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Engaging Lessons

The Cumulative Project: How to Teach More With Less

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Come find projects to use in your Grade 3-6 class and get a free project to use in social studies.

Here’s something nobody tells you about cumulative projects: they’re one of the best-kept time-management secrets in teaching.

Most teachers we know are running on fumes by mid-year. You’re teaching five different things at once, managing behaviour, writing report cards, and trying to stay on pace with curriculum. The idea of adding a “big project” to that sounds like adding another log to an already-burning fire.

But what if we told you a well-designed cumulative project could reduce your workload while actually increasing what students learn? We know that sounds like teacher-blog fantasy. But we’ve seen it work. We’ve lived it. And we want to walk you through exactly how to teach more with less.

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How to Make Patterns and Algebra Stick With Interactive Notebooks

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Using this patterns and algebra interactive notebooks unit changed how I teach math as much as how students learned and understood it.

You’ve taught patterns before. You know the routine. You explain repeating patterns, growing patterns, equations with variables, and your students nod along. But then you ask them to work independently, and something’s missing. They don’t remember what you just showed them. They can’t visualize the concept when it’s on paper. And when you ask them to explain their thinking, they’re stuck.

Here’s the thing about patterns and algebra in elementary: it’s abstract. Variables are abstract. Pattern rules are abstract. Equations are abstract. Our students struggle with abstract. What they need is something concrete, something visual, something they can hold onto and reference whenever they’re confused.

But we figured out the game-changer.

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How Projects Can Transform Your Social Studies Lessons

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Using projects in your social studies classroom is a great way to boost engagement. Check out cumulative project-based learning and how it can work for you.

If you’re like most teachers we chat with, you’ve probably noticed something: students retain information better when they actually create something with it.

The new Alberta social studies curriculum is…dry. It’s mostly just facts that are expected to memeorized, But this gives us an incredible opportunity. The curriculum is built on big ideas (geography, economy, government, culture) that are meant to connect to how students see the real world. But traditional worksheets and fill-in-the-blank activities? They flatten all that richness into busywork.

Project-based learning in social studies doesn’t just look better on Instagram (though your students’ work will look amazing). It genuinely changes how students understand concepts. When a student has to design an entire civilization (deciding where it settles based on geography, how it feeds its people, what systems govern it) they’re not just learning about civilizations. They’re thinking like a historian, geographer, and economist all at once.

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Easy to Use Remembrance Day Assembly Ideas

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This post is full of ideas for an elementary school Remembrance Day assembly.

Every school across Canada has held a Remembrance Day assembly since the end of the Second World War. In fact, it is written into the School Act in Alberta as a requirement. Schools must have a Remembrance Day assembly on the day closest to November 11. We’ve got some Remembrance Day assembly ideas for you.

We’ve been thinking how we’ll honour our soldiers at school. If you are planning a Remembrance Day assembly, we might have a few ideas for you.

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How to Use Brain Ninjas Resources Like a Pro

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Let us help you use Brain Ninjas resources efficiently and easily. These tips will help you get and stay organized so you can teach like a ninja.

Teachers managing multiple print and digital resources often struggle with organization and version control. Here are five proven strategies to use your resources efficiently and keep them up to date. We’ll cover choosing the right lessons for your classroom to staying organized and accessing updates.

We recently received an email from a ninja asking about ways to use one of our most common resources. It was then that we discovered lots of our ninjas weren’t using it the way we were in our classroom. It didn’t occur to us that teachers would use it another way. Sometimes this can be a good thing where we learn new ways to adapt our resources to other classroom. Sometimes we can hear the frustration about how a resource didn’t work.

So, we decided to write a whole post that can help teachers use our resources as effectively as possible.

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How to Celebrate Asian Heritage Month in Canada

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How will you be acknowledging Asian Heritage Month in Canada? We pulled together resources that you can use in your upper elementary classroom to learn about the contributions of Asian-Canadians throughout history. Come read the whole post.

Every year in May we celebrate Asian Heritage Month. It started in the United States as Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month in the 1990s but eventually, it made its way to Canada. We recognize the history and value of Asian Canadians across the country. Asian Canadians strengthen Canadian society, whether they have been here for years or have newly arrived.

Explore Asian Heritage Month in Canada with us.

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How to Learn French With French Canadian Celebrations

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You can excite your elementary students to learn French by teaching them all about French Canadian celebrations. We put together lessons and activities that can help inspire your students about French culture while you teach the basics of the French language. These lessons are designed for teachers who are not native speakers so come learn more.

Every year, Francophone communities across Canada celebrate their traditions and culture. People from around the world celebrate these events, too. There’s no better way to teach French as a Second Language than to connect to French Canadian celebrations and cultural events.

A large part of teaching French as a Second Language (FSL) is connecting students to the culture. Maybe even the most important part! This is an opportunity to learn about the culture of just over 20% of Canadians. That’s one in five Canadians who identify as French Canadians!

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How to Make Valentine’s Day Love Trees

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Create these adorable watercolour love trees for Valentine's Day, World Kindness Day, Earth Day or Pink Shirt Day. They make a great bulletin board and our post features step by step instructions for your elementary classroom. Come read the whole post.

Do you need a Valentine’s Day art project or activity that you can use to teach students about colour while making something special? Do you dread having to find something to do for Valentine’s Day? Are you a Valentine’s Day fool? Or Scrooge? It sounds like you need to learn how to make Valentine’s Day love trees!

There are several variations to make this Valentine’s Day-themed project listed below, but basically, it’s a tree with heart-shaped leaves. Sounds great, right? Who doesn’t need a heart-shaped leaf? So cute and easy to make! They are perfect for World Kindness Day or Pink Shirt Day too!

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Give Your Reading Instruction an Easy Twist

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Do your students need a fun way to share what they are reading in class? This is a great twist on literature circles and book clubs that your students will enjoy. Come read the whole post and get some ideas for your upper elementary or middle school language arts lessons.

For years we’ve done Literature Circles and tried lots of variations, but this one worked really well with our students. The problem with Literature Circles is that some students just don’t like the different activities. This version allows students to have some independence while still having accountability (and something to show for the time). If you are looking for an activity to spice up your reading instruction, look no further than Twisted Literature Circles in our TpT Store (USD) or BN Shop ($CAN).

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How to Teach the Scientific Method in Your Elementary Classroom

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Teach your elementary aged scientists the scientific method while teaching safety and procedures during experiments. Come get this free scientific method lesson.

The scientific method has been around for thousands of years and if you went to school, you learned about it, too. The method helps keep experiments and investigations fair so they can be repeated and results can be verified. All scientists use this method which helps verify results.

When you are teaching science, it is important that students understand the method-even if they cannot remember all the names of the steps. It more important that students get to work hands-on and focus on curiosity than following and writing out a set of steps.

Come learn how we teach students about the scientific method in our science class.

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Sweet and Simple Two-Colour Watercolour Candy Cane Paintings

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Candy canes painted by children.

We love to teach students new simple techniques for painting with watercolour. We created this Christmas art project that only uses two colours as a way to practice a technique where students remove paint from their page. This watercolour candy cane painting teaches students techniques like adding light and shadows.

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Five Easy Christmas Tree Projects for Leftover Bits and Pieces

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An easy Christmas tree art project made with rolled up leftover Christmas wrapping paper.
Rolled Christmas Wrapping Paper

If you’re like us (and most teachers), you likely have lots of bits and pieces left over from previous projects. We often have to buy a class set of things and always have one or two left over. The good news is that we have some projects that can use some of that up and still create awesome Christmas tree projects for your art class. Have your students gift them to their families. Come check out these Christmas tree projects.

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