The English language can be tricky. It’s a lot of “do this” and “don’t do that”, and a lot of words that are spelled the same, but have different meanings. Or, my favorite– words that sound the same, but are spelled differently and have different meanings, and that’s just how it is, because someone a long time ago made up the rules, so you have to memorize which word to use when. And then, on top of that, we have language devices that have their own rules and uses– metaphors, similes, hyperbole, oxymorons, personification, onomatopoeia, and idioms. It’s a lot to learn, a lot to remember, and can be a lot to teach.
But… even though it can be a heavy load to learn and teach, the English language can be fun. Language devices, or figurative language, specifically can be fun. They help bring writing to life and can provide depth to writing. There are a plethora of engaging activities you can do with all grade levels to teach these concepts.
Idioms can be especially fun. Kids often find the sayings funny, so it engages them. Below is a worksheet you can use with your students. It contains a list of idioms, with a place for students to write in what they think it means. The responses students give are always entertaining, and sometimes insightful.
** This download is free, and is for personal or classroom use only. Do not sell, post, or claim as your own. **
The world of education is anything but stagnant; it’s constantly changing, growing, improving, and moving. As we learn new techniques and methods, we adapt our teaching. When we realize some methods are outdated, we keep an open mind and try new things. As we become aware of new societal and cultural trends, expectations, and experiences, we use that information to better our teaching. This ever changing flow keeps us on our toes and helps our students receive the best possible education. Not only do we as educators change and adapt the way we present information, we also change the ways in which our students receive, process, and demonstrate their learning. While doing some research, I came across a concept I had never heard of, and was quite intrigued by: the 7 Cs in Education.
The 7 Cs concept outlines seven ways that our students can demonstrate what they have learned, and ways they can process what we teach. Each skill requires students to use a different way of gathering and processing information, thus promoting diverse thinking. The 7 Cs are as follows:
1- Critical Thinking
2- Creativity
3- Collaboration
4- Communication
5- Computer Literacy
6- Cross-cultural Understanding
7- Career and Life Skills
Each of these skills can benefit students immensely. They are relevant skills for everyday life, every subject, and are skills that they will use as they grow into adulthood. Since each skill can be discussed in greater depth, I think it would be beneficial to dive into each skill individually over the next little bit. Join me as we explore these seven areas of teaching and learning!
Spring Break season is upon us, the weather is starting to get warmer, and the end of the school year is creeping up. School breaks are essential for students and teachers alike. The break from the rigors of school work gives everyone a chance to rest, relax, and mentally get ready for the next chunk of the school year. While the breaks are nice, it sometimes leaves parents trying to find ways to keep their kids engaged and entertained. Below is a list of fun, engaging, and educational activities for kids of all ages!
Using sidewalk chalk, make an obstacle or challenge course on the sidewalk or driveway. Include different movements (spinning, jumping, hopping, etc.) to keep kids paying attention to what comes next!
Head to your local library and check out a few books to read together.
Create a “Spring Break Challenge”– kids must complete 8/10 tasks to receive their reward (that can be whatever you choose). Give them two tasks they must do– tasks that are essential life skills– then provide them a list of other options to pick from. Tasks can include things like write a letter then correctly address it and mail it, learn to sew a pillow, learn how to mow the lawn, make a treat for someone you know is lonely, do a sibling’s chore without being asked, make a meal for the family, and so on.
Take a walk around the neighborhood and take pictures of anything interesting you see. Go home and learn more about the things you took pictures of.
Have kids draw up plans for their dream backyard.
Have each child learn how to do one new thing, then have them teach another family member how to do it.
Using a muffin tin and water, freeze small plastic animals or figures. Have the kids imagine they are scientists on a rescue mission to save the animals. Let them experiment with different ways to melt the ice– using syringes, medicine droppers, scoops of water, and so on.
Go outside at different times of the day and observe the different lengths and positions of shadows. Learn why this changes throughout the day.
Let kids use their imaginations and creative thinking to create an obstacle course out of everyday things. Let them think through things as they come across problems.
For older kids, give them each $5, and send them around the store to purchase something for a family member. This gives them a chance to think of someone else, and helps them pay attention to costs of items compared to what they have available to them.
Breaks can feel overwhelming at times, but there are plenty of low cost or free activities to keep your kids engaged, entertained, and active during times away from school. Try some of these activities and let us know what you think!
Continuing with fun Easter themed activities for your classroom, today we’ll use jelly beans as a learning tool. The best part of using jelly beans is that your students can eat them when they are done with them! A fun, engaging learning activity and a treat?! Sounds like my kind of fun!
This activity would be best for first or second grade on up. Give each student a small bag of jelly beans. Using the download below, have them sort their beans by color, count how many of each color they have, then create a graph showing their results.
Jelly bean math is a low-prep activity, which makes it very teacher friendly, and is fun, engaging, and educational, which makes it great for everyone involved!
Download the worksheets below and try it out with your class! Happy sorting and graphing!
**This download is free, and is for personal or classroom use only. Do not resell, repost, or claim as your own.**
I was 29 years old when I started taking piano lessons. I had always wanted to learn how to play the piano, but it was never in the budget when I was little (and we didn’t have a piano). Fast forward 20 years, and I was now a grown adult with a career. The attendance secretary at the school where I was teaching taught lessons from her home, and offered to add me on as a student. I was hesitant— what if I was too “old” to learn? What if I completely messed up and had to keep going to work and face this coworker? I finally got a big dose of courage and took her up on her offer. I had access to a piano for practicing, had the time, and had the money to do it— there really was no reason not to try.
So there I was, standing at her door with my “Adult Level 1” piano book in hand, heart pounding, mind racing, ready to start a new adventure. It was a little intimidating at first. I did mess up. My “old” brain did take a little longer to pick up the concepts. But you know what? Slowly but surely, I started to get the hang of it. I practiced every day after work. If I messed up, I tried again. I did my best to make the most of this new opportunity. I was proud of the progress I made, and even found myself making my fiancé listen to me on our nightly phone calls. I felt like a little girl, so excited to share my new talents.
I took lessons for several months before I got married and moved to another state. I didn’t have access to lessons or a piano while we were living away, and then soon after we moved back, we started having kids, so my skills faded, and eventually became a memory. Fast forward eleven years, and I was casually scrolling FaceBook, when I saw a post from a neighbor— they had been given a new piano and were giving away their old one for free! My heart lit up. I immediately commented that we would take it. We rearranged our living room, recruited some neighbors to help us move it, and are now the proud owners of a beautiful piano. My husband can play pretty well, and it has been so nice having piano music fill our house.
I didn’t touch it for a few weeks. I loved hearing the music, but knew my skills were rusty and would need some serious work. One day when all my kids were out playing with friends and my husband was at work, I pulled out my old piano book and started to remind myself how to play. The music was slow and choppy, but I was playing! I was reading the notes and making music! It was amazing! My fingers and my brain moved in unison as muscle memory took over and it started to come back to me.
Now, I don’t want you thinking that I was suddenly playing all sorts of complicated music, because I wasn’t. But I was amazed at how my brain pulled out what it knew and started to use it again. It was proof to me that once you learn something, your mind retains it. Sure, it may be tucked way back in the deep corners of your brain, but it’s there, and as you start to tug on the memory or skill, it slowly works it way toward the front.
If you’re like me and have a skill you learned long ago but have since stopped using, try it again! Tug on that memory and start to spark muscle memory. Dust off the piano, violin, wood working tools, skateboard, paint brushes, or whatever else it may be and give it a go. I bet you’ll be surprised with the way things start to come back to you. And if you have a skill you’ve always wanted to learn, but haven’t had the chance to for whatever reason, do it! If you have the resources, take the leap and try something new! You don’t have to be an expert at it, but trying is so much better than living with the regret of not trying.
So go ahead, prove to the world that you can teach an old dog new tricks!
Fidget Toys: the very thought can make teachers (and parents) groan and roll their eyes. From stress balls to fidget spinners, there always seems to be some new gadget taking over your classroom. Should they be banned? Should they be embraced? The debate has been ongoing ever since stress balls first gained popularity in the 1980s. The practice of using sensory tools, however, has been around for much longer. Baoding balls originated during the Ming dynasty and were used to reduce stress, improve brain function, and aid in dexterity development. Before weighted blankets, there were Turkish yorgans which date back to the 16th century. The average winter yorgan weighed anywhere from nine to thirteen pounds. Komboloi, or “worry beads”, were used in Ancient Greece to promote relaxation.
While these sensory tools might have been around for centuries, the science behind them has only recently been looked into. Dr. Anna Jean Ayres first identified Sensory Integration in the 1960’s when she noticed there were children who struggled with functional tasks who didn’t fit into the specific categories of disability that were used at the time. She developed the term “Sensory Integrative Dysfunction” to describe the problems faced by children whose brains struggle to receive, process, or respond to sensory input. Sensory input instructs us on how to respond to our environment and there are consequences from being over or under-stimulated, especially for children who are still learning how to process these cues. When confronted with bright lights, messy or cluttered spaces, and loud noises, children can become agitated and retreat to quieter spaces; whether that is physically finding relief in a less stimulating area or by shutting off their sensory receptors and essentially shutting down. When stimulation is restricted, as is common in a traditional classroom, children will find their own ways to meet their sensory needs. Teachers know exactly what this looks like: tapping, bouncing up and down, kicking, touching everything and everyone, chewing on pencils, making noises, or getting out of their seat to go on some made-up “but I really needed to throw this away” mission.
This is exactly where fidget toys come in handy. (Ha! I didn’t even realize that was a pun until revising this post). And I’m not talking about fidget spinners in all their noisy, distracting glory.
It might be counter-intuitive to think that doing two things at once can enhance a student’s ability to focus on their lessons but evidence is slowly backing it up. One study demonstrated how increased movement boosted the cognitive performance of children with ADHD. Another found that students who used stress balls had improved focus, attitude, social interactions, and even writing abilities. The trick with fidget toys is finding those that don’t require so much brain power that they pull focus from the main task. How many of you have your own fidget methods that you revert to without realizing? Do you chew on pencils or repeatedly click your pen? Perhaps you doodle or bounce your leg. We all have different ideas of what an optimal “focus zone” looks like and it’s important to help students discover their own learning styles and preferences. It’s important for adults too–I decided to invest in my own fidget toys a few months ago and I always keep one at my desk.
Looking out over your sea of pupils, it can be a little overwhelming to try and figure out their individual needs but as I always say, “When in doubt, ask it out!” As you go into a new school year, reach out to the parents and ask what has helped their child calm down in the past. Do they have a history of thumb-sucking? They would probably respond well to chewelry or rubber pencil toppers. Having a quiet space in your classroom or noise-canceling headphones would be good options for children who need time alone in their room to defuse. Some students need physical contact in order to stay grounded so pressure vests or weighted lap pads would benefit them the most.
Another great way to learn your students’ individual learning styles is to involve them! Have them complete a task while adjusting the volume of background noise and have a discussion about which one was easiest for them to work with. Give them fidget toys to use while reading to them or showing them a video and then ask them if they were able to focus better or if it was a distraction. This also helps your students develop self-regulation skills. Giving your students access to different sensory tools allows them to stop seeing them as toys and start to recognize when they really need them.
If this sounds like wishful thinking, there are lots of people who would agree with you. Fortunately there are also lots of tips and tricks out there to help you integrate fidget toys into your classroom. Here are some of the most common ones that I encountered in my research:
BOUNDARIES. Work with your students to come up with rules for the fidget toys that they are willing to follow. Post the rules somewhere in your classroom as a visual reminder.
Have a variety of tools available to the class. This can prevent jealousy among students and allows you to use discretion in deciding what toys are actually beneficial.
Find toys that don’t produce noise or require sight to use. The kids should be able to use their hands or feet to fidget while using their eyes and ears to learn.
Be patient! Once your students get used to the sensory tools in the classroom, the novelty will wear off and they’ll be less of a distraction.
Remind your students that “fair” isn’t the same thing as “equal”. Different people have different needs and it’s important to support those needs.
Ultimately the choice to integrate sensory tools into your classroom is up to you! The fad fidget toys will come and go, but there are plenty of tried and true options that can really work wonders when properly used.
Are fidget toys a menace to society or a misunderstood ally? What challenges or successes have you seen come from them?
Back to school, here we come! August is within sight and this means everyone is preparing to head back to school, whether that’s preschool, high school, or college.
For me personally, my most nerve-wracking first day of school was my first day of college as a freshman- my very first day walking the sidewalks on campus and navigating the halls of the massive buildings. What if I couldn’t make it across campus in time for my next class? What if I got lost and was late everywhere I was going? I didn’t even think about lunch and I was going to be in class back to back all day! There are so many factors. Let me share with you a few things that I did, and a few that I wished I knew, to hopefully help ease your fears as well.
Download a map of the campus. Back in 2013 when I started college, I actually held a physical map of campus in my hands, but I was also one of the last few on Earth that didn’t own a smartphone. Regardless, they still were not amazing quality, so I was not alone in holding a physical map of campus.
Have the map downloaded to your phone so that when you need to leave the Business building and make it to the Biology building 10 minutes later, you’ll know the best route. You won’t need the map forever! But navigating a new campus (especially if it’s quite large!) can be incredibly helpful. It can also be a good idea to mark where your classes are if you have the ability to draw on the map.
Think about lunchtime. In high school, lunchtime is carved out and the cafeteria is well stocked with food. In college, it’s up to you and only you. Look at your class schedule and decide if you can make a quick trip home for a bite, or if you need to look into options of packing a lunch, or finding a dining hall on campus. It’s hard to sit through classes and learn when you’re hungry!
Wear good shoes. College campuses can be quite large and require a great amount of walking between buildings and classes. Keep this in mind when choosing shoes to wear. Save the fancy kicks for a night out and pull out the tennis shoes for classes. A jacket is also a great clothing item to pack. Some classrooms can be boiling hot, while others are freezing cold. There’s not always a lot of consistency.
Snacks and water bottles. This could depend on the building and teacher protocols, but in the majority of classes, you can snack while you are in class. Keep a good stash in your backpack of good, healthy snacks. And bring a water bottle, especially for those longer classes.
Don’t buy books right away. You can read more tips on college textbooks here. But it’s a good practice to wait until after the first day of class to purchase books. This gives you the chance to attend class first and determine the best route for purchasing your textbook, and knowing if you need it or not.
Be prepared to take notes. In college, typically the first day of class isn’t a “get to know you” and take an easy day. What you can expect is the professor taking a few minutes to go over the syllabus, letting you know what to expect from the class, telling you about resources the T.A.’s might have, and then jumping straight into coursework. So come prepared to take notes and learn.
The syllabus is incredibly important- save it. They are not something to just roll your eyes at and toss in recycling on your way out! They are your roadmap to this class. It should tell you the expectations, rules, and assignments for the semester. These important dates in the syllabus such as deadlines and tests are great information to put into your planner so you know when they are coming up and can prepare.
