Ninja Notes

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Classroom Tips

Inspire New Friendships With Classroom Buddies

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Classroom buddies can be much more than reading buddies. We've collected some of our favourite mentoring activities that you can use in your school to make the most of buddy time. Come learn about how you can foster these meaningful relationships.

One of the most rewarding aspects of teaching is fostering positive relationships between students. A powerful way to do this is through cross-age buddy programs. Pairing older students with younger students can create lasting friendships, enhance social-emotional skills, and promote academic growth. Buddy teachers can also become life-long friends. Come learn the benefits and collect these ideas to add to your classroom buddy time.

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10 Quick Ways to Celebrate World Kindness Day

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World Kindness Day is a way to remind each other to be kind, but we focus on being kind all year in our classroom. Come learn some of the ways we celebrate kindness in our upper elementary and especially for World Kindness Day.

World Kindness Day is observed on November 13th. It’s a great opportunity to promote kindness, empathy, and compassion in your classroom, school, and community. One of the most important lessons about kindness is that it is possible for everyone to be kind. It doesn’t have to cost money or take a lot of time. Here are some of the ways we celebrate World Kindness Day in our school.

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Inspiring Ways to Celebrate the Festival du Voyageur

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If you are looking for ways to celebrate the Festival du voyageur at your school, check out this list of ideas. It's a great way to teach French culture in your French, FSL or Core French classes.

Each year, we organize a Festival du Voyageur for students learning French in our school. Over the years, we’ve learned some tips to make the planning easier because there’s already enough to do in February. Come check out these activities and see which ones the French learners in your school might enjoy.

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How to Host a Carnaval de Québec in Your School

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We have gathered up a list of some of our students' favourite activities during our Carnval de Quebec so you can use them to host your own. It's perfect for teaching about Francophone celebrations in Canada or French culture in Canada. Come read the list.

Each year, we host a simple event to celebrate the Carnaval de Québec with the students who are learning French in our school. It doesn’t have to be complicated or elaborate to celebrate, but over the years, we’ve learned some tips to make the day go smoother. Come check out some of the events you can do to make your day special.

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Five Ways to Use a Collaborative Poster

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Collaborative posters are much more than simply colouring. You can use them to teach, communicate, work together and have fun. Come learn different ways to use collaborative posters and justify the learning that can happen during the process.

We love creating collaborative posters. They are so much fun to make, but our students also love to create them. Of course, we have made over one hundred different designs and nobody is going to have the time to use them all. But, there’s more than one way to use a collaborative poster. Come learn some of the different ways you can use them (and spoiler alert–they aren’t more complicated and still don’t require much prep).

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How to Teach Coding Without Knowing How to Code

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If you don't know how to code, but you are expected to teach coding, we've put together activities you can use without any experience.

It seems that teachers are expected to have a wealth of knowledge about everything under the sun. Even as the world changes, they keep adding the new learning to the old content so that students will benefit.

Coding is a vital skill and there are so many ways it enriches the classroom. However, many teachers feel completely inadequate to teach coding because they have never been taught to code.

That’s ok. Coding isn’t about knowing how to code. It’s about knowing how to problem solve and we already know that’s where teachers excel. Come learn some of the ways you can teach coding without being able to code.

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