Ninja Notes

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BrainNinjasWP

Find the Fake News and So Much More

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We need to teach students how to think critically about what they see online. Check out these tips and lessons you can use in your clasroom to help turn your students in to responsible digital citizens. Digital citizenship and online safety should be a priority in every upper elementary classroom.

We realized the importance of teaching critical thinking and fact-checking one day on Facebook. One ninja-mother-in-law posted an article about an actor that had died-but the actor had died FIVE years earlier. Yet, there she was just reposting like crazy. A dog with a piece of ham on its face was her next post and that was when we started writing our digital citizenship and online safety resource. Clearly, digital citizenship is a skill to be learned by many these days.

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10 Things We Do On the First Day of School

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We use this routine for our first day of school each year. It works for most upper elementary classrooms and is sure to get your new school year started off right.

Be honest. You either LOVE the first day of school or hate it. As a teacher, it’s a fresh start to get back to spending quality time with these little darlings. For us, it’s always a chance to correct things we did in the past and start all over again, but there are ten things we do on the first day of school that help our whole year run smoothly. Turn back to school into a great time of year for you and your students. Keep on reading to find out how to make your first day back go smoothly.

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Activities for Orange Shirt Day and National Truth and Reconciliation Day

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If you are looking for activities you can use to observe Orange Shirt Day which is also called National Truth and Reconciliation Day we have collected several in this blog post. Come learn about resources you can use in your upper elementary classroom.

Orange Shirt Day is recognized each year on September 30. Check your local area for activities so you can participate in acknowledging Residential School survivors. As of 2021, the Canadian government has declared September 30 a day of National Truth and Reconciliation.

It is important to educate everyone about Canada’s wrongs so we can learn from them. We need to repair the damage that has been done. We have searched out some student-friendly resources teachers can use in their classrooms to teach students about Residential Schools because Every Child Matters. Keep reading to get a list of resources you can use in your classroom.

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Your Big List of Must Have Books for Ramadan and Eid

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If you are looking for books about Ramadan and Eid to use in your upper elementary classroom, check out this list put together by our school community.

Reading is a huge part of our classroom, and it’s important to us to make sure the books and characters reflect all aspects of the lives of our students. That includes books about and including different faiths, backgrounds and cultural beliefs.

Ramadan is an important part of our classroom culture, so we searched high and low to find books that our students could use to learn from and reflect on. Here are some of the titles we found and thought you should check out yourself.

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How to Acknowledge Ramadan and Eid With Your Students

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If you are looking to acknowledge Ramadan and Eid with your students, come check out these activities you can use in your upper elementary classroom.

In our classroom, we celebrate everything. This year we learned about Ramadan with some of our Muslim students and celebrated Eid with a few different activities.

We think it’s important for all of our students to feel included. It doesn’t matter which different celebrations, observances or holidays they observe. Students share their customs and traditions with us. We celebrated Lunar New Year, Ukrainian Christmas, World Hijab Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas, and now we’re getting ready for Ramadan and Eid.

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The End of the School Year is Coming!

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The end of the school year is a very busy time. It can be stressful for your students who love the structure and routine. Come check off some things you can get get done at the end of the year to help wrap it up successfully.

You are in the home stretch! It’s nearly the end of the school year! Maybe you’ve had the most difficult year of your career, or maybe it’s been a highlight. Either way, you’ve made a difference in the lives of the children who’ve come through your classroom this year and so it’s time to clean up, pack up and celebrate.

The end of the school year is not always a happy time for your students. For some children, school is a sense of stability they don’t have at home. You know your students.

Celebrating the end of the school year might need to be more focused on celebrating the time you’ve spent together. Be aware of the different feelings of all your students and be sure to talk about how the end of the year is always a mix of emotions. Read on to find out how we finish the year.

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