Teaching Kids to Drink Water!

Posted on October 15, 2013 by Squarehead Teachers

I recently found this adorable children’s ebook (from the California’s FIRST 5 program) called, Potter the Otter: A Tale about Water. It’s written in English and Spanish and include cute illustrations and some activities at the end to help kids see how much better water is for our bodies (compared to juice or soda pop). In the story, little Potter teaches his animal friends the benefits of water. This is a simple, quick read that has a big lesson for all of us, children and adults alike!

Click here for the downloadable/printable PDF ebook: Potter the Otter-ebook-eng_spn

Candy Experiments (Way Fun Summer Science Activities For Kids)

Posted on June 27, 2013 by Squarehead Teachers

Kids love summer time. Parents love learning. Kids love candy. The perfect combination? Candy Experiments! If you haven’t heard about this new hit book (available January 2013), you’re totally missing out.

Make giant gummi worms, turn M&Ms into dazzling comets, grow candy crystals, and turn cotton candy into slime! You’ll find all these experiments and more, plus simple scientific explanations, in the book Candy Experiments!

Candy Experiments, by Loralee Leavitt, shares experiments from the popular website, Candy Experiments, as well as experiments that have never been published before. Learn how to separate candy colors, make candy cane stripes in bowls of water, sink marshmallows, and float taffy. Each experiment includes color photos and scientific explanations. Your kids will love experimenting with their candy, and they’ll learn something, too!

But how do you know kids will like the experiments? Because kids planned and did them! The author writes this about how it all started: “One day when she was sorting through her Halloween candy, my daughter asked a life-changing question: “What would happen if I put these Nerds in water?” I got her a glass, and she conducted her first candy experiment.” Read more about these little scientists here.

This is such a great collection of fun activities for kids (especially in the summer or after Halloween). When I heard about it, I went on Amazon right away and bought 3 copies (I just Had to get one for my mom and sister, also teachers). When I got it in the mail, I spent an hour looking through it, reading it and planning fun summer activities.

Because A Little Bug Went Ka-Choo!

Posted on June 21, 2013 by Squarehead Teachers

If you’ve never read the kids book Because a Little Bug Went Ka-Choo (by Rosetta Stone), you’re missing out! It’s adorable! Click here for a short animated video of the book. There are tons of activity possibilities to go along with this book, but here’s my favorite…

Have kids write their own silly story just like it! This third grade teacher had her students write each event in the story on a different color and glue it to black paper. The projects look great and the kids absolutely LOVED reading their silly story to their peers! For younger kids, I’d recommend creating a shared writing (whole class story) in the style of this book. You might also consider having kids illustrate their story in boxes on a page (like comics). Fun, fun, fun… all because a little bug went ka-choo!

End of the Year Book (10 Page Printable)

Posted on May 28, 2013 by Squarehead Teachers

I love reading my husband’s end of the year books from elementary school. They absolutely crack me up! So I made one in case you didn’t have one. Here are 10 printable pages to use the last week or the last day of school to review the year and make a fun memory for kids to read years down the road. Congratulate yourself- you’ve made it to the end of the school year!

Click here to get the End of the Year Book- PDF

Here’s what the pages look like:

Book Report Poster (UPDATED)

Posted on May 25, 2013 by Squarehead Teachers

Thank you to Diane for submitting this fun book report poster. It’s legal size (paper) worksheet and is great for lower grades (or as an easy project for upper grades). Great end of the year project (present on your favorite book from the year) or as an end of the quarter/semester project.

Click here for the Word Doc: Book Report Poster- legal size

11 x 17 book resport page

I recently made a similar page that’s formatted to fit regular 8.5″ x 11″ paper. Here’s the PDF: My Book Report – Squarehead Teachers

Book Report STICKER

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Fluency in a Flash! (Easy Literacy Center)

Posted on March 13, 2013 by Squarehead Teachers

Here’s a great way to get more use out of those leveled reader books you use for a week and then have to put back in the box until next year… and make an easy center for your students! After you’ve gone through the books with your guided reading groups and are moving on to the next set of books, place the ones you’ve already used in a box or plastic shoe box. Also include a bunch of timers for kids to use while they do a 1 minute timing. If your kids are on various levels, make a list of which kids use which books (for example, list kids who use the books with the red tab, green tab, etc.). Include copies of some basic story graphic organizers. Here’s what kids do for the center:

1. Whisper read the entire book. They should have seen it last week, so it won’t be killer. If you have those plastic PVC pipe phones, use them for this step too.

2. Fill out a graphic organizer about the book.

3. Turn to the first page of the book and start the timer counting down from 1 minute. When the timer stops, have them use a paper clip to mark where they finished. Have them do it a second time to see if they can get farther the second time.

So here’s the overall supplies list for the center:

leveled readers from last week (and current list of kids’ levels)
box/plastic shoe box
copies of a basic graphic organizer
paper clips
timers
whisper reading PVC pipe phones (optional)

Organizing Your Teacher Bookshelf

Posted on November 7, 2012 by Squarehead Teachers

I love having gobs of “teacher” books to use… you know, those books of reproducibles, fun ideas, picture books you don’t want your students messing up, etc. The problem with having lots of them is it can be easy to forget you have them – unless you have a good organizing system for them. Here are some systems that seem to work (a picture’s worth a thousand words, so here they are):

Use card stock to separate picture books by theme.

Use magazine boxes to sort those skinny paperback books.

I also used to use magazine boxes to hold sets of worksheets I had already run off but wasn’t using right then. I had a box for math copies, literacy copies, science copies, etc. Having my copies sitting vertically (rather than stacked on top of each other) made it a lot quicker for me to look through them and find copies I was looking for. One thing I did differently from the photo above was I made the label on each box a different color so it would be easy for me to tell them apart. I’m not super into cutesy stuff, so I didn’t have those darling little pictures on my tags. Totally personal preference though; whatever works for you! 🙂

Classroom Library Organization

Gallery

Posted on October 29, 2012 by Squarehead Teachers

This gallery contains 11 photos.

Keeping classroom library books organized can be a really big challenge. Most systems that organize books (and KEEP them organized) take some effort up front. There are many ways to organize your books (author, reading level), but one of the … Continue reading →