These exit ticket ideas to help students reflect on learning are a great formative assessment to help with the learning process and ensure that students understand the learning material. Teachers can use these exit slips as an informal assessment when they have students respond to the prompt. Stude
This post is part 1 in my inquiry series. To learn more about inquiry click through to see my many other posts about inquiry. If you are new to my blog,
Does the thought of teaching about elections scare you? Here are 5 fun activities for teaching the election process to elementary students.
How to plan collaborative project-based learning activities in the math classroom. Check out these engaging PBL ideas for 3rd grade students!
Help the learning process with these simple strategies for making studennt thinking visible. Perfect for middle and high school English classes.
5-15% of schooling children have difficulties in their sensory regulation to their environment. This means that some children may have more difficulties than others in processing the differences between emotional, motion and sensory stimulations that are required for their daily living.
Annotation can be a powerful way to improve comprehension and increase engagement, but its effectiveness can vary depending on how it's taught.
As adult writers, we have a clear idea of how we each personally attack a piece of writing. For me, I know that I tend to spend a lot of time collecting information, using sticky
Toy and game ideas that help kids develop visual perception.
Looking for a fun way to introduce the writing process to your students? What about using playdough? Come grab a fun & hands on lesson for your classroom!
Looking to start your year with a bang? Including some engaging scientific method experiments provides a solid foundation for any high school science course.
Use resources that make learning more manageable.
Are you looking for a fun way to reinforce teaching similes to students? Making simile monsters is always a huge hit! Students will create a fictitious monster and use similes to describe the 5 senses about their monsters. To hook students, I love to read the text Quick as a Cricket by Audrey Wood (affiliate […]
Project-Based Homeschooling is based on the Reggio Emilia philosophy. If you're interested in encouraging deep, complex learning, read this!
Learn all about differentiating the products that your students complete as part of their learning journey. I'll define it for you, give you some important tips, show you an example of how I did this in my gifted classroom, and I'll even give you a list of ideas you can use in your own classroom.
We are explaining here Bloom’s taxonomy in teaching and the reasons behind its use in education and suggesting 4 ways teachers can integrate it into teaching.
Like the Value Landscapes posted earlier this month, this lesson was inspired by Miriam at Arteascuola. However, these were "painted" with pixels on the computer rather than regular paintbrushes. Each year 4 student completed their own landscape in less than 10 minutes but still had valuable experience with using tone to create depth within a two dimensional artwork. After we observed and discussed the scenes created by Miriam's students the children took turns at making their own value landscape on the two available classroom computers while the rest of the class continued on with their set work. It was quick and easy but also meaningful for the children.
Teaching vocabulary to your gifted students is something you ay have pushed aside, but it is SO important for them! Read this second post in my series about how I teach vocabulary from start to finish!
Get up close with the photosynthesis process by painting with chlorophyll. This STEM chlorophyll science lesson will be memorable for all.
Teaching gifted kids in the regular classroom can be a challenge. Do you sometimes feel like you're "losing it"? Do you not really know how to meet the needs of these kids when you have so many kids who have IEP's, 504 Plans, or are in the RTI process? Don't despair, there is help!
Anyone who knows me, reads this blog, or uses my resources knows that I am passionate about differentiation. I think that is because I grew ...
Three steps to simplify the reciprocal teaching process. Use these
Unlock the potential of your gifted child with our comprehensive guide. Dive deep into understanding their unique needs, the balance of nature
This post outlines how to compare and contrast nonfiction texts. There are activities and lesson ideas for compare and contrast activities.
Learn 3 simple and clear steps to teaching kids how to emotionally regulate from a pediatric occupational therapist and mom of 3.
Learn about the human digestive system for kids twith this memorable digestion experiment. ZANY human body project making poop!
Do you want to get started with project based learning, but you’re not sure how? Maybe project based learning sounds too complicated, in-depth, and overwhelming to you? That’s how I felt when I first delved into PBL. But now I know there is nothing to be afraid of! In this post, I will give a quick explanation of project-based learning and then give you some tips and ideas to begin to implement it in your own classroom. What is Project Based Learning? Project based learning, simply stated, is an authentic learning experience
Kinesthetic learners like to be active, and become easily bored in a traditional classroom. Here are 14 strategies for kinesthetic learners.
Create your own artistic interpretations of famous artists' work with these Famous Artists Crafts for Kids!
Are your students having trouble identifying theme within a story? This step-by-step process scaffolds through several reading comprehension skills to help students get a thorough understanding of theme. Students will be able to determine the theme of a story, poem, or drama from details in the text by first
Discover effective ways to teach sight words to children with dyslexia. Explore to learn more about sight words and access resources for teaching them.
Our theme this week was "Our Five Senses" and we focused on the letter B and the shape circle. We read this week: Ferdinand by Munro Leaf Paddington by Mark Brown Paddington and the Busy Bee Carnival by Mark Brown The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle Stellaluna by Janelle Cannon Our question of the week was "What is something that you are really good at?" For our theme of the week, we talked a lot about our senses, what they help us do and why we need them. We made texture collages: This week is full of some of my favorite activities from the year, these texture collages being one of them. I love how each one is different, and the kids are so proud of the texture choices that they make. AND they look amazing on the wall. We tasted sweet, salty and sour things, and the kids had to vote on their favorite taste. (They think it's awesome when they get to eat things as part of a project.) We tested their sense of smells with this project where I asked them to describe the things that they were smelling. I used perfume, shampoo, chocolate syrup, pickle juice, toothpaste and (the most tricky) water. Out on our schools nature trail we talked about the different sounds that we could hear. We did this at various points of our walk, close to the school, by the parking lot and deeper in the woods. Lastly we did another activity with the sense of touch. I set up my table with different texture objects. I used flour, rice, oatmeal, sand and a scrubbing sponge. As the students felt each thing, I asked them to describe what they were feeling. It was hard to get them away from just telling them what the items were and to use describing words, but we got there in the end. For our shape of the week, the kids practiced drawing circles with this cool worksheet of circles and another with squares and circles. We also worked on recognizing circles out of other shapes. We talked a lot about things that are circles. We sang the song "This is a circle, this is a circle. How can you tell? How can you tell? It goes round and round, No end can be found, It's a circle, it's a circle." -Found Here For our letter activities, we used our handwriting sheet for the letter B, the sheet that helps work on letter recognition, both were mentioned in the "All About Me" post. The students also wrote in their journals for the letter B. We turned B's into Bees! After we read Ferdinand we all made our own bees. This was a great way for the kids to practice their cutting skills. I love how each child's bee is different. Another project that we did (another one of my favorites all year) is the Boat Builder activity. I love it because I give the students the materials and the end result is something completely their own. Each child got a piece of white paper, a square of brown paper, a skinny black rectangle, scissors, a glue stick and crayons with the instruction of make me a boat however you want to. (They love when I say that). If I get "I don't know how..." or " I can't do it.." We go back a few steps and talk about boats.. what do they look like, where do we find them, what do they do, and then the creative juices start flowing. Here's the end results! Love it! For our Alphabet wall we made butterflies with coffee filters and water color paint. After the children painted their coffee filters and they dried I used small pipe cleaners to turn them into butterflies! And with the B addition, our wall now looks like... Our list for words beginning with B's was very impressive. Here it is! As a side note, teachers always need to be flexible, and as such, it was in the best interest of the flow of the classroom to switch two centers, the library and dramatic play center. And I'm always telling the kids to make sure that they turn off the water faucet after getting a drink or washing their hands. I tell them to "Save the water for the fishes, so I painted a mural for above the sink to remind them. Up next week: The letter C, Triangles and "Our Feelings".
One of the most fun ways to help kids practice following directions and listening is by playing games. We love to move and learn here so I found 6 following directions games that get kids up and moving!
Teaching science in second or third grade? These force and motion activities, experiments, and lessons are easy to plan, NGSS aligned, and SO much fun! Your students will love the STEM challenges and the Science worksheets are so engaging.
Discover how to create stunning bubble art with your kids! Our step-by-step guide to bubble painting makes this fun and easy activity perfect for young artists. Learn the best tips, tricks, and
Easy instructions for fermenting and canning homemade sauerkraut.
One educator turned stay at home mom attempts to explain Sensory Processing: Proprioceptive Input and its importance for growth and development in kids.
Teaching argument writing to middle school students involves teaching them how to develop and support a claim and how to structure an essay.
Discover over 45 vestibular activities that can calm, regulate, and improve attention in your child. Plus, get vestibular exercises for...
Create a German alpine hat with this fun craft activity for seniors. Perfect for cultural celebrations and creativity. Get artsy now!
