to school for teachers. It includes tips, tools, and printables for classroom décor, classroom organization, lesson planning, community building, and planning the first day of school. It's absolutely FREE! Just click here to sign up. When you sign up, you'll get access to 6 mini-courses that cover everything Back to School including classroom design, organization, curriculum planning, and ways to build a positive classroom community. There's also a TON of exclusive freebies, bonuses, and videos! If you'd like to learn more and sign up, just click HERE. Thanks so much for stopping by, Mary Beth P.S. If you'd like MORE free resources for your classroom, be sure to join the Brain Waves Instruction club!

Ladies and Gentleman... we officially have the first week down in the books!! And what an AMAZING week it was!! #BestFirstWeekEver!! My kiddos are just awesome. We learned a lot and laughed a lot! My own children also had a great week (aside from a quick bout of a stomach bug that kept one home for a day!). My oldest, Drew, started 1st grade. My middle, Quinn, started Kindergarten. And my toddler twins, Addy and Chase, began two-mornings-a-week preschool. Additionally, Mr. Musings from the Middle School (my husband Dennis), started a new school year, too! Phew!! My head is spinning! Anyway, I hope everyone is having a great weekend and recovering from this busy time of year. This post is mainly a pictorial of some of the goings on in my classroom this week. As we settle into our routine, I'll be back with more "meaty" posts (and hopefully some new videos, too!). One of my favorite activities from the week was this Growth Mindset lesson that I adapted from here. Basically, the kids had to create the image on top using just a piece of paper and scissors. It was NOT easy... but that's exactly the point! As the kids worked, I wrote down some of the comments I heard. Things like, "this is impossible," and "I give up!" After I let them struggle for a while, I brought them back together and discussed the activity with them. It was eye-opening to see their words. They all agreed that their attitude was too negative so of course they would never have been successful. Then we read the Growth Mindset posters hanging in our room and discussed what each one meant. I closed with this video from Khan Academy. It was a fun and powerful lesson. One of the BEST purchases I made from TpT for this school year is the Icebreakers that Rock bundle from Cult of Pedagogy. This product contains three PowerPoint activities that allow students to talk to each other in an easy, comfortable way. What is great about these is that you can use them as one, big activity, or you can break them up, showing just a few slides here and there, as "brain breaks" through out the day. That is how I used them. So, on the first day, I did a big "Find Someone Who" activity with them. This allowed all the kids to learn each other's names. Next, I assigned them all their lockers and we practiced opening the combination locks (super-stressful for these first time locker users)! After that, we did a few slides from Icebreakers that Rock. Then, we went over the syllabus. Next, a few more Icebreakers that Rock slides. After that, I handed out and went over all the paperwork that had to go home and be signed (oh, the paperwork!!!). Then, a few more slides right before lunch. And then a few more right after lunch. Next up, a tour of the building. Then a few more slides before trying our lockers again. Finally, another slide right before dismissal. It was the perfect break/filler/attention-getter/distraction to use throughout the day... actually, I used the slides throughout the whole week! Run to TpT and pick this product up today! Totally worth every penny. (Some of the slides can be done silently. I LOVED these slides!!) Of course, we had to number our notebooks to get ready for ELA next week. I always tell kids that this is the easiest, most difficult task that we do all year :) I really the love smell of a Mr. Sketch anchor poster in the morning! This year, I'm starting with Reading Nonfiction: Notice and Note Stances, Signposts, and Strategies. My thinking is that it will really help with getting started with Article of the Week. Here is one of several of the posters I'll be using to teach these strategies. I'm jumping on the #ObserveMe bandwagon! Read more about it here. I'll keep you updated on how this goes throughout the year! Okay... that is enough for now! The beach is calling my name... nothing beats September here at the Jersey Shore! Hope the back-to-school season is treating you well! I'd love to hear how your school year is going so far. Happy Teaching!!

Managing a classroom with multiple classes can be challenging, so I've put together 6 tips to simplify your classroom management!55t5tttttt5

Teach Force and Motion to Kindergarteners with this simple STEM Challenge designed to connect to the Read Aloud Book, Ricky The Rock that Couldn't Roll.

Looking for fun and engaging science activities to teach force and motion? These three activities will get your students excited to learn!

Here is an amazing list of clever, unique and simple set up STEM challenges and lesson plans from other teachers.

Start your year off right by decorating your STEM classroom to inspire your students to have fun, take risks, and have a growth mindset.

International Dot Day is celebrated on September 15th. It is a day meant to encourage students to be creative, curious, and brave. The inspiration for the day comes from the book, The Dot , by Peter H. Reynolds. The story of The Dot centers around the main character, V

Nearly 400 teachers weighed in on their favorite back-to-school activities and ice breakers - and here are their top picks! The most popular, practical, and unique back-to-school activities loved by teachers around the world!

Tons of helpful growth mindset activities for elementary students in one place. Easy to implement ideas to motivate kids to build a strong growth mindset!

This guide will show you the best and most popular assembly shows for your students.

How to plan collaborative project-based learning activities in the math classroom. Check out these engaging PBL ideas for 3rd grade students!

Paper Airplane STEM Challenges is a packet of experiments your students will love! Flying and creating paper airplanes is a fun activity that will engage your students as they collect data and use measurement skills. 40 pages - 23 MB - PDF

These fun and educational Anatomy Activities for Elementary Students are perfect for your homeschool human anatomy lesson. Kids will love them.

Guest Post by Christine Weis | For the Love of Teachers There’s no crazy like back to school crazy so I like to start off the year with some fun and easy activities that build classroom community a…

Halloween activities for Upper Elementary - Looking for COMPLETE UNITS? I have got you covered! This spooky holiday has so many great learning opportunities.

Learn about stars for kids with this handy, free printable Constellations Booklet to learn about star patterns in the night sky.