Chef Printable & Recipe Writing Project

Posted on November 19, 2014 by Squarehead Teachers

A friend of mine recently did a recipe writing project with her second graders. (Other teachers do a sequence writing piece about making a sandwich.) She asked me to make a simple printable that they could use to “publish” their writing projects. Here’s what I came up with:

Chef head

Click here to download: Chef Head Printable

The kids each drew their own face on the printable and then cut it out. Afterwards, they traced and cut out their hands so it would look like the paper chef was holding their writing project. This made for an ADORABLE project!

Reading Groups Named After Pets

Posted on November 10, 2014 by Squarehead Teachers

I’ve heard all kinds of debate about whether to name leveled groups using colors, animals, etc. One year, my guided reading groups were all animals, which I didn’t think would be a problem. But I had a fellow teacher criticize my naming of groups because “6th graders are too old for animal groups.”

A friend showed me this idea that I really like. The reading groups were named after pets that the teacher had owned over the years. One of the pets was a dog named coco. The group wasn’t called “the Cocos”, but were called “Coco’s Team” or “Team Coco” so that the students were team members rather than animals. (Since the theme was pets, the teacher also chose a weekly “Top Dog Reader” to spotlight good work or improvement.)

I thought this would be a clever way to help your students get to know you while helping with the group naming situation. I’m definitely trying this in the future.

Have a great idea? Send it to me (squareheadteachers at gmail dot com) and I’ll post it so other teachers can benefit. Thanks!

Thanksgiving Word Sort

Posted on November 3, 2014 by Squarehead Teachers

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Here’s another freebie for you (since I’m all about free!). This parts of speech worksheet can be modified for upper grades, by designating one of the “noun” sail sections as a proper noun section. That way, older kids have four categories rather than the standard three. Enjoy!

Click here for the free PDF: Thanksgiving Parts of Speech Sort

Thanksgiving Parts of Speech Sort STICKER

Thanksgiving Memories Writing Project for Kids

Posted on November 1, 2014 by Squarehead Teachers

Story telling seems to go hand in hand with childhood. I absolutely love hearing kids tell stories. So I provided each of my students with an opportunity to tell me a story about a Thanksgiving they’ve experienced. After we write our stories down, I randomly draw a few student numbers (mine are on Popsicle sticks) and those students have the chance to share their story with the class (under the document camera) if they want. Here are the 2 versions of the free PDF worksheet (one with a picture space, and one without):

Thanksgiving Memories – draw own picture
Thanksgiving Memories – with picture

Halloween Adjectives Worksheet

Posted on October 14, 2014 by Squarehead Teachers

Hello everyone! I’ve finally figured out a way to add candy corn to a worksheet! (I do love me some candy corn in October!) Anyway, here’s a simple adjectives activity for your students. Have them come up with two adjectives about each Halloween noun, and then color the candy corn (built-in “fast finisher” for your speedy students). Have a great Halloween!

Click here for the free PDF: Halloween Adjectives Halloween adjectives STICKER

Halloween Memories Writing Project

Posted on October 6, 2014 by Squarehead Teachers

Kids love telling stories about fun memories. Especially when it’s something they’re proud of (like a Halloween costume)! So here’s my opportunity to let my students tell me about a fun Halloween memory they have. They must write their story first, and then they get to walk around and read their story to 2 friends. Their friends must sign the back indicating they shared their writing. I made 2 versions of this worksheet, so you can choose whether or not you’d like to let your class draw a picture with their writing. Click the links below to see the free worksheets (PDF):

Halloween Memories – draw own picture
Halloween Memories – with picture

Free Math Videos

Posted on August 26, 2014 by Squarehead Teachers

I recently learned about a cool free resource for teaching! It’s called Khan Academy. It provides tons of free educational content-based videos, with topics ranging from math and science to humanities and economics. With a log in, students (or anyone) can complete learn by watching videos and then complete tasks to earn badges. Teachers can track the data for their students and use the materials in lesson plans. You may also want to refer parents to this site if they’re looking for supplemental materials for helping their child. What’s not to love!?! I wish I had learned about this when I started teaching!

Reasons Why Cursive is Good for Your Brain!

Posted on August 23, 2014 by Squarehead Teachers

cursive STICKER Turns out cursive is really good for your brain! Click here to view a quick video by Discovery News that shows some study results that show how good cursive is for your brain! Here are some highlights from the video:

Cursive teaches the brain a functional specialization
Cursive activates multiple areas of the brain at once
Cursive improves fine motor skills because it’s more demanding (in terms of movement tasks) than print is
Practices handwriting increases neural activity
The broad range of letter shapes in cursive increases visual recognition skills
Cursive engages students more in by giving them a better sense of style and giving them a sense of ownership over their own handwriting
Cursive enhances creativity