Ein Lerntagebuch zu den überfachlichen Kompetenzen. Ganz nach dem Motto "Lernen sichtbar machen" haben die Kinder über mehrere Wochen...
Learn About the 7 Continents! Exploring the 7 Continents has never been more exciting! It’s a Small World Continent Study is filled with over 35 activities to help your students gain a greater understanding of the seven continents. This 130+ page unit is filled with great resources, posters, printables, activities, and projects that will open […]
Howdy! Jen Bradshaw here from Teacher Karma. Classroom time fillers Some teachers and principals think "time-filler" is a dirty word. The truth is, even for the very best teachers, time fillers happen in the classroom. It may sound strange, but there really is a way to use time fillers in your classroom and keep your students, as well as yourself, out of trouble. I'll go a step further. These classroom time fillers will actually help your students to practice their higher-level thinking skills AND they require almost no effort from the teacher. Smile. Secret to using classroom time fillers Below, you will find a few of the classroom time filler activities I included in this freebie for you. There are more included in the download. List of classroom time fillers After you read and print out my favorite time fillers, the first thing you will want to do is jot down some of the ideas that you can use in your classroom today. You have to be prepared here. To make it easy on you, I included a form that you can use to write down the time filling activities that you want to use. After filling it out, keep it handy so you can use it when you need it. List of time fillers For more ideas and to download your very own FREE cheat sheet for using time fillers in your classroom, please click here. Best wishes!
I love teaching a split-grade class. I know this may not be a popular opinion in teaching, but there it is. In reality, many of us teach split-grade
Sweet Sounds - Quality Kodaly Resources for Elementary Music Educators
Love podcasts? Check out this post in the form of a podcast episode on The Classroom Commute
You just found out you are teaching a split grade class next year. For most teachers the idea of teaching a split is overwhelming. You have twice as many
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If you ask me (and I am pretending that you did), third grade is the BEST grade to teach! Third graders are still young enough to love school, love their teacher and get excited over simple things like coloring. However, they are old enough to be independent workers and thinkers. Most third graders know how to read
Introduce jugar plus los deportes to your beginning Spanish students with these interactive notebook templates . Students will practice to verb jugar (to play) along with sports vocabulary. Included is the following: **Teacher Tips **Vocabulary Visual Cards (2 per page) **Jugar conjugation spinner: includes vosotros **Jugar conjugation spinner: does not include vosotros **Los deportes flaps (with 2 blank flaps for students to add additional sports) **Questions about sports foldable templates (uses vosotros, 2 per page) **Questions about sports foldable templates (uses Uds., 2 per pages) **Practice sentence writing (2 per page) Student instructions are provided on each template page. See the preview for more details This product is included in the following money saving bundle! Spanish Interactive Notebook MEGA Bundle What are other teachers saying about this resource? ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Victoria says: Great resource. My students loved it. It helped them understand conjugation and the verb jugar. Interested in other interactive notebook resources? Check out these products: Spanish Interactive Notebooks Want to be updated about new products and sales from my store via email? Here's how to become a follower: Look under my store name, "Island Teacher" for the green star near the top of the homepage of my store. Click the STAR to become a follower. :) Check out my blog for more Spanish teaching ideas! Island Teaching Adventures
I LOVE the Olympics! I have always loved the Olympics, and I get very excited when it's an Olympic year. The summer Games are my favorite, especially the gymnastics and swimming. The Olympics is also a high-interest topic for students. The summer Games are a perfect theme for the end or beginning of a school year, and it's a great theme for summer school, as well. When I have a theme that I'd like to teach but is not in my curriculum, I always start with guided reading. I am very lucky to have a Reading A-Z subscription through my school district. On the Reading A-Z site, there are several different books that are leveled and perfect for an Olympic theme. My favorite is titled Summer Olympic Events and is available in levels H, K, & Q. In my Gold Medal Literacy resource, I have two mini books that I also use: The Summer Olympics and Where in the World is Rio de Janeiro? They're perfect, because students can highlight and write directly in their books. The nice thing about those little books and the A-Z readers is that they come with comprehension activities and worksheets. My Gold Medal Literacy packet is loaded with word word and writing activities that can help you run a mini-unit on the summer Olympics. I used it during the last week of school, and my kids had a blast! They're definitely excited for the Games in August. You can find my Gold Medal Literacy resource here. Over the years, I've collected Olympics trade books as I've found them. They are kind of few and far between, at least the good ones are. I've linked up a few of my favorites and a few on my wish list. (These are Amazon affiliate links.) What Are the Summer Olympics? I LOVE this series! Magic Treehouse: The Hour of the Olympics- Excellent for guided reading or as a read aloud. Ancient Greece and the Olympics: Nonfiction Companion G is for Gold Medal- I love the variety of information in this book. It's not a great read aloud, but it is perfect to add to a themed bookshelf. Elympics- This one looks really cute, although I do not own it. How to Train with a T.Rex and Win 8 Gold Medals- I think this one looks so cute! Wilma Unlimited: How Wilma Rudolph Became the World's Fastest Woman- There are tons of great biographies about Olympians, and this one is one of my favorites. Excellent book! Olympia the Games Fairy- My girls love these fairy books, so this is a good one to add to the bookshelf. It is always chosen. ...and if you're looking for some more fun ideas for teaching about the Olympics. Click on the photos to access the link. (image and link to The Chaos and the Clutter) (image and link to Classy Mommy) (image and link to Fun-a-Day) My summer Games math resource on TPT. Math and Literacy together!
The workshop model is a great way to differentiate your instruction for all learners in your classroom. This post focuses on workshop for gifted students.
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Choose a policy that works for you.
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These engaging strategies to incorporate movement in the classroom are perfect for the fidgety students & kinesthetic learners in your class!
Project-based Learning
Like most teachers I am such a fan of dollar stores. I can shop there to organize my classroom, create new workstations and add a little flair to my bulletin boards. I'd like to share with you just a few of my favorite finds! Flyswatters My kids are always a little in awe when they see my collection of flyswatters. (This pictures shows most of my collection.) I sometimes use them as pointers when projecting things on my white board, but most often these are used for Swat the Staff or Swat the Rhythm games. With Swat the Staff, I use masking tape to create a large staff on my board. Two students (from two different teams) stand at the board. I call a pitch name and the first person to correctly swat where that pitch should be gets a point for their team! Fun! You can check out some of my Swat the Rhythm games in my store. Plastic Fruit, Veggies and Food I try to do all of my singing assessments with my primary students in a game like setting. "Doggie, Doggie, Where's Your Bone" and other singing games help them relax and I can assess their ability to match pitch, sing in head voice or whatever we are assessing that day. The plastic fruits, veggies and food are great for this kind of thing. The teacher sings "Who has the lemon?" (sol mi la sol mi) The student with the lemon sings back "I have the lemon!" (sol mi la sol mi) Little Cars At one time I'm pretty sure I had a thousand of these little cars in every nook and cranny of my house! It wasn't quite that many, but it certainly seemed like they were constantly multiplying. Now, they are a music workstation! I added stickers to them and used the Music Town Parking Center file to create an interactive activity that my kiddos really enjoy. I've used this fabulously with 2nd and 3rd graders. At some dollar stores you can get 3 little cars for $1. Score! Clothespins I love using clothespins for assessment. Yep. Assessment. I painted some wooden clothespins, drew rhythms in various meters and had students pin them to a piece of paper that I had drawn a 2, 3 and 4 on. If the pattern had four beats, they pinned it to the side of the paper with the 4 and so on. Another GREAT activity for assessment is Clip It. I have several of these sets that you might be interested in: Animals, Camping, Careers, Christmas, Presidents, Thanksgiving and Instruments. Students match the syllables of each picture with one of the rhythms by clipping them. Balls I like to use balls to bounce to the beat and for workstations like Note Toss (click to learn more) and Snowball Scoop (click for more details). Alphabet Puzzles These inexpensive alphabet puzzles are great manipulatives for Kindergarten and First Grade. We sing the alphabet song while touching each letter. Then I'll pick a letter and we will all remove that piece. Next we sing through the alphabet song again but when we get to the missing letter we say "shh". Later this knowledge translates to a quarter rest. In first grade, the students can handle this activity on their own in small groups and I set it up as a workstation. Craft Sticks Craft sticks are handy for many reasons. Two of my favorite uses are creating groups and rhythmic dictation. To learn more about how to create classroom groups with craft sticks read THIS post. For rhythmic dictation, I show students how to create quarter notes and barred eighth notes with the sticks. I clap patterns and the students "notate" them with the craft sticks. When they have mastered that we figure out how to create a quarter rest with the craft sticks. I've found that students are really creative with this! Pipe Cleaners My pal, Kristin Lukow, introduced me to this idea and I LOVE it! The kids do too! We listen to some soothing music while fashioning pipe cleaners into different notes. For some notes or symbols students really have to use their problem solving skills to create them with only a pipe cleaner. This activity gives students a chance to identify notes and symbols in a new way. Flashlights I have just started to experiment with using flashlights as manipulatives for listening activities and movement. I've used them in performance before (see THIS rendition of "Fireflies") and I've been in workshops with the aaahhhmaaazing Artie Almeida who used them during listening activities. Artie calls if flashlight painting and it is an amazing way to keep 100% of your students engaged. Here's a video that might explain a little more. Play Dough There is just something about play dough that makes me smile. The kids love to have the opportunity to use it in music class. I use THESE play dough mats as a workstation. The mats name each symbol or note and contain and brief definition. Styrofoam Coolers Weird, right? These little coolers are PERFECT for creating the Snowball Scoop workstation I've described in a previous post. They are also great for decorating a winter/snow themed concert. At a buck each you can by dozens and create a wide variety of "snow" structures. Dip and Veggie Trays Once I started creating workstations with these dip and veggie trays it was pretty hard to stop! Check out: Dip and Chip Workstations Dip Tray Workstations: Instrument Families and Note Values (freebie here!) Dip Tray Workstations: Bottle Cap Pitches Pool Noodles If you are a regular reader of my blog, you know that I am a big fan of using pool noodles in creative ways. Noodle ponies, steady beat swords and unique bulletin board displays are just some of the ways that I have used them. You might like to check out these pool noodle posts for more information: How to Make Pool Noodle Ponies Pool Noodle Ponies: What to Do with Your New Herd Steady Beat Swords Unusual and Incredibly Fabulous Bulletin Board Borders Like these ideas? Pin them for later!
Teaching theme in fourth grade is not easy, but it is very rewarding to see the students' little light bulbs come on! In my experience, students need many
My Top Tips for Teaching Ukulele in General Music. Organized Chaos.
So we’ve decided what we want to teach . We’ve chosen our musical materials . Now it’s time to plug it all in. Today I’m sharing how I’ve planned the first month of Kindergarten.
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A blog about pursuing a classically creative education, using hands on elements to bring education to life for those who pursue a classical model.
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It inevitably happens to every music teacher at some point in their teaching career: you have to call out absent. Whether it’s to attend a conference,
Today, I'm going to talk about two high and low activities I have used in my classroom for several years now. Five Little Monkeys This is...
Get your FREE reading comprehension resources! Subscribe to my emails and receive instant reading comprehension resources! Included are 5 no-prep reading comprehension passages complete with student questions. Each reading passage is based on a woodland animal that your students will love! Answers included to save you time! As well as your reading comprehension resources, you ... Read More about Opt in
Song Index