DIY Greek Mythology Party Games that even the Gods themselves would love. This theme can be a blast, and these activities are perfect to ensure that.

One of my goals this year was to have my students really understand the artistic behaviors. I thought last year the students were looking at them only on the surface. I want a deeper understandin…

These handprint lilies are so beautiful and surprisingly easy to make! They'd make such a thoughtful handmade gift idea for Mother's Day if you make a small bouquet and tie them together with a ribbon. Or you could make a bouquet of handprint Easter lilies if you use white paper. Can Easter lilies be pink? I think they're just white? Either way, they're adorable for spring and they're a wonderful low mess craft to make with the kids! I had such an awesome helper when I made these paper handprint lilies! My spunky 5 year old loves crafts, and she

These camping crafts for preschoolers are a fun activity to do before or after camping or whenever you wish you were camping. They’re perfect for doing at home, school, library, or daycare!

This Camping Classroom Transformation is for elementary students to practice math skills while feeling like they are actually camping.

Learn about the planets, galaxies and more with these awesome Outer Space Crafts for Kids! Perfect for Show and Tell or summer STEAM projects!

A compilation of the best ideas I've seen for an awesome detective classroom theme.

Circle Games are easy to monitor, ensure that participants are on equal ground and enable everyone to see and hear one another.

There's no cheating about it - the Cheetah is the fastest animal on land! Celebrate the awesome cheetah with these cheerful cheetah crafts for kids.

The end of the year is within reach (2 more weeks) and we finally got to let loose a little bit now that testing is over. Can I get an amen?! Last week we learned all about camping and I can't wait to share our fun with you. Please know, this post does contain affiliate links which means that I earn a small amount when you make purchases from some of the links shared on this page. However, my promise to you is that I am only sharing my honest opinions and I will never promote something I do not believe in or love. We started by brainstorming background knowledge. I split my kids into groups and each had a different topic to discuss. We made an anchor chart and added to it each day as we learned something new. Although I am not an expert camper by any means, I was surprised to learn that the majority of my students had little to no experience with the great outdoors. We also read lots of camping and summer camp themed books. Here are few of my favorites. You can click each book image to be taken right to the book on Amazon. Their favorite part was when they got to bring in towels (aka "sleeping bags") and flashlights to read with. Seriously, they would have read all day long if I let them! On the last day I set up a tent and campfire and the kids took turns reading around the fire and inside the tent. Sidenote, the "campfire" was pretty much like a never ending STEM challenge. I must have built and rebuilt that darn thing 20 times. I used rolled brown paper bags for the logs (and a lot of tape!), construction paper flames, mini glass gems as rocks and to weigh it down, and a shallow pan to put it in. When I create it again next year I am going to try to cover the logs in wood grain contact paper. I also had to tape some of the logs and flames in place so it didn't tip over (can we say real life Jenga?). We made special snacks two of the days. The first day we made campfires using mini marshmallows as rocks, small and large pretzel sticks as the logs/twigs, and gummy peach candies as the flames of the fire. I also saw online where people used candy corn flames and potato stick twigs but I couldn't find those so we worked with what we had. I gave the same ingredients to each child and let them use their imagination to build their campfires. I love how different they each came out! One little one even had marshmallows roasting over her fire. We also practiced How To Writing and made s'mores. We wrote down our ingredients and the steps to make their treats. They then followed their directions and enjoyed the snacks. Instead of regular marshmallows, I gave each child a spoonful of marshmallow fluff to spread. While it was a little messy (one kid got fluff on his head, don't ask hah), it worked well since we don't have a microwave in the classroom to melt regular ones. To tie in art we made Handprint Campfires. First they ripped brown construction paper into logs for their fire. Then, I painted their hands with yellow, orange, and red paint and they stuck it to their paper. You should have heard the giggles from the ticklish paintbrush :) While it all looks like fun and games, I swear we did real work too! Students each picked their own animals to research and used classroom books and online sites like Pebble Go to find facts. After they wrote a paragraph, they created talking animals using the ChatterPix Kids app on our iPads. If you have never used this app before it is AMAZING! Kids took pictures of their animal (or screenshots from an online search), added a mouth, and read their paragraph aloud. The iPad app then makes it look like the animal is talking saying their story. They are also able to save their clip and upload it to our class Seesaw site. Here is one of my little ones' stories. In writing, I found adorable camping themed napkins from Oriental Trading and stapled blank paper inside. The napkin becomes the book cover. My kids used the napkin books as inspiration for their camping themed stories. So cute! In math we used mini marshmallows as manipulatives for addition practice and solved camping themed word problems which can be found here. For added decorations (and a movement activity), I printed pictures of woodland animals from online. I laminated them and hung them around the room. My kids went on a "Nature Walk" to see how many wild animals they could find. They loved it! They recorded everything they found on a clipboard and blank lined paper. Well, that about sums up our week! We had so much fun and I am glad I could share some new ideas with you. If you are looking for more ideas, I have an entire Pinterest board for camping themed classroom ideas. Enjoy! Have you had a camping themed unit in your classroom before? To save these ideas for later, be sure to use the pin below :)

Running a self control group counseling program? Your students will love these 10 games to teach kids self control skills!

Spring fever has set in our classroom - big time! The kids are full of energy and excitement and noise. :) We need activities and lessons that match their energy levels, and these color experiments are perfect. Exploring color theory and experimenting with colors never gets old. Even my own older kids want to try it. Here are 3 fun, hands-on color experiments that are super simple to set up, and are guaranteed to keep the kids interested. Turkey Baster Mixing We set this experiment up in our sensory table, but it would also work outside with tubs of water. There are 3 containers of colored water (red, yellow, and blue), lots of empty smaller containers, dollar store turkey basters, and a big "dump" bucket. I put a cheap shower curtain liner and some beach towels on the floor, just in case! The students work on strengthening their hand muscles as they use the turkey basters to transfer and mix the water in the table. It looks like this in action: Ice Cube Trays This experiment is similar to the one above, but on a smaller scale. Again, there are 3 dishes of primary colored water. Students use little pipettes and their fine motor muscles to make new colors in an empty ice cube tray. Walking Water This third color experiment does not give the immediate gratification of the first two, but is sure to impress the class the next morning! To set it up, we recount all of the things that we know about mixing colors and about absorption. Then, we filled 2 pitchers with colored water. The students rolled a clean, dry paper towel and placed one end in the water and the other end in an empty bowl. Surprise! The next morning when the students arrived the middle bowl was full of water! It was a great way to make a hypothesis and then wait to discover the results. Each of these experiments requires just containers, water and food coloring. They are quick to set up, but are engaging enough to keep the students busy and learning for a long time. You can read more about the color experiments we do at Play to Learn Preschool here. Have fun playing and learning with your children today!

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

Piet Mondrian's work show us the importance of focusing on what's truly important. So here're 10 Piet Mondrian projects for kids to get inspired from!

Wonder activities for your classroom that are "wonder" ful and effective with your Wonder novel studies or We're All Wonders Book.

Inspiring young minds doesn't have to be such a struggle.These STEAM project ideas have been tested and tried by kids all over the world to boost creativity

Many upper elementary science teachers start the year teaching their students about science process skills and scientific practices like: working safely in the lab using science tools asking questions planning and carrying out investigations analyzing and interpreting data constructing explanations with claims, evidence, and reasoning Here are some resources and ideas that can help make ... Read more

From mixed media to simple sketching, there's something here for every 1st grader.

Last week I recreated this Cloud identification tool that I saw on Pinterest and my son has loved it! Almost every day he has been outsid...

Having a little boy opened my eyes BIG TIME to a world of books we'd been mostly neglecting. Sure, we read a few truck books when Sophie was little, but when Milo came on the

STEM becomes STEAM as we integrate science with art in these awesome science art projects for kids! Get ready to get your mind blown!

Students will have fun while learning how to cooperate and communicate.

"Today, we're going to write an autobiography in class. Okay, I want you to take ten minutes and brainstorm as much as you can about your life then write a one page paper. You will start with an introduction, and the body of your paper will be in chronological order, beginning with your earlier childhood and evolving into who you are, and who you want to become. You must have a catchy ending as well. Got it? Good! You may begin." (As I stare upon overwhelmed, confused, and stressed fifth graders...) Hmm... What did I do wrong? What I said made COMPLETE sense to me! Let's take a step back and evaluate my approach. Do you think that this approach will produce amazing autobiographies? Or will it be a jumbled mess? I'm opting for the second. Why? BECAUSE I saw it happen! I have been teaching since 2007...not including my subbing time, and time spent in college. I have come to find, like many of us do, that the success in a lesson can single-handedly depend upon our approach and introduction to a topic. No, I didn't start my lesson on writing autobiographies like this. :) I may have done these things in bits and pieces, but they were spread out and with explanations and examples. I start with reading an autobiography. We started with our basal reader, and the story of William Joyce Scrapbook. This story is all about this author/illustrator and how his life evolved into one that celebrates creativity, as well as how he gets inspired for new projects. To do something well, it helps for our students to SEE and/or LISTEN to a finished product. I always provide a visual aid and classroom discussion on how to approach the task. I LOVE anchor charts! Here's the one that I created for this project: I love to make my anchor charts bright and fun to look at. I believe that it engages my students, and almost lures them into reading them top to bottom. I also provide a structure. I like something tangible that they can write on. I gave my students this print out to engage their thoughts. The size of the blocks allowed them to focus on the most important details. You can grab a copy of this worksheet HERE. Don't get me wrong, we love to do messy brainstorming sessions, where we spend a great deal of time making notes, organizing our thoughts, and creating webs that guide our work. They are a wonderfully messy, yet organized way of pulling details out of us. Oxymoron?...maybe...but that works, too! This works really well for introductions and conclusions. If your students are anything like mine, this is where they struggle. I get the same, "Hi! My name is John Doe. I am writing about myself, so sit back, relax, and learn all about me!" BORING. I have a bulletin board that is dedicated to "Bold Beginnings," "Mighty Middles," and "Exciting Endings." I'm sure you've seen them...they look like this: I put these babies to work! They really ARE great conversation starters. I think it's SO important to SHARE what we have created with one another. We provide constructive criticism on what we liked, or ways that we could improve something that we hear. It's a form of friendly competition in my classroom. Who can create the boldest beginning, or the most exciting ending? I'm also the type of teacher that says..."Eh...not exactly what I'm looking for here. Let's try this!" I tell my kiddos that it takes great practice and care in creating a perfect paper. The first copy, the second copy, and possibly even the third, fourth, and fifth copy may need to be tweaked a bit. I stress that we... And that it's okay! ************************************************************ I want to take a minute to talk about the actual assignment I gave to my students. I LOVE a good at-home project to get our parents to sit down with their kiddos to work on something together. This works for the most part. I know...I know...there are students who just don't have a great home life. I'm blessed with students this year, who even in a broken home, have someone that is willing to pitch in and make the most of what it is that they are to do. You use common sense and assign these assignments based on the needs of your students. So, I started with a letter describing that we were reading an autobiography in class and that the students were working on writing their very own. I sent that home, along with a skin-colored piece of construction paper and directions for making a crafty student model to accompany their writings. I'm never quite sure how these assignments will turn out, but I was pleasantly surprised with the results! I loved seeing how students viewed themselves. Have a look! These are just a couple that came back. Have a look at our hallway... So cute! Overall, this lesson was a great success! I would be lying if I said that our grammar was 100% perfect, but that's certainly something that we're working on...and that's OKAY! The point is that we are writing. We are working through the writing process and becoming more alert of our mistakes, as well as recognizing when we should celebrate our creativity! What about you?? What have you done lately in your classroom to help promote the writing process? I'd love to hear how you make your students better writers! Let's talk in the comments below! Take a peek at what else I'm up to... Bloglovin' Facebook Pinterest TpT My Blog

This general characterization can be used to help students gather information about both direct and indirect characterization. It requires students to synthesize descriptions of characters and their actions to create a full picture of the character. It can be used with any novel, short story, memoi...

Studying the ocean with kids is so much fun! There are so many different things to explore! Beautiful blue water, interesting ocean creatures, and unique sea shells are just some of the many incredible parts of the ocean that can can captivate the attention of kids! Create an awesome ocean unit study with these hands-on science, STEM, math, literacy, sensory and art activities. You will keep your kids busy and engaged in fun activities all summer long!

Teaching Habitats to your primary students will be a breeze with my collection of resources to help make your life easier. There's even a freebie!

These free community helper sort and classify mats are so much fun for kids learning about people who help us! These mats come in two styles, blank mats

Printable worksheet to help in your teaching your kids the life skill of filling out forms. Guidelines for teaching are included.

The school year has officially begun and the crafts will follow! Allow students to creatively express themselves in their art projects and in class. Check out some class activities for the new school year.

If you’re a preschool teacher or homeschool mama, then you’re definitely going to want to check out these sequencing worksheets for preschool and kindergarten. These preschool worksheets are perfect for practicing order of events, story sequencing, and building reading comprehension skills.

Young women activity ideas for class activities or combined mutual activities. Cheap, fun, and easy activities to put together.

Contours, contours, contours! This was the last part is a series of lessons on portraits and contour line drawings. We spent a little time looking at Calder's work- especially his wire sculpture- bef

This week has been just a little crazy with the announcement of the new Pokemon Go app… the hubby and I are obsessed! We started playing in an attempt to get the hubby outside and walking around more but it’s definitely a fun (free) way to hang out together in the evening. Unfortunately it’s also […]

Joan Miro was an artist who didn't subscribe to any artistic label. Learn more about this incredibly talented artist with these Joan Miro Projects for Kids.

Please Note: All images seen below are of my students artwork only. These photos/lessons are not posted in any particular order regarding the flow of my curriculum. Abstract Self-Portrait Paintin…

Looking for the best preschool activities?! This list is full of hands-on preschool STEM, art, and literacy activities with no worksheets.

Looking for youth camp themes that your teenagers will actually enjoy? This list includes 15 epic youth camp themes complete with scriptures to back them up.

30+ engineering STEM challenges with simple materials. Kids can tinker with bridges, catapults, boats, and more using recycled and inexpensive materials.