Ninja Notes

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BrainNinjasWP

23 Ways to Clean the Clutter From Your Classroom Hoard

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It's time to up your classroom organization game and get rid of the clutter that is drowning you in your own classroom. Come read our huge list of ways to cut back so you can streamline your classroom organization and get rid of the clutter hoard.

Is your classroom organization struggling like mine? Mr. Ninja once had to bring a giant rock on a 1400 km trip because there was a possibility it might come in handy for a science lesson. It’s lived in our garden for twelve years. Why do we do this to ourselves?

Let’s be honest. Teaching lands somewhere between collecting and hoarding. But don’t you fret! It’s time for some spring cleaning-classroom style. Classroom organization starts by cleaning out your space. Let’s clean the clutter. I promise it is hard work, but it will leave you and your students feeling refreshed!

Why did we start this classroom organization process?

Well, a big part of it is money. If teachers can get something for free, we’ll take it. We all know our classrooms are underfunded and so when interesting items come along (whether we actually need them or not) we tend to take them. What is wrong with us?

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How to Connect Social Studies and Art

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One of the ways to teach social studies is to look at the artwork created by different cultures. Geography also lends itself well to art lessons. Come learn about some of the ways we connect social studies and art in our upper elementary classroom.

In Canada, elementary teachers teach all the subject areas in most schools-except specialties like French or music. This means generalist teachers like us are expected to teach art, even when we aren’t trained artists. Our students have been known to question some of our drawings over the years, so we’ve had to be creative in finding projects we can teach our students that help them learn, but don’t stress us out. We want to share ways to connect social studies and art with all of you.

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How to Celebrate Poem in Your Pocket Day

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Are you looking for ways to celebrate a love of poetry with your upper elementary students? Try taking part in Poem in Your Pocket Day as part of National Poetry Month. This can be done any time of year and is a great activity to explore poetry throughout your school. Come read the whole post to get ideas how you can celebrate poetry.

We’re hosting a “Poem in Your Pocket” day as a celebration of completing our poetry unit in Language Arts. It coincides with the National Poem In Your Pocket Day held each year in April. It’s coming up soon! You can join us this year even if you haven’t taught poetry in your classroom yet!

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How to Teach Multiple Perspectives in the Classroom

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How do you teach controversial or challenging issues in your classroom? We try to teach students about multiple perspectives so they can learn to proper research and debate issues that are important to them. This is even more important in the age of fake news. Come check out these activities you can do in your upper elementary classroom to teach students to investigate multiple perspectives.

The Canadian news is flooded with discussions about pipelines and where they should or shouldn’t be built. So, how do we address the multiple perspectives of different issues in the classrooms? It’s important to be impartial while presenting all the facts from both sides of the issue.

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How to Prank Your Students

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Are you looking for a fun but harmless prank for April Fool's Day? Pranks are great any time of year and they are a great way to bond with your students. Check out these free and easy to use pranks for your upper elementary classroom.

Do you like a lighthearted and fun prank? Do you have students that enjoy a good laugh? Are you looking for a way to celebrate April Fools’ Day? We were always struggling with ways to prank our students in a fun and caring way, and we’ve come up with a few great ones over the past few years.

If you have the kind of relationship with your students where everyone can enjoy a lighthearted, silly prank, then you’re doing something right. We are very clear with our students about what does or does not make for a good prank.

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How to Differentiate Using Choices

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Sometimes all students need to feel successful is the chance to make a choice so they feel like they have some control. Come learn how to leverage choices and boost your students' engagement.

How would you feel if you knew you were a wonderful writer but the only way you could express yourself was through modern dance? What would you do if you had to recite your report card comments by memory to each and every parent? How would you feel if you were given the choice to write your report cards any way YOU want? (Ours would be invisible!)

Imagine how different your life would be if you were given the choice to do or say certain things.

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