Ninja Notes

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Amazing Measurement Activities to Stretch Math

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Are you looking for measurement activities to spice up your math lessons? We collected all our favourite ideas for our upper elementary classroom and put it all together for you. Come have a read and get your math class class planned in minutes.

Measurement is one of those math strands that requires lots of hands-on activities and practice. While students can learn about the different measurements and units through learning about them, it essentially takes a lot of practice measuring to really understand how all the measurements work together.

We have found that a combination of book learning and reference materials supports students while they use units to measure different items. Read on to learn about some of the different measurement activities we use to help students master the metric system (and other units of measurement).

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15 Ways to Use Sticky Notes in the Classroom

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Are you looking for ways to use sticky notes in your classroom? We put together a list of some of the ways we use sticky notes because we love to use them. They are so easy to use, kids love them and there are endless possibilities. Come read!

Sticky notes are a versatile tool that can be used in a variety of ways to enhance classroom learning. It’s no secret that most teachers love sticky notes because they come in a variety of styles, sizes and colours. There are so many different ways to use them whether they have lines or are blank. We’ve collected our favourite ways to use sticky notes in the classroom and felt we had to share them with you.

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15 Simple Machines Activities that Will Hook Your Students

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Are you looking for activities you can use to teach upper elementary students about simple machines and their connections to every day life? We pulled together our favourite activities in one convneient place. Come read it today and get your science unit planned in minutes!

One of our favourite science units to teach is about simple machines or wheels and levers (if you teach in Alberta). We love it because it provides many opportunities for hands-on learning and can be done inside regardless of the weather. Students love to build contraptions and we can use up materials that would generally go in the recycling bin so it’s also a very low-cost science unit. Which of these activities have you tried during your science lessons?

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How to Teach Students to Tell Time

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Teaching time can be a stressfull situation in math class. How do you teach your students to tell time? We've put together all our activities for reading clocks, understanding the 12 Hour and 24 Hour clock, AM/PM, elapsed time and calendars. Come add these activities to your time lessons!

Teaching students to tell time is a necessary and difficult challenge, but time lessons are a life skill.

Some people argue that reading analog clocks is a skill that is slowly disappearing. Perhaps one day, digital clocks will completely take over, but for now, they are still around, causing grief for teachers and students around the world during time lessons in math class.

Come learn some of the activities we use to help our students learn to read the time with these time lessons that will save you time.

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How to Thrive During Your Student Teaching

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Are you ready for your student teaching placement? Come read through some of our best advice to help get you started on the right foot. There are even some free resources to get you started.

Of course, you want to be a great teacher, so congratulations on getting the chance to be a teacher! Your student teaching experience is usually the first chance you’ll get to take control of the classroom. Many factors can come into play and you might have lots of “when I have my own classroom” moments, but use this time as a chance to learn and ask questions.

We’ve been lucky enough to have amazing supervising teachers when we began our careers and it was important to us to take on student teachers when we were ready for it. Passing on our knowledge is important. This is all the advice we have given to our student teachers over the years and we hope it can help you, too.

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9 Quick Games to Teach Your Students

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Quick games are a great way to help your students transition, build relationships, foster teamwork and give your students a brain break between instruction and working. We've pulled together some of our favourites. Come read the whole post.

The pressure is always on teachers to move through the curriculum and to use their learning time as wisely as possible. We agree. There are already enough interruptions to learning these days that you don’t need to create more distractions. So, why would we encourage you to place games with your students? Quick games are one way we build relationships, teach students to follow directions, teach our classroom management expectations and foster teamwork between classmates. Come read some of our favourite quick games you can use in your upper elementary classroom or with your fellow teachers.

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