Summer Memories Writing Project

Posted on May 9, 2014 by Squarehead Teachers

One of the best ways to preserve memories is to write them down. Help your students preserve a fun summer time memory be encouraging them to write it down. Encourage them to focus on details that help make the story rich. Motivate your students by allowing them to share their written memory with you, the class or other students. Here’s the free printable worksheet that goes with this activity. There are 2 versions (one provides space for your kids to draw a picture, and the other doesn’t). Click the links below to see the PDF: Summer Memories- draw own picture or Summer Memories- with picture.

Conflict Resolution Ideas

Posted on May 9, 2014 by Squarehead Teachers

I saw this conflict resolution page up in a classroom and thought it had some good ideas:

Soil as a Helper

Posted on May 8, 2014 by Squarehead Teachers

Soil As A Helper STICKER

A friend of mine recently requested this printable/foldable. Here’s what she says about it: “This is a graphic organizer that students use to put the uses of soil. Students draw or write in each box a use. The sides fold so it’s similar to a brochure. This type of handout could work well also with vocabulary terms. For example, put the terms on the outside. On the inside, put the definitions.”

Click here for the free printable PDFs:
Soil As A Helper
Soil As A Helper – with border

Octagon-Octopus

Posted on May 7, 2014 by Squarehead Teachers

I was recently working with a student to help them remember shape words (quadrilateral, pentagon, hexagon, etc). When we got to “octagon,” we somehow came up with this drawing and it seemed to really click with him. So I snapped a (rather lame) picture of our drawing in hopes that this idea might also help another student out there somewhere.

How do you help your students remember these shape names?

Cinco de Mayo Activities for Kids

Posted on May 3, 2014 by Squarehead Teachers

Let me first just state this before showing you the crafts I found that I like: Cinco de Mayo is NOT the Mexican Independence Day. The Mexican Independence day is September 16. Click here to view my worksheet about the history of Cinco de Mayo.

Ok, here are some fun crafts for Cinco de Mayo:

Make tissue paper flowers

Craft this quick pinata sun-catcher!

Fold an origami Cinco de Mayo doll!

Learn the days of the week in Spanish

Cool Reading Corner

Posted on May 2, 2014 by Squarehead Teachers

A teacher friend in Utah snapped this cool photo of a first grade classroom’s reading corner. How cool!

Have you seen cool classrooms? Get permission from the teacher and send me a photo!

Be sure to check out my second giveaway! Two lucky readers will each get $20.00 worth of your favorite downloadable “nerdly fun & educational games” from Nerd in the Brain! Also check out Nerd in the Brain’s monthly freebie!

Gumball Machine Art Project

Posted on May 1, 2014 by Squarehead Teachers

I also saw this gum ball machine art project at my cousin’s house. The 3rd grade teacher had each kid trace a CD a third of the way down their paper. This served as the glass ball that holds the gum balls. Then they talked about how to show overlapping things (like the gum balls) in artwork and proceeded to make the gum balls. Some kids traced quarters or counting markers (the red and yellow ones used for math), but my cousin didn’t want to. Instead he free-handed it. 🙂 They used pastels to color in the machine and the gum balls, and used watercolor to fill in the background. They also added a shadow to the machine.

Looking for more fun? Check out my second giveaway!

George Washington Craft

Posted on April 30, 2014 by Squarehead Teachers

I was recently at my cousin’s house and saw this awesome craft idea. It’s George Washington! Their 2nd grade class used cotton balls for his hair and a doily for his neckerchief. Simple, cheap materials, and cute. What’s not to love?!