Here’s an activity for teaching "oo" (see sample worksheet): Ask your children to draw a large full moon on yellow construction paper. Have the children fill in their moons with other words that have "oo" in them. Here are some words the children could put in their "oo" moons: soon raccoon noon bloom groom balloon room shook book cook No related posts.

Here’s another writing activity for Halloween: Have your children complete the following on a sheet of paper (see sample worksheet): Sorting Candy I love candy! I had _______ pieces in my candy jar. ______ were chocolate. ______ were ___________________. ______ were ___________________. ______ were ___________________. ______ were ___________________. ______ were ___________________. Have your children draw a picture of their goodies below their sentences. No related posts.

Here’s a writing activity for autumn (see sample worksheet): Ask your children to draw a large sweater on a piece of construction paper. Let the children choose the color of the paper for their sweater. On another piece of paper, ask the children to fill out the following: My sweater is ______ and _________. It has _____ buttons and _________ pockets. My sweater is made from ____________. I love my sweater! When complete, their sweater story may read like this: My sweater is fuzzy and blue. It has shiny buttons and deep pockets. My sweater is made from wool. I love my sweater! When the children have completed their sweater stories, they can decorate their sweaters with real buttons, cotton and/or fabric scraps that you may have. No related posts.

Here are some ideas for silly witch books (see sample worksheet and sample book): Make a silly riddle book. For example: What is a witch’s favorite city? (answer: Wichita, Kansas) Where does a witch like to spend her leisure time? (answer: On Lake Erie) Write a story using any of the following phrases: pain in the neck working the skeleton crew lending someone a hand going to bat for someone having a bone to pick with someone a real bonehead talking your ear off opening a can of worms all tied up right now don’t have a ghost of a chance a broom closet petrified wood visiting the blood bank Write silly Halloween alliterations starting with "w" for witch. Write a "How To" story on planning a Halloween party. No related posts.

I was watching my first-grade children playing at recess one beautiful spring morning when I noticed that a small group of them had gathered in the corner of the playground. Curious, I walked over to the fast-growing group "oohhing" and "aahhing". "Look!", they squealed with delight. "We found a cocoon on a branch. It must have fallen out of the tree." I looked at the lonely cocoon and realized what it was. "It’s actually a chrysalis, not a cocoon," I told them. I looked it over carefully and decided it looked "healthy". We marched straight into the library and showed off our chrysalis to our lovely librarian. She immediately found some great books on how to care for chrysalises until they turn into butterflies. She also recommended that if ours turned into a butterfly, we should set it free; and right there in the library, our class unanimously agreed to set the butterfly free. I had not planned to study butterflies this particular day or week, but because all of the children in my class were enthralled with the chrysalis, I changed my science lessons completely around. I chose to focus on what the children were interested in at that time and the payoffs were huge. We ended up studying life cycles, caring for chrysalises and other forms of life, other insects, and so on. It was the most natural lesson plans I had ever written, although it was the spur of the moment. I was lucky to work for a principal who allowed me to alter my plans if it worked for the children. I’m so glad that I listened to the kids’ excitement about what they wanted to learn about. We all learned a lot of science that year. In the end, our chrysalis turned into a beautiful butterfly and we had a wonderful celebration the day we set it free! Textbooks and other teaching references are great resources—all teachers need them. But teachers also need to be encouraged to use their training and creativity to make learning natural and fun, just as the chrysalis did for me and my class one year. No related posts.

I created a binder for our son Will after my husband asked him, "What did you learn today?" and Will replied, "Some stuff. I don’t really remember." I homeschool Will and when I heard this I nearly cried. I promised myself that this would never happen again. On a sheet of paper I printed out in huge letters, "This is How My Brain Grew Today by Will" and glued it to the front of the binder, then I divided the binder into the different content areas (reading, math, etc). Each day I put the lesson plans into the binder so that Will knew the activities that he had to do. For independent work, he had to fill out a form on which he listed five things he learned about a topic and place it in the binder. At the end of each day I asked Will, "How did your brain grow today in (content area)?", and he had to tell me what he did and what he learned. If he forgot, I pulled out the lesson plan for that content area (for example, reading) from the binder, and we reviewed how his brain grew. When I first introduced this concept to Will, he was less than thrilled, but the problem of him forgetting what he learned has virtually disappeared. This idea works in classrooms, too. I used a similar method at the end of each day where we reviewed what we did for the day in each subject. I told my class that I never wanted to tell their parents that they did nothing in class that day. There are many ways to tweak this idea. For example, you can ask your children to verbally review what they learned for the day, or have each child keep a journal in which they can record what they learned at the end of each day. Good luck to the hard-working, worrying, giving-it-all-you-have teachers out there. May you never hear from a parent that their child said, "I learned nothing from my teacher today." No related posts.

In October I gave my students the following list of verbs as they wrote a new story (see sample worksheet): adjust dig jiggle ride sweat ask divulge jog roam swim assist draw jump roll swoop bake drive leap romp talk banish eat leave run tear beg enter magnetize rush throw bite exit march scamper tiptoe blink explore meddle search toddle bounce extinguish mow share touch bound fall navigate shuffle trample break flap nestle sigh tremble capture fly nod sing trip chew frighten ooze skip tumble clench gallop pace slide type conceal giggle pat slip walk cook glide peek soar wash crawl grab pet somersault wave creep grow play spread whisper cringe growl plead stare wiggle crush hire point stir wink cry hit polish stomp wreck dance hop prance stretch wring dash hug prowl stroke wrinkle desert invite quake stroll write detain jerk race stutter yawn After they finished their first drafts, I asked them to replace as many of their passive verbs with the active verbs on this list. Their writings sparkled! No related posts.

This idea was given to me years ago by a principal I worked for. I still think it’s one of the best ideas for classroom management and enhancing a child’s self-esteem. This is how it worked: At the beginning of the year, my principal gave each of his teachers a little red plastic telephone. He explained that the telephones were to be used for positive reinforcement for good behavior. If, for example, a child went out of his way to befriend a new student in class, the teacher would place the little red telephone on his desk, and that child knew that his parents would receive a "good" phone call from the teacher that night. My children were first graders and they loved receiving the "good" phone calls! The parents also loved receiving a positive phone call home. And I, as a teacher, loved to be the provider of good news. One rule I attached to my red phone was that no bad comments were to be in the conversation. This, for me, was all about bragging on the child. If problems needed to be addressed with the parents in other areas, they were done at a different time and place. Hope this idea helps build your children’s self-esteem! No related posts.

Hope everyone is enjoying their Labor Day! Labor Day Facts Labor Day Trivia Labor Day Games and Coloring Pages Labor Day for Kids No related posts.

I’m creating an Election Day theme unit for my fifth-grade son. I found an outstanding Web site that you need to check out if you’re also teaching presidential elections. The Web site is Electing a President for Kids. I’m also creating an interactive bulletin board that has a book about the presidents (which is something that my child put together last year), a timeline about the history of our country, and other books about electing a president. If anyone has other ideas for an Election Day theme unit I’d love to hear from you! ***Update*** I’ve decided to turn my interactive bulletin board into an ongoing "Handmade Presidential Election Big Book". ***Update 2*** Here is my Political Election Theme Outline. No related posts.