Tag: elementary

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Christmas Break Is Coming– Are You Ready?

Winter Break is fast approaching, and while that means a break for teachers, it also means lots of time at home for the kiddos. If you live in a place that has colder temperatures, Winter Break can be tricky. Cold, wintry weather makes it less likely kids are going to want to go outside and play. Screen time is great for a minute, but too much of that usually means grumpy kids afterward. Indoor activities can be a life saver for times like this, but sometimes coming up with ideas is difficult. 

But no need to worry! I’ve got a handful of ideas for you to use that will keep your kids entertained AND keep their minds active.

Snowflake Math

Draw and cut out several small snowflakes (or any other winter shapes you want). Use the cut out shapes as math manipulative by having kids create various math equations and to experiment with addition and subtraction. 

Indoor Scavenger Hunt

Using the free file below, print out the Winter shapes and hide them around the house. Give kids a copy of the list of pictures to find. As they find the hidden pictures, they can removed them from the hiding place and check them off their paper. This game can be adapted to your kids’ ages, needs, and abilities.

Winter Scavenger Hunt-2Download

Christmas Tree Speech Practice

Use the file below, or draw a blank Christmas tree on a piece of paper. On a separate paper, draw several ornaments. On each ornament, write a word that contains the sound your child is working on in speech. Cut the ornaments out. You can hide them around the house, in a sensory bin, mix them up in a bowl, or just lay them out on the table or floor. As your child finds or chooses each ornament, have them say the word on the ornament before they can place it on the tree. 

Christmas Speech TreeDownload

Paper Gingerbread Houses

Don’t want the mess of real gingerbread houses? I don’t blame you there! Rather than graham crackers and frosting, use construction paper shapes and glue to create a gingerbread house. You can put the pieces/shapes into a bag and have kids reach in to pull one out a time and build the house piece by piece. 

Another fun option is to “Roll A House”, where you assign a house element to each number on a die, and when that number is rolled, your child can add or draw that element on to their house.

Christmas Puzzles

Using the free file below, print and cut out the Christmas strip puzzles. Mix up the strips and have kids put the pieces in the correct order to make the picture. These are great quiet activities and are a good way to help kids with spatial reasoning. 

Christmas Strip PuzzlesDownload

And there you have it– Winter Break survival ideas! Happy holidays!

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Christmas Find & Count

My kids excitedly reminded me yesterday that we only have TWO weeks until Christmas! How did it sneak up so quickly?! As promised a few posts ago, here is a Christmas Find & Count activity page in black and white. You can find a color one here.

Teachers, print this out for your students if you need a festive but quiet activity as we get closer to Christmas Break. Parents, print this out if you need a festive but quiet activity once the kids are out of school and at home for Christmas Break! These Find & Count pages also make great activities for long car rides, quiet waiting rooms, or for early finishers in class.

Please only use for classroom or personal use. Do not resell, repost, or claim as your own.

Happy Holidays!

Christmas Find & CountDownload
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IEP Team Players

My youngest three kids are currently receiving speech services at their school, and subsequently all have Individualized Education Plans. Part of having an IEP means there are annual meetings with the IEP team to determine if the child is still eligible for services. As luck would have it, all three of my kiddos’ IEPs were up for their annual meeting today, which meant that I got to start my morning at the school, talking with the group of teachers, administrators, and speech therapists who make up the IEP team. 

As we reviewed each of my kids’ progress and struggles, I felt so incredibly thankful for an IEP team that is supportive, kind, and has my kids’ best interests in mind. What a difference it makes to have everyone on the same page with the same goals! Throughout the years I was teaching, I had the chance to attend many IEP meetings for my students. I knew the why behind the meetings, and I always did my part to contribute, but it wasn’t until I became a parent with children who have IEPs that I truly understood just how valuable these meetings can be. 

Being a part of the IEP team for each of my children is more than being a warm body in the room to sign the paperwork. It gives me a chance to get a report of their progress, show support for the teachers and therapists that help my children, and, most importantly, it gives me a chance to advocate for my children. It is such an honor and privilege to be able to do that. As a parent, I am the one who knows my children best. Because I know my children and am with them more than the speech therapist and technician are, I am able to see what is and isn’t working and can get a good idea of their progress in “real life” rather than from assessments or 15 minute speech sessions each week. I can then take those observations to the other members of the IEP team and can let them know if there is anything we need to change. 

On the other hand, since I am not a trained speech therapist or technician, I only know so much. They are crucial members of the IEP team because they have the proper tools and knowledge to measure speech progress. They have been taught and trained how to best help kids learn to properly form their speech sounds. They can offer solutions and suggestions to help my children in ways that I cannot. 

Sure, my children don’t have to receive speech services. I could probably find some resources online and could try to help them at home. Their progress wouldn’t be as productive, but I’m sure I could make some leeway. I also don’t have to be an active participant of the IEP team. I’m sure the speech therapists would continue helping my kids with minimal input from me. 

BUT… when I do my part in conjunction with the speech therapists, so much more progress happens. My children feel much more supported and encouraged. They know that they have a safe group of adults who are on their side, trying to give them all the help they can to be able to make the progress they need to. 

If you have a child receiving special education services, I’m sure you know just how important every member of the IEP team is. If you aren’t yet an active participant in your child’s IEP team, I encourage you to become one! It will make a world of a difference to your child, to you, and to the people at the school who are working with your child. And as we all know, any effort expended on behalf of our children helping them improve is effort well worth it! 

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Kwanzaa Find & Count Printable

The winter holidays are upon us, and we want to make sure everyone has a fun activity to do as they celebrate. For those who celebrate Kwanzaa, I’ve created a fun find and count activity page, both in color and in black and white.

Print it off and share with your students, your family, or your friends. It would also be a great resource to use if you learn about the different winter holidays with your class. Have fun, and happy finding!

*This printable is free to download, but is not to be resold, reposted, or claimed as your own.*

Kwanzaa Find & CountDownload
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Staff Unity

As teachers, we often focus on creating a cohesive classroom, with students who can work well together, help each other, and respect one another. For some classes, this happens naturally, with minimal effort on our part. For other classes, however, it takes a lot of work and effort. The end result is always worth the effort it takes, as a cohesive class makes teaching go so much smoother, and the overall feel of the classroom is positive. 

Even as adults, we gravitate toward environments, people, and situations that make us feel welcome and included. It just makes sense— no one wants to be part of something where they feel unwanted. Everyone wants to feel like they belong in all aspects of their life, and this includes in the workplace. 

Have you ever been an employee at a place where none of the employees get along and there is just an overall negative feeling among the staff? Did you find yourself wanting to go to work or dreading it? It’s not a fun situation to be in. Working in an environment that is negative and unwelcoming can really take a toll on the employees, creating low morale, lack of motivation, and toxicity— none of which I care to be around! 

So if a positive, unified staff and work experience is what we gravitate toward, how do we make that happen? Is it by socializing with coworkers outside of school? Perhaps. Is it by communicating with one another to discuss the needs of students? That definitely helps! Maybe it happens through team building games and activities at staff meetings and trainings (does anyone even like those anyway?!). Or, perhaps, unity comes through taking the time to get to know those you work with, supporting them, and learning to understand who they are beyond the role of teacher.  Rather than it coming through just one single method, unity comes through continued effort, time, and dedication to the cause.

Having a unified staff creates more than just a positive feeling at the workplace. Unity fosters relationships. When teachers and employees get along and respect each other, the students notice. The positivity can be felt and can be contagious. There are a lot of things we don’t want to spread through the school— like sickness, rumors, and negativity—but positivity and unity are two things that every school could use a bit more of. 

The next time you find yourself in a staff meeting or training, and find yourself pushing through team building exercises, do your best to make it a positive situation. It’s true that not everyone loves doing team building, but if we can do our best to participate with a positive attitude, we are much more likely to get something out of the exercise and do our part to contribute to an overall feeling of positivity at the school.

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Hanukkah Find & Count Printable

And just like that, we are already to December! The winter holidays are fast approaching— are you ready?! 

Last year, I created and shared a Christmas I Spy page for you to download and use in your classroom or home. You can find that here.

I realize that not everyone celebrates Christmas, so I’ve created a Hanukkah Find & Count page for you to use in your classroom or home. If you want to use the Christmas download with your class, and have a few students who celebrate Hanukkah, now they can join in on the fun without feeling out of place. Including everyone is so important! 

*Hopefully coming soon: a search and find for Kwanzaa and a black & white Christmas I Spy page!

This printable is free to download, and is only for classroom and personal use. Do not resell it or claim it as your own.

Hanukkah Find & CountDownload
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Virtual Field Trips: Bringing the World to Your Classroom

As a student, field trip days were highly anticipated days— a break from the “normal” school routine and schedule, eating lunch somewhere other than the cafeteria, and a chance to ride the bus with your friends! What more could a student ask for?! 

For teachers, though, it’s a bit more involved than just hopping on the bus and going somewhere fun. You’ve got to coordinate and pay for the bus. You also have to arrange with the lunchroom staff so they can plan accordingly and have sack lunches made for the students who need them. There’s also a need for chaperones, so you’ve got to plan in advance and get volunteers worked out. It’s definitely more work than staying in the classroom teaching a lesson. Even though field trips are a lot of work for teachers, there are good educational benefits that come from the experiences students have while on them. Field trips give students hands on learning experiences and let them learn in ways that are sometimes hard to do in the classroom. 

While unlimited field trips would be an amazing thing for schools, that just isn’t the case— there are budgets that must be adhered to and it just isn’t feasible in so many ways. Today, however, technology has made it possible for teachers to “take” their classes on field trips all over the world, allowing students to experience places they likely wouldn’t have had the chance to otherwise. 

Zoos and other wildlife facilities across the planet have set up cameras to livestream various animals for people to watch. Museums around the world have filmed tours of their sites. Historic places have filmed and set up interactive tours to allow students to get an up close look at things of the past. It’s really quite incredible! 

When learning about our nation’s symbols, important government buildings, and so on, my son’s kindergarten class took a virtual tour of Washington DC. My son came home so excited to tell us all about the things he had learned and seen on his field trip. As a parent, I was so grateful he had that opportunity, because taking him to actually see those places in person wasn’t an option at the time. 

Many of the places that provide virtual field trips also provide lesson plans and activities that teachers can use to teach about the places, people, and things at their location. Not only do students get to experience somewhere new and exciting, but teachers get to enjoy preplanned lessons! 

There are so many places that offer these virtual field trips, and a simple Google search will provide you with a list of possibilities to choose from. That being said, below you will find a list of links to various places that offer these virtual experiences for your students. Feel free to explore and share any that you find interesting! Happy field tripping!

The Monterey Bay Aquarium offers livestreams to many of its animal enclosures.

Great Lakes Now provides videos, lesson plans, and other educational information about the Great Lakes.

The Nature Conservancy allows students to visit and learn about various aspects of nature all around the world. 

Not everyone will have the chance to visit Amsterdam to see the Anne Frank house in person, but you can watch a virtual tour of it here.

If you’ve ever wanted to experience what life in colonial Williamsburg, Virginia was like, you can explore the town here.

The Natural History Museum provides an expansive look at many aspects of the people, places, and animals of past years. If you want an up close look at some of their exhibits, past and present, you can experience that here.

If you’ve ever wanted to visit the White House, here’s your chance!

Visiting the Louvre might be a little out of reach for many, but this virtual tour makes it more accessible for people all over the world!

If you’re doing a unit on space and planets, you can virtually visit Mars!

For your students who are interested in the way Amazon fulfills orders, this virtual tour might be an exciting opportunity for them to see how it all works!

Students can learn all about what happens to our garbage and recycling through this virtual tour shared by Republic Services.

Visit Dublin Ireland’s zoo through this virtual tour.