Category: Curriculum Resources

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Free Summer Reading Bingo Printable for Kids

My daughter and I made this summer reading bingo printable for us to try out this summer, so I figured, why not share it with everyone? It’s nothing crazy special, we just used Google Docs and not some great graphic design program. But it did the job and looks decent!

I aimed to keep it formatted to reach all ages of kids. Our local librarian printed it out for anyone to grab that wanted one, and so far it’s been confirmed that preschool-aged students up to young adults have loved it.

One thing that I am making sure to do this summer with our bingo chart is to make it nothing but FUN. Reading shouldn’t be pressured or forced into charts. It’s fun to switch up your reading locations and types of books, but keep it just that… fun!

So try it out and let us know how it works for your students!

Summer-Reading-Bingo-1-1Download
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No Funding For Field Trips? Try These Ideas

Is May field trip season for other schools too, not just ours? It’s such a busy time of the school year! 

I know we’re not alone with the struggle of under-funding for the school in general, but especially with field trips. However, it’s still important for our students to get out into our communities to learn and grow! Here are some ideas on how to hold field trips when funding isn’t available or is limited. 

Fundraise: I knooooow, I can hear the groans through the screen of your preferred device. Fundraising can be so daunting and exhausting, but it doesn’t have to be. Put the kids in charge! Let them brainstorm and help out as much as possible. And involve parents, too. This way you have help and everything doesn’t have to fall on you. The 1st graders in our school did a year-long fundraiser where they sold smelly pencils and erasers after school. One student was in charge each day and they worked together to raise money, enough to fund a field trip to the local bowling alley! 

Reach out to businesses/ field trip locations: Some zoos, aquariums, arcades, playlands, etc. are willing to offer grant applications or extremely reduced pricing for school field trips, especially if you qualify under Title I. It never hurts to ask what they are willing to do for you when funding is limited! 

Find free locations: If your school is close to a local park, library, college, grocery store, restaurant, business, etc. utilize these free locations to cut down on costs greatly! 

Walk, if possible: And if any of these locations are within a reasonable distance of your school, walk there! It’s like two field trips in one when you not only have the main activity, but the walk to and from as well! 

Ask for donations: I knooooow it’s almost worse than fundraising! Because it feels very vulnerable. But when your heart is in the right place trying to raise funds to bring your students on a field trip, it’s a worthwhile cause to ask others for help with funds. A simple letter home to parents about their plans for a field trip and what the cost will be while asking for help funding it, (and mentioning that even $1 helps!), can help raise you to your goal quickly. I know at least for me I’d rather just simply give my kid’s school money rather than jump through the hoops of fundraising. 

Look into virtual field trips/ Zooming with specialists: This became extremely popular in 2020 with the outbreak of COVID but has also been a practice for several years now. Virtual field trips can happen over Google, or you can find different specialists to schedule a Zoom call with for your class to chat with a zoologist or astronaut, or business owner, right from the comfort of your own classroom. 

There are so many benefits of field trips for any aged student, but that’s a post for another day! Needless to say, it’s worth it to put in the extra work and watch these students learn in a new environment. Field trips can be some of the most beneficial moments of their student careers! But they don’t have to be extravagant to be amazing. 

Cover photo by Kayla Wright

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Tips For Planting Seeds With Students of All Ages

It’s that time of the year when springtime hits and teachers everywhere decide to take on the endeavor of planting seeds with their students of all ages. In theory, it sounds educational and fun, but when applied, it can be… maybe not as fun as you initially thought. 

Don’t let that deter you! Here are some tips for planting seeds with your students so they can grow flowers and vegetables! 

  • Make a list of the supplies you need and get as much donated as possible. If you walk into a local greenhouse and tell the owner about your plans to let your students grow seeds in the classroom, there is a great chance you’ll walk out of the store with free or discounted items to get you started. You can also reach out to parents and other community members to find donations of seeds, soil, and containers for planting. Cardboard egg cartons make great plant starters! 
  • Prep the students ahead of time as much as possible. This could last for a full week if you need it to! Give them bits of information about planting seeds during class time before you even step foot in front of the planting material. Smaller bits of information is easier for them to take in, plus splitting up the days between instruction and actual planting can be helpful for them in retaining information as well. If you wait to give instruction until right before the planting begins, excitement will take over and they may not be as good of listeners. 
  • On planting day, take the kids outside if possible. Planting is messy! If weather and other constraints allow, take them outside to plant. If this is not a possibility for you, laying down a plastic sheet for protection over your carpet can also be helpful. Plastic tablecloths from the dollar store work great, or plastic painting drop cloths from a hardware store can be a little more heavy-duty. 
  • Split into small groups if possible.  
  • Have a cleanup plan, and communicate this to your class. All ages of students are capable of helping clean up in some capacity. If you divide up the responsibilities before planting even begins and everyone knows how they’ll contribute, cleanup can go much faster and smoother. 
  • Know beforehand where the seeds will stay in your classroom. If you have a classroom of 25-30 students, their plants are going to take up a lot of real estate! Have a game plan before you even plant on where they will go if you’re not sending them home immediately. 
  • Set a watering schedule if students will be helping out so that it’s never in question whose turn it is for the day. If the responsibility falls on you, set reminders and alarms in your phone to help remind you to water. The last thing you want are plants that cannot thrive! 
  • Don’t expect perfection. It’ll be time-consuming and dirty and not everything will go as planned. But roll with the punches and it’ll pay off when those little seedlings start poking through the soil! 

Teachers that have gone through this endeavor of planting seeds with their students- what other tips would you add to this list? 

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Beat Spring Fever: Bring the Outdoors Inside

Spring fever is hitting hard in our town, school is out in three weeks and everyone is ready for summer vacation. One of my favorite ways to combat spring fever is to bring the outdoors inside. Flowers are blooming and the weather is nice, so naturally we gravitate toward the growth. Instead of suppressing this, why not embrace it? Here are a few ways to bring the outdoors in: 

Photo by RDNE Stock project: https://www.pexels.com/photo/a-classroom-without-student-8500643/

Plant something: Have each student plant their own vegetables or flowers to grow in the classroom, or have several classroom plants that students help care for. Our kindergarten planted six different plants in cardboard egg cartons. Once they started popping through the soil, they were sent home to be planted. These individual sections can be cut apart from each other and planted directly into the ground for continued growth. 

Open the windows: This may or may not work in your particular classroom. But if you’re able, slide open the curtains, open up the windows, and let the sunshine and fresh air fill your room! 

Add potted plants: Large, potted plants that grow in your home or classroom year-round can be pulled from the corners and brought out to more loved places in the classroom. Near your reading nook would be a great place! 

Photo by Madison Inouye: https://www.pexels.com/photo/photo-of-potted-houseplants-2894950/

Create a rock garden: Are children just predisposed to collect rocks like it’s their full-time job? Or just my kids? Put that skill to use! Find an area in your classroom to create a rock garden. Paint rocks for the rock garden if the time and space allow you to! 

Hatch a Butterfly: There are different programs and companies you can go through online to order a butterfly hatching kit. How exciting is it for students to watch the process of a caterpillar turning into a butterfly right before their eyes?! 

Create bug habitats: Research the best habitat for a specific bug and work together to create an ideal habitat for them to live in your classroom. 

Paint bug rocks: Another way to utilize those never-ending rocks is to paint them to look like bugs and add these rock pets to your classroom. 

Make a dirt sensory bin: If sensory bins are a part of your classroom, consider adding a sensory bin full of dirt, rocks, and small shovels. Sand can also work as well. 

What have you done in your classroom to bring the outdoors inside? 

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Alternatives to Assigned Reading in High School

This post is specifically for upper grades- middle school and high school- but can be applied to younger grades with some adaptations if needed. 

Assigned reading is a very popular practice in Language Arts/ English classrooms across the nation, but what if there’s a better way? Here are a few alternatives to getting your students reading, but without the dreaded assigned books. 

For individual reading: 

Offer a large list of books for them to choose from. If there are certain guidelines or books you have to stay within the parameters of, this is a great option. It keeps you within the guidelines but gives the students their own choice in the literature they are reading. 

Do a one-on-one book report discussion. If the goal is for the student to read and comprehend a book, this works beautifully. Let them choose a book that interests them and schedule a day or two where you take students aside during independent work time to discuss the book with them and verify that they read it. Ask provoking questions about the characters and the plot. Even if you haven’t read every single book, teachers are typically pretty good at spotting those telling the truth and those wanting to fib a bit. 

For classroom reading involving the whole class: 

Have a class discussion and vote. If you’re choosing a book for the whole class to read, why not allow the students to bring suggestions to the table, discuss together, and vote? Keep in mind, books are books! Every suggestion is valid and worth bringing to the table. Yes, even comic books! 

Similarly, allow students to choose a book and defend it. Let the student or group of students choose the book for the next classroom read (again, all books are valid!). Give them a chance to build their case on their specific book and take turns defending their choice to the rest of the class on why their book should be chosen. This activity can be done in a day or it can be drug out over several days depending on how in-depth you want to go! 

What do you do in your classroom to find ways to bring out students’ voices in choosing books to read? 

Photo by Pixabay via Pexels

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Parents Tips For Parent-Teacher Conference Season

Parent Teacher Conference season is quickly approaching along with the end of the school year, for some schools. If this doesn’t apply to you, give this article a read and then save it for next fall when you’ll inevitably want to read it again.

My first piece of advice for you is to identify if your school does Parent Teacher Conferences or if they do Student-Led Conferences. These two different types of conferences can sometimes look vastly different, so knowing what to expect going in is helpful.

An article that is helpful for Parent Teacher Conferences:

Questions To Ask At Parent-Teacher Conferences

Articles that are helpful for Student Led Conferences:

5 Signs of 21st Century Teaching to Watch For During Conferences #TeacherMom
23 Guiding Questions to Make Student-Led Conferences More Informative
Student-Led Conferences: Practical Guide & Resources
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Brain Breaks for Students That Actually Rest the Brain

Brain breaks are so important in school! It’s hard to sit down and cram your brain with so much information for several hours a day. So teachers, listen up! Here’s a list of (actual) brain breaks for you to use in your classrooms. This list applies to all ages of students, too.

Let me start off with this tidbit first. When choosing brain breaks, remember that the goal is to rest the brain, not make it work differently. What I’m trying to say is, Kahoot! is a great resource, but its time and place aren’t during brain breaks. 

Take a walk. Walk around the hallways of the school together or if it’s nice enough outside, take a walk around the school outside. A change of scenery can do wonders for the mind! 

Color a picture. There are a lot of free and paid printables online or ask parents to donate coloring books. Coloring and drawing can be so therapeutic! 

GoNoodle. I *think* that most teachers are aware of this resource, but just in case you’re not, GoNoodle on YouTube is great for movement brain breaks! They are videos designed to get students up and moving. 

Dance party or freeze dance. Turn the music up and play freeze dance or just have a dance party! I don’t think they’ve done any official studies on it yet, but I’m pretty certain the more dance parties that happen in a classroom, the happier the teacher and students are! 

Read a picture book. Kids are zoning out during a math lesson? Why not switch it up a bit and grab a fun picture book for them to enjoy before you get back to dividing fractions? 

Turn on relaxing music and play Sleeping Lions. The goal of sleeping lions is to be the lion that sleeps the longest. Everyone chooses a safe spot to lie down on the floor and rest while relaxing music plays. Go until the students start getting restless. 

Yoga. Cosmic Kids Yoga on YouTube is a great resource, or there are other yoga videos for kids you can look up as well. 

What brain breaks do you use in your classroom?