Engaging Lessons

Christmas Art Projects

Get this great Christmas art project for free on our site. Your students can create these adorable #christmasornaments with the pattern and step by step instructions. Check them out! #artlessons

Whether you hate to teach art, love to teach art or you’re somewhere in between, you’ve probably been in a position where you are obligated to provide art work for a Christmas concert or winter concert or other winter event.

While December can be a very busy time, we do love the holidays. Our students are a mix of backgrounds, but the majority celebrate Christmas. In our classroom and school we celebrate every holiday. We’re so inclusive, we literally celebrate every holiday. All students are welcome to participate as much as they like (or not at all). And while we call it a Christmas concert, it’s not always Christmas themed.

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Are You Avoiding Teaching Art?

by BrainNinjasWP 10 Comments

Do you try to avoid teaching art because you can't handle the mess? Check out this list of ways to manage the mess and get some free art lessons in the process. #artlessonsforkids #artlessons

If you are an elementary generalist in Canada, chances are, you teach your own art lessons. That can be challenging if you don’t consider yourself an artist, but here are some tried and true routines we’ve put in place with our classes over the years that have saved our sanity.

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Remembrance Day Art Projects

by BrainNinjasWP 2 Comments

Try one of these five art projects that don't require a ton of time or mess and are perfect for your #remembranceday display or lessons. #remembrancedayart #artlessonsforkids

Special occasions are a great time to bring out your favourite art projects and Remembrance Day is no exception. We teach in a general classroom which means we’re responsible for art lessons all year long. While we like to teach specific skills with different projects, sometimes you have to have art projects around a specific theme for hallway decorating or assemblies.

Remembrance Day is one of those occasions when you don’t have a lot of time for art because you’re just starting to get deep into your lessons and report cards are just around the corner. That’s why we’ve come up with some simple but stunning projects you can do with your students.

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It’s Time to Get Your Emergency Sub Plans Ready

by BrainNinjasWP 2 Comments

Are you prepared for a substitute teacher in the event you have to leave your classroom unexpectedly? Get these tips and some templates to make your planning simpler, faster and FINISHED! #emergencysubplans #substituteteacher #supplyteacher

Writing plans for a substitute teacher is a big pain in the butt. Even more so, when some sort of family emergency comes up and you’re still legally responsible for two days of classes.

It;s strange that these certified teachers who come into our classroom don’t have to plan anything for two full days. At least, that is the rule in the province where we live. Teachers are responsible for leaving two full days of plans for their students regardless of the situation. This must be in the only job in the world where you do just as much work on the days you aren’t there as the days you are.

I once wrote sub plans on my phone from a hospital bed. True story. And as crazy as that was, I learned a valuable lesson from it.

Emergency Sub Plans!

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How to Teach Students to Self-Assess

by BrainNinjasWP Leave a Comment

Teach your students about self-reflection with this lesson.

How often do your students tell you they are all done with their work or assignment and the second you look at it, you notice they’ve missed a huge part of the task? Teaching your students to self-reflect accurately is very challenging because students are usually unrealistic. They are either too hard on themselves or clueless about how little they’ve done.

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10 Engaging Weather Lessons All in One Place

by BrainNinjasWP 1 Comment

Get some engaging weather lessons and experiments for kids!

Are you tired of wasting your valuable time searching high and low for the weather lessons you need for your upper elementary students? There are so many weather activities all over Pinterest, but we find most of the weather lessons are for preschoolers- not exactly what our students need.

We focus on creating materials for teachers who teach the same things to the same age we do. Most of what we create comes from not being able to find what we need. Weather worksheets are just plain boring and not at all aligned with our teaching style, so we’ve created weather experiments and activities that we use in our classroom. We want to help you by putting everything in one place so you don’t have to use all your time collecting lessons from all over the place.

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Engaging Lessons

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