Funny Stuff Kids Say & Do

Posted on September 7, 2013 by Squarehead Teachers

I’m going to start collecting funny things kids say and do at school. If you have a funny experience, let me know and I’ll post it here! Thanks!

This past week, and next week, we have to do lots of testing, so we do lots of busy work. We have been doing science (the seasons) and social studies (patriotic symbols). One of my kids came to me and said, “Mrs. W., when are we going to do some real science?” I asked her what she meant. She said, “You know, dissecting frogs.” I told her that is a middle school or high school thing. She then told me that her sister had done it in second grade! I think she is misinformed! Can you imagine – dissecting a frog in second grade?! – Diane, 2nd grade teacher

On my first day of teaching, I ate lunch with my students. One of my students asked me if I had ever tried his mother’s sloppy joes! – Cultivating Questioners, 2nd grade teacher

So I used to sweat…a lot…during my first year of teaching. I guess it was a combination of nerves and a warm classroom. One day, a student raised his hand after seeing my large sweat rings on my shirt and says, “Mrs. Shook, yo underpits is wet!” I just about died laughing at that one! – Kayla, 4th grade teacher

I was in an elementary school nurse’s office today. I tiny little girl (must have been a kindergartner) standing against the wall accidentally scooted under the automatic hand sanitizer dispenser… yup. The machine squirted foam on her head! I was trying SO hard not to crack up laughing!!! -Mindy, Squarehead Teachers

Fiction vs. Nonfiction Anchor Chart

Posted on September 7, 2013 by Squarehead Teachers

This language arts anchor chart seems so easy, yet so effective in displaying the differences between fiction and nonfiction. The teacher even included a picture of fiction vs. nonfiction to help younger learners the two. It could be a good assignment to have each student create a personal anchor chart like this, especially using pictures from old magazines, etc.

Metrics Chart

Posted on September 6, 2013 by Squarehead Teachers

This gives a couple basic measurement questions for kids ( involving length and perimeter) and a chart of the Metric System. It would be a good whole class activity to create a chart like this (in math journals, on an anchor chart, etc.).

Click on picture to enlarge.

Teaching Roman Numerals

Posted on September 5, 2013 by Squarehead Teachers

Roman numerals are hard for most Americans… mostly because we don’t use them very often. So here’s one way to help get your kids used to Roman numerals, and hopefully teach them a few: Refer to your tables using Roman numerals! If you were really excited about it, you could have each student learn their number in Roman numerals and have them write it as part of their heading on papers. In case you forgot Roman numerals yourself, here’s a nice chart to help you keep Roman numerals straight.

Base 10 (Review Video)

Posted on September 4, 2013 by Squarehead Teachers

Here’s a quick review video about base 10 number systems…

Grammatical Poetry

Posted on September 3, 2013 by Squarehead Teachers

I fell in love with this idea instantly. It teaches kids the different parts of speech and lets them write poetry while they’re doing it! I made my own worksheet for you to download. Click here for the PDF: Grammatical Poetry

Make Your Own Visual Creative Writing Prompts

Posted on September 2, 2013 by Squarehead Teachers

I was helping a fellow teacher go through her classroom and we found tons of interesting posters and pictures she’d collected over the years. It had been hard for her to incorporate everything into lessons, but she didn’t want to part with them. Here was our solution: use them as writing prompts! It took about 10 seconds per poster and we paper clipped each prompt to the poster so she could slap them on the board really quickly. We wrote each prompt by hand, but we could have easily just typed them. We wrote potentially new vocabulary words in a different color, so she could point it out to students if they needed help spelling, etc. These were a few of the many prompts we made:

This same idea could be easily applied to a variety of ways. Use pictures of historical people, events and places to review social studies. Give a strange picture from a magazine to your child when they begin a car ride, and have them write down a certain number of nouns, verbs, or adjectives before the ride is over in order to earn a special something. But whatever you do, have fun with it!

Recycling Craft

Posted on September 1, 2013 by Squarehead Teachers

Kids love to create things. Especially when they have a lot of random stuff to work with. One teacher brought in a bunch of recyclables (some parents had been collecting stuff for a week) and let the kids create whatever they wanted using things to be recycled. She also let the kids use googly eyes, markers, glue, etc. and limited each kid to making something that would fit in their backpack (so students could take it home). This art project was preceded by a discussion of what recycling was and how it benefited the environment. Fun fun fun!