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Making Ten

Have students work in pairs. Each student has ten cubes of one color and a blank copy of the chart. Each pair trades one color cube with partner and colors in our chart to match. Fantastic to reach all learners: oral, visual, kinethetic, tactile.

Source: http://owl.li/C2Jzr

Newspaper Blackout - poetry art in the classroom

I love this activity - it is very easy, but very interesting.

I have seen it done with newspapers, pages of an old book, anything really. I have also seen pages decorated, not just "blacked out" but with drawings that relate to the words not crossed out.

Anyhow here are some examples:









SOURCE: http://newspaperblackout.com/


Here are some (small) examples of the picture black outs:

What to Do With That Awkward 5 or 10 Minutes of Class You Have Left

Last week in a Grade 8 class, I found the students getting the "back to school - start up your class" activities in far less time than anticipated. I used to teach summer camp and I was a youth worker AND I have been in a variety of classes of various grade levels over the past nine years. I have a very large 'bag of tricks' and don't mind filling 5-10 minute 'gaps' with activities, but sometimes I want to try new ideas and I know some teachers, especially new teachers and new TTOCs, aren't always sure how to fill these blocks of time.

When I started teaching I did my "short practicum" with a middle school teacher who called these activities "SPONGE" activities. There is debate over using these "time fillers" but I feel if they are educational, or serve a purpose (getting to know your classmates, team building, academic, etc.) then go for it.

Here are some ideas from WE ARE TEACHERS blog:

1) Show your students one of these videos and relate it back to your lesson/content somehow.

Video	Description	Possible way of relating back to lesson/topic
The Awareness Test	A fun test of student's awareness	The importance of paying attention
Kid President's Pep Talk to Teachers and Students	A young man's heartwarming pep talk	The power of positivity/goal-setting
Zombie Kid Likes Turtles	A reporter asks a boy a question, and ... well, you'll just have to watch it.	The importance of staying on-topic
The Power of Words	A short (fictional) interaction between a homeless man and a woman who understands the power of words	The power of words
Kseniya Simonova - Sand Animation	Simonova uses sand as a storytelling medium. Amazing!	The power of visuals
Eric Whitacre: A Virtual Choir 2,000 Voices Strong	Whitacre creates a virtual choir with 2,000 submitted videos	The limitlessness of creativity

**I haven't watched these videos all yet, as always  -  a teacher should fully view any video before showing it to a class!!!

2. Play Trashketball
3. Play Reviewsical Chairs
4. Write down as many ### as you can (animals, provinces, states, vegetables, etc.)
5. Hold a limmerick contest

6) Create fun structured conversations. Give the whole class a sentence stem that they have to fill in themselves, and then make them go find at least 10 different partners to practice it with. The repetition of both speaking and listening will help cement it in their brains, and the not-sitting-in-their-chairs will make it fun. 

• "One thing I will remember to tell my future grandchildren about differential equations is _____"

• "I shall uphold the honor of my English teacher, Ms./Mr. _____ and never mix up 'you're' and 'your.' I will remember the difference by _____."

• "I'm going to go straight home and tell everyone on Facebook how the most important thing I learned about cells is ____."

• "If I made a modern-day movie about the Shakespeare play we read today, I would cast _____ as _______ because they are both ______."

Read more details and ideas at the source: http://www.weareteachers.com/blogs/post/2014/09/25/what-to-do-with-that-awkward-5-or-10-minutes-of-class-you-have-left

Activity Boxes

Came across this blog spot about activity boxes that can be used similar to centers, or as activities for students who need something different to help them with self-regulation. It can help with classroom management.

The objective is to redirect the negative behavior before it escalates.  I have used activity boxes with students that could become aggressive, and violent not only to themselves but also toward other individuals. It also is helpful for children that may not fully understand why they are behaving inappropriately.

Setting up activity boxes is simple.  Sometimes the simplest idea can be the one thing that helps you connect with a student!

There are a few guidelines I like to follow when setting up activity boxes for individual students for the first time.

1.  Include the student in the process.   This is important because the box is intended to help that student re-direct their negative behaviors.  It isn't going to have the degree of success if the student isn't engaged in the materials included in it.  

2. The container should be the size of a shoe box.  My first activity boxes were actual shoe boxes.  I love the Nike shoe boxes that have the flip flap lid. I would go to the Mall and ask for the empty boxes.   Students can pick their box, and help decorate it.  Shoe boxes are compact, and will stack easily in a storage closet.

3.  The contents of the activity box should have an educational value.   Using activity boxes is not intended for a student to get out of doing work, or to play after disrupting class. This is a tool to use to defuse negative (escalating) behaviors.

4.  Go over the ground rules for using the activity boxes.  This would include proper way to use and take care of the materials in the box, appropriate time to use them, etc.  Remember to focus on the positive as much as possible!

Check out photos and examples of activity boxes at - SOURCE

Foldable Writing Projects

This is from pinterest and links to a teachers pay teachers site where you can purchase the book, but I just liked the photo as it shows some cool foldable writing assignments.

I have done foldables assignments with the Canada Food Guide in Home Ec this year with grade 6/7s, as well as with flour mixtures for my Grade 8s. They made pyramids, cubes, all with foldable parts to give details about different topics. Love it!


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What Stuck with you this Week?

I love post-it notes and use them a lot for various lessons, workshops, activities... I love this board... what a great idea!

Bright Ideas: Multiple Choice Fun

Create fun multiple choice sticks for students. These are great for testing for understanding, games, activities, and more. Easy to make and keep in your classroom or in your 'Bag of Tricks' as a TTOC

Multiple Choice sticks for students

Nuts, washers and bolts can go through four sticks to create these fan sticks

Or one stick per students can have 4 choices on it (one per end, per side) 

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50 Earth Day Activities

Next week is Earth Day... Here are 50 Earth Day Activities that work with natural materials, recycled materials, indoor crafts, outdoor activities and more....

Cool Art Projet

While this artist used acryllic paint, canvass and other materials, you could easily do something similar in class with regular paper and glue. Very cool looking, try different shap cut-outs even.

See website here.

Fraction Games

Teachers Pay Teachers have a lot of neat (and free or affordable) lesson ides they share, this one is a neat one for fractions.

[Source]

Outside Literacy Centre

As weather gets nicer (hopefully) here is a neat idea to try.....


Outside literacy center: Play twister, or jump from word to word: http://ow.ly/ppOPL

Readers use post-its to show their thinking

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Animal Adaptations

I have done a similar activity before. Students had to create an animal that had adaptations suitable for the biome they chose. This is a neat version of this where students take two animals and create a venn diagam to morph the two together, including their name and features.

Food Chain Tag

 This activity is inspired by Eecko World's "We're All In This Together." Rather than having kids play tag using organisms from a single food chain, make it more challenging by adding a variety of food chains!

Give each child a construction paper headband with a different plant or animal that is part of a food chain (include organisms from different habitats). Take students to a large open area outside. Kids have to look for a plant or animal that their organism consumes. They tag what they eat! If a child is tagged, they must freeze (stand still)! Who is left at the end of the game?!

Afterwards, have kids try to find organisms that belong to their habitat (creating small groups). Kids must problem solve and try to figure out who belongs in their "group." Also, where would you find the organisms in their group? What habitat do they live in?!

Private Eye Mission - Investigate a Story

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Reading Comprehension Dice

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Home-made Scratch Cards

Create your cards.
Paint using 2 parts acrylic silver paint to 1 part Dawn dishwashing liquid. 
Several layers may be required to cover text.
Glue to coloured cardstock.

Check out the source link below for powerpoint templates and more ideas.


[Source]

Holiday Word Games

Once a week I teach Grade 8 Humanities at the middle school I worked at last year. Today we finished off our World Religion presentations and then did some holiday word games. I adapted a few popular games and created a mix up interactive game for the students.

Here is how it went:

Two teams.
Bucket of themed words (We did Holiday movies, songs and items, which I prepared last night)
First person draws a word and then has the choice to either:

1. Charades - Act it out
2. Catch Phrase - Speak but not use words on the card
3. Pictionary - Draw it
4. Hum (songs)

The only real catch was that once someone did one thing (for example, charades) no one on their team could do it again until all 4 choices had been used, then we 're start' again and they can choose any of the four methods to showcase the word.

If their team guessed, they got a point, if they didn't (within two mintues) then the other team could 'steal'

They LOVED IT!

My favourite moment was when one student, who never speaks or participates in class activities (english is not his first language and he also has some cognitive barriers that make communication challenging at times, especially with his peers) but he got up and not only participated, but when he drew his item (a star) and the team guessed, everyone cheered (even the opposing team) and high fived him! Inclusion... I loved it!

What a great day!

We also did 'scattegories' I prepared a chart last night that looked something like this:

Letters:
Something Red
Christmas Song
Christmas Sweet
Christmas Dinner Food
Christmas Movie
Something Green
Stocking Stuffer

So we would do it "BOGGLE' Style and choose a letter and they had 5 minutes to come up with words. The trick was, that if somone else picked the same word, no points. If they had a word no one else picked, they got a point.

Fun word games leading up to Winter Break!

Educational Activities for Popcorn Month

October is popcorn month. I love popcorn, especially movie theatre popcorn.... but there are some amazing ways to use popcorn in the classroom. As a TTOC this is a sure way to be memorable (but still educational) Similarly, I have used candy hearts as BINGO markers on Valentines day and other food items for learning.

This awesome site posted this:

• Use kernels for an estimation activity.  FirstGradeParade posted this and included cute little autumn-themed, printable cards for students to estimate how many popcorn kernels will fit on it.  After they estimate, they count the kernels to see how close their guess was.
• Have students describe popcorn using as many adjectives that come to mind.  Here is Room-Mom101's take on BabblingAbby's adjective activity.
• Challenge students to create a box that holds the most popcorn.  Fawnnguyen did this activity for sixth-graders studying volume.
• Make a popcorn book club discussion.  This is also an idea from FirstGradeParade, complete with printable discussion-starters.  Students discuss their books and eat popcorn.
• Create popcorn writing by crumpling up popcorn-shaped papers with characters and settings written on them.  Students randomly choose the papers and write a story using the elements written on their papers.  This comes from ApplestoApplique and is similar to my Build-A-Story activity, but with a popcorn theme!