Ninja Notes

Let us help you teach like a ninja!

Engaging Lessons

Art Projects That Will Last All Year

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If you are an elementary teacher who has to teach their own art lessons, this is the post for you. It comes with a big list of things you need in your elementary classroom along with several free art lessons that don't require special materials. Come take a read to get your art lessons organized for the whole year. Best of all, these are art lessons designed for Canadian students.

Most Canadian elementary teachers teach their own art lessons and most do not have any formal training outside of what they learned while earning their Bachelor of Education. That training can vary from a semester of learning to techniques to an afternoon painting one watercolour painting. Don’t worry, ninjas, we got a collection of art projects that will last all year. No planning needed!

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How to Create Memorable Remembrance Day Art Projects

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This whole post is full of some our favourite and most beuatiful art projects to use for your Remembrance Day bulletin boards. These go way beyond poppies, so come take a look to see which of these creations your students can use to honour the soliders who have given us Canadians our freedoms.

Each year, we spend a good chunk of time creating Remembrance Day art projects to decorate the halls of our school. Our Remembrance Day assembly often invites community members, so we like to have beautiful art to enjoy. There are always a lot of poppies, but we wanted to create some pieces for upper elementary students that took a little more time and care to create and weren’t just poppies.

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Simple Art Projects for Back to School

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Are you looking for some amazing back to school art projects? You can grab the instructions for this one on our site or get the free lesson plan in our Resource Library. Come check out these great art projects perfect for the first day of school.

One of our favourite things to do on the first day of school is a simple art project. We’ve collected some art projects for back to school that we’ve used over the years to help us get to know our new students. Self-portraits and names are great ways to get to know the personalities of your new students. Even more, having conversations while students are working is a fantastic way to get kids talking without realizing they are sharing.

Come check out these art projects for back to school (that can work any time of year)

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How to Teach French as a Second Language

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Have you been asked to teach French as a Second Language to upper elementary students but you have no idea where to start? Do you speak some French, but have never formally taught it? Let us help you out. Our lessons are written by a native Francophone speaker who teaches French as a Second Language. Get some ideas to get you started or use our resources to get you through the year. Come see!

Have you been asked to teach French as a Second Language (FSL) or Core French but have absolutely no experience? Maybe you don’t even speak French fluently? Maybe you took French in High School (15 years ago) and you are considered the most qualified in your school. As crazy as that may sound to some…it happens…all the time!

Whether you’ve been asked to teach FSL for the first time or you’re a seasoned teacher who is looking for new ideas, this post is meant for you. These reading, writing, speaking and listening ideas could apply to the teaching of any second language.

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How to Learn About Wetlands Without A Pond

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Are you trying to teach wetlands in Alberta but there isn't a nearby pond and you can't take a field trip? That's exactly why we wrote this series of lessons, activities and assessments. Come take a look to see if they can help you get your planning done so you can enjoy the activities along with your upper elementary science students.

Teaching students about wetlands can be a real challenge when you don’t have access to a pond or field trips to go to a pond. Each year in Canada, we struggle with winter sneaking well into spring, shortening the time available to teach the unit outdoors. If we try to teach the unit in the fall, we often end up with snow within a few weeks of starting the unit. So how are students supposed to learn about wetlands when they can’t actually get to a wetland?

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Mastering the Angles: Innovative Approaches to Teaching Geometry Concepts

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Are you looking for ways to teach geometry concepts in your upper elementary classroom? This is one of our favourite units. We teach 2D shapes, 3D objects and transformations with interactive math notebooks, task cards, Boom Cards and a huge project where we build an arcade. It's so much fun! Come see how we do this in our math class.

When we start talking about quadrilaterals, trapezoids, and parallel lines, many students get lost quickly. There are so many new and uncommon words introduced in our geometry concepts unit and it is especially difficult for English Language Learners. These are some of the ways we build an understanding of shape and space concepts in our classroom.

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