It’s Not Just “Red”… It’s “Vermilion!” (Synonyms Group Activity)

Posted on August 20, 2013 by Squarehead Teachers

Teaching kids to use “good words” in their writing is hard. It’s not always easy to find a good synonym for “red” but this activity should help broaden their diction horizons. Divide your class into 10 groups. Pass out one color synonym sheet and a thesaurus to each group. Instruct each group to find as many synonyms for their color as possible. Then have them draw a border around their sheet using the color they searched. Post these somewhere in the room for a few days so students can browse the synonyms.

Click here for the PDF: synonyms- color collection

This same idea can be done with common nouns and adjectives such as “big,” “said,” “like,” “fast,” etc. Here are some photos of this idea being used in a classroom…

Top 10 Things New Teachers Should Know

Posted on August 19, 2013 by Squarehead Teachers

New teachers are often overwhelmed at the insane amount of things to balance and teach effectively. Here’s an article by Catherine Wilcoxson, Ph.D. of Northern Arizona University that helps new teachers stay focused on the important things.

Here are the main ideas:

Don’t worry so much about doing the right thing.
Relax.
Teaching is hard work.
Standards cannot be ignored and should not be feared.
Write objectives that focus on student learning, not on today’s task.
Smile, and do so frequently
Respect your students.
Believe in your students even if they don’t believe in themselves.
Don’t isolate yourself.
It is not appropriate to teach the way we were taught

The whole article is a good read. It’ll take you 10 minutes or less to read, but it’s worth the time. Dr. Wilcoxson’s conclusion is that, “Effective teachers are constantly learning from their successes and failures. To be effective, teachers must look back on their practices and assess what works well, what doesn’t, and how they might improve as teachers. Keeping a journal is an excellent means of keeping track of your performance, and it can provide valuable information for your own professional development.”

Golfing Review Game

Posted on August 18, 2013 by Squarehead Teachers

I recently saw this picture on Pinterest. I couldn’t follow the link very far, because I wasn’t a member of acvitityconnection.com, but I was inspired. Here’s my idea:

Set up: Make a box like this, with varying sized holes in the front. Smaller holes are worth more points. Then set it up in your classroom, with masking tape line on the ground, denoting where students should stand before they putt.

Game play: Group students for the review. Ask a review question, and have each team write down their answer. At the same time, have all groups reveal their answer. Any team who gets the answer right, gets to send 1 person to putt once to try to earn points. At the end of the game, the team with the most points wins!

I’ve tried numerous games like this with my 6h graders and they loved them! It disguised reviewing for the end of the year tests so the kids had a blast and we got through tons of math and science review questions!

Using Graphic Organizers to Sort Characteristics

Posted on August 17, 2013 by Squarehead Teachers

I don’t know about you, but I love using graphic organizers. I’m a visual learner, so maybe that’s why. But anyway, this anchor chart I saw in an elementary school classroom seemed to be an effective way to study animals (spiders, in this case). It focuses on characteristics, sorted according to 3 verbs: are, can and have. It’s a very basic idea, but works well because students can just finish the sentence “Spiders have…” or “Spiders can…” to help them sort out and analyze characteristics. This same idea could be used for a variety of topics, simply by changing the 3 verbs used.

Addition and Subtraction Key Words Posters

Posted on August 15, 2013 by Squarehead Teachers

I recently saw this in a lower grade classroom. It seemed like a good math poster to have up for use when discussing whether a word problem requires addition or subtraction.

So I decided to make my own free math posters for you to use in your elementary school classroom! Enjoy!

$Math key words poster- add$ $Math key words poster- subtract$

Blank Timeline Printables

Posted on August 14, 2013 by Squarehead Teachers

I love timelines. They encourage students to focus on sequencing and summarizing. Here are 3 timelines I made that work for various grade levels. Click here to see the 3 printable PDFs: Blank Timeline Templates. Enjoy!

Help support my blog by checking out my sponsors/advertisers, connecting with me on social media (icons below) and by telling your friends about my blog! Thanks!

Desk Fairy Printables (Free!)

Posted on August 12, 2013 by Squarehead Teachers

I don’t know about you, but I definitely don’t have the funding for even half of what’s in those teaching materials catalogues. But I saw this idea and wanted one for my classroom, so I just made my own (and I’m sharing it with you)! First print the poster (regular size printer paper) and put it up on your wall. Then print off and copy the desk fairy notes (color or black and white) and be ready to pass them out as you catch kids with clean desks. You could assign one student to be the desk fairy as their classroom job or just have pass out notes while kids are out of the classroom. Some teachers let their students turn in a desk fairy notes for a prize, special privilege or as an entry in a classroom drawing. Let me know if you try this. I’d love to hear how it works in your classroom!

PDFs here: Desk Fairy Poster Desk fairy notes- bw Desk fairy notes- color

Basic Math Strategies (Review Packet for Parents)

Posted on August 11, 2013 by Squarehead Teachers

This is a great 4 page math handout for back to school night so parents have a quick refresher about what your students are learning. This small packet covers addition and subtraction, so it’s perfect for lower grades.

Here are the addition strategies the packet reviews: break apart, rounding, tens and ones, tens and ones with an open number line, hundreds chart and friendly number with open number line.

Here’s what it covers with regard to subtraction: break apart, tens and ones with an open number line, hundreds chart and a few strategies for missing addends.

Happy new school year!

Click here for the PDF: Landscape of Learning- Math Strategies (2)