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

Parent Volunteers

Posted on August 16, 2014 by Squarehead Teachers

I’ve been helping a friend plan for her first year teaching 6th grade. Here’s a letter we came up with to give to parents at the beginning of the year. We wanted to find a way to let parents/guardians help the class even if they can’t commit to a once a week in-class time. Here’s a draft of our letter. Any thoughts or suggestions?

Parent Volunteer Are Awesome!

Welcome to Miss ________’s 6^th grade class! I’m so thankful to have the opportunity to work with you and your family to provide the best educational experience for your child. If you would be willing to help out our class this year, please indicate below. Thank you in advance for your help!

Miss ____

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

Student Name ____________________________________________________________
Parent/Guardian Name(s) __________________________________________________
Parent/Guardian phone number _______________________________________________
Parent/Guardian email ______________________________________________________

___ I’m willing to help in the classroom on a regular basis

Day(s)/Time(s) that work best: _________________________________________

___I’m willing to help from home. Miss ___ can send things home for e to help with (cutting out laminated items, assembling packets, etc)

___ I’m willing to come on class field trips if needed

___ I’m willing to help with/come to class parties and special activities

Classroom Coupons – English and Spanish

Posted on August 13, 2014 by Squarehead Teachers

My friend is teaching a bilingual class this year. I made her these homework coupons or homework passes (or whatever you want to call them). They’re blank so that you as the teacher can write in the value of the coupon before you copy them. Read my post about classroom reward ideas if you need some inspiration.

Click here to view the coupons: Classroom Coupons – English
Classroom Coupons – Spanish

Click here to view my other set of free classroom coupons.

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.

Write Your Name (poster)

Posted on August 7, 2014 by Squarehead Teachers

write name poster STICKER I don’t know about you, but most times when I’m in a workshop or meeting and I’m given a handout, I instinctively write my name in the top right corner. You may laugh, but that’s the kind of automatic thing we want our students to do! I saw this idea on Pinterest and decided to make my own. Some students just need that simple little reminder and hopefully this will help! This poster is the size of regular printer paper (8.5″ x 11″).

Click here to download the free PDF: write name poster

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: