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

Journal Tabs

Posted on August 9, 2014 by Squarehead Teachers

There are many ways to organize subject journal. Here’s one way to separate a spiral notebook into sections, or a single notebook into two different subjects.

Journal Tab 3

Journal Tab 2

Here’s a sample of how you can format your page: anchor chart tab for math journal. You can type whatever you want on the tab. Print and cut into strips. Glue anchor chart/show my work tab in middle of spiral notebook math journal. When you are making an anchor chart with the class, have each student copy what you are doing into their journal. Or when you pass out math definitions, examples, charts, or whatever that you want students to glue in their journal for future reference, have them start writing and gluing at the beginning of the book. When the student is just showing work or writing different ways to write a number or story problems, etc., have them go to tab and then start that sort of work there. That way, your student has the more pertinent information in the front of the journal and it will be easier for students to use their journals as a reference.

As Seen on Pinterest

Posted on August 5, 2014 by Squarehead Teachers

If you haven’t gotten addicted to Pinterest, you should. In fact, you should join me on Pinterest and see the tons of great teaching ideas out there! Here are some cool ideas I found recently:

Hang anchor charts with fun ribbon!

Poster showing what belongs in a student desk and how it should be organized. Genius!

“If MLK Jr. Had Instagram…” What a great way to have place history in a context kids know! Click here to read more.

Letters in Environmental Print! Ask kids to find and bring in 5 labels, then sort them into the alphabet.

About Me Test

Posted on August 2, 2014 by Squarehead Teachers

About Me - Name Test STICKER One important thing kids need to learn in kindergarten is their own personal information (name, phone number, address and birthday). Here’s a pretest you can give your kindergartners at the beginning of school to see what personal information they know about themselves.

Click here to download the free printable PDF: About Me – Name Test

Tangles: Art Ideas for Upper Grades

Posted on July 31, 2014 by Squarehead Teachers

I’m not a super-awesome artist. And I’m not the world’s best art teacher either. But I try my best to give my kids exposure to a variety of art experiences. I recently came across the art concept called Tangles. These cool pattern drawings blow my mind! But when you see how they’re broken down into steps, they’re totally (awesomely!) doable. You can find of Tangle pattern ideas, by searching “Tangle Pattern” on Pinterest! I can’t wait to try these with my class! Here are some of my favorites:

Also check out my post on cool geometric coloring pages for upper grades!
You can find all kinds of cool pages like the one below!

geometric coloring pages

Hooray! Hooray! Another Giveaway!

Posted on July 17, 2014 by Squarehead Teachers

**This giveaway has closed. Keep checking back for more giveaways!**

Another giveaway coming at ya! 🙂

The Prize: The prize is a collection of four Scholastic Little Leveled Readers. They’re perfect for PreK-2nd grade. The prize includes one of each book pictured above. They are each a different level (A, B, C, D) and increase slightly in difficulty as the reader progresses through the levels. Books are new and unused. Participating in this giveaway is easy-peasy, lemon squeezy!

All you have to do is comment on this post (scroll ALL THE WAY down to the bottom). Please tell me one thing you like about teaching kids! If you’re not a WordPress member, please list an email address (I’m the only one who can see it) so I can contact you if you win.

This giveaway ends 1 week from now, at midnight (PST) on Thursday, July 24, 2014. **This giveaway has closed. Keep checking back for more giveaways!**

The Fine Print: Participation is optional. Void where prohibited by law. No purchase is necessary to participate. Available to US participants only. There will be one winner. Winner will be randomly selected. I will email the winner between Friday, July 25 – Saturday, July 26. The winner will have 72 hours to respond and provide me with shipping information so I can mail them their prize! If the winner does not respond within 72 hours, the winner forfeits the prize and another winner will randomly be selected (in which case the new winner will be notified and the same terms apply). The winner will be announced on this blog once eligibility has been confirmed. This giveaway is solely sponsored by Squarehead Teachers and is not affiliated with WordPress or any other sponsor. If you have additional questions, please contact me!

Chevron Supply Labels/Tags

Posted on July 13, 2014 by Squarehead Teachers

Supply Tags - Chevron - STICKER I saw some of these for sale on Pinterest recently. And I thought, “Shoot! I can make those easily and give them away for free!” So here they are, chevron print supply labels. I intentionally left them blank so you can use them for whatever you’d like. There are 8 on a sheet. Enjoy!