After you teach your kids the states and capitals (using the “Fifty Nifty States” song!?), you’re going to need a quiz. Or a practice page to make sure your kids can spell everything correctly. Either way, it’s pretty handy! The printable has two versions of the page to give students (one with the states listed and one with the capitals listed) and an answer key.
Click here to view the full size PDF: states-capitals-practice
A friend of mine plays patriotic songs in her classroom all year long. After all, appreciation for your country shouldn’t just happen on holidays. Whether it’s during clean up time, line up time or as a reward, her kids LOVE LOVE LOVE hearing these songs! Most of the kids have even learned the words too! How great would it be if the rising generation could regain the fire of patriotism of the past?!
Here’s her list of songs/video links to help get you started:
A Salute to all 5 military branches (Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force & Coast Guard)
Air Force Off We Go (lyrics)
America The Beautiful (lyrics)
Anchors Away (lyrics)
Anchors Away no lyrics
Caissons Go Rolling no lyrics
Caissons Go Rolling (lyrics)
Coast Guard Marching Song (lyrics)
Fifty Nifty United States
God Bless America (lyrics)
God Bless the USA (lyrics)
Marine’s Hymn (lyrics)
My Country Tis of Thee (lyrics)
Off We Go
Star Spangled Banner (lyrics)
This is My Country
This Land is Your Land
What’s More American
This Land is your land Simple
You’re a Grand Old Flag
Check out this printable graphic organizer/blank timeline I added on my Teachers Pay Teachers store. Yes, it’s still FREE! Perfect for history lessons, summarizing stories, or describing science observations!
I like using projects year after year. It makes my life easier. This is especially true with holiday projects. There are so many other things to do and update each year, that it’s impossible to keep up. My friend, who teaches kindergarten, recently shared this idea:
In the spirit of working smarter (not harder), I created this graphic organizer to be used year after year, no matter what animal is the animal of the year for Chinese New Year! After talking about what Chinese New Year is, have the kids draw a picture of that year’s animal, and then write ideas about what that animal can do, has and is (see my friend’s example above). 
Click here to download the free PDF: Chinese New Year – Animal of the Year
This is quick and easy paper Christmas/holiday craft was submitted by a lower grade teacher! She loves doing this with all ages. I love how simple it is. It would be perfect to do after you read Tomie dePaola’s book, The Legend of the Poinsettia The book tells a Mexican legend of how the poinsettia came to be, through a little girl’s unselfish gift to the Christ Child. It’s perfect for a Christmas around the world unit! Anyway, here are the directions for the paper poinsettia craft:
Materials:
Directions:
1. Fold red paper in half. Then open it open and fold it in half the other way.
2. Round corners of yellow square.
3. Glue yellow square in center of red square.
4. Cut along the fold line until you get to the yellow. Don’t cut into the yellow.
5. Curl the poinsettia ends with a pencil.
6. Cut the ends of the green strips into a point.
7. Glue the green strips to the back of the poinsettia.
What are your favorite Christmas crafts for kids? Let me know in the comments below! Merry Christmas!
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?!
Don’t forget to check out my second giveaway!
If you’ve never heard of BrainPop, you’re missing out! It’s a cool internet resource with games, review videos and other stuff for kids. There’s a paid membership available, but you can find tons of stuff for free without it. There are many free, animated movies (available for all content areas) that seem to appeal to kids. many of the review videos include a cute story line and dialogue between Tim and his robot friend, Moby. Click here to view all the free BrainPop stuff.
I absolutely loved this idea! It might work better with upper grades, since I don’t think younger kids have had enough exposure to memes to get as much out of this activity. This post from Mrs. Orman’s classroom talks about five ways to use memes in the classroom. Here are the five ideas:
Even if you don’t think using memes in your classroom will work well, her examples are HILARIOUS and totally worth the read!
Squarehead Teachers 