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Engaging Lessons

How to Teach Students to Self-Assess

by BrainNinjasWP

Do your students need to learn how to reflect on their work accurately? Do they miss big parts of a task or need your help to figure out what is left to do? Come teach your students how to self-assess so you can free up your time with this great lesson and free bulletin board set.

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.

[Read more…] about How to Teach Students to Self-Assess

Filed Under: Engaging Lessons, Teaching Strategies Tagged With: assessment, our tpt products, self-assessment, self-evaluation, self-reflection

10 Engaging Weather Lessons All in One Place

by BrainNinjasWP

Are you looking for weather experiments and lessons that you can use in your upper elementary classroom without much prep? We've got you covered with lots of ideas, resources and lesson plans already planned for you. Come take a look!

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.

[Read more…] about 10 Engaging Weather Lessons All in One Place

Filed Under: Engaging Lessons Tagged With: air pressure, climate change, climate versus weather, clouds, fabric and clothing testing, Makerspace, our tpt products, precipitation, seasonal changes, Teachers Pay Teachers, weather, weather experiments, weather experiments for kids, weather forecasting, weather instruments, weather lessons, weather patterns, weather unit, weather vocabulary, wind direction, wind speed, windspeed and direction

Ways to Teach Drama in the Classroom

by BrainNinjasWP

Drama has many uses in the classroom. It promotes reading, fluency, expression and can help with confidence and public speaking. Come learn some of the ways you can use drama in your classroom.

Students love role-playing and dramatic play, but many find the pressure of a performance overwhelming. Add some drama to your classroom by using drama circles, role-playing and storytelling in a low-risk environment.

Read on to find out all the reasons you should add some drama to your classroom and ways you can add a little bit every day.

[Read more…] about Ways to Teach Drama in the Classroom

Filed Under: Classroom Tips, Engaging Lessons Tagged With: Canadian History, Drama, Drama Circles, Historic Women, Indigenous Cultures, Seven Teachings, Social Studies, The Famous Five

Disguise Research Skills as a Scavenger Hunt

by BrainNinjasWP

Give your students meaningful practice doing research by completing scavenger hunts. They're fun and serve a purpose. Come find out how we use them in our classroom.

Sometimes students don’t understand how time is of the essence when doing research. They lack the research skills to use text features, skim materials, and find items quickly. Not only does this slow down their work, it often results in incomplete research and general frustration.

It is a struggle year after year.

However, we have managed to find some activities that help students refine their research skills: scavenger hunts. It turns out that making research fun and game-like can have a positive impact on how students complete research.

[Read more…] about Disguise Research Skills as a Scavenger Hunt

Filed Under: Engaging Lessons, Teaching Strategies Tagged With: Digital Citizenship, Digital Safety, ELA, English Language Arts, Geography, research, research skills, scavenger hunts, Social Studies, Teachers Pay Teachers, TpT Products

How to Create Wooden Ornaments for Christmas

by BrainNinjasWP

Create these adorable wooden Christmas ornaments using recycled game pieces and a little paint. Step by step instructions and design ideas are included

Have you ever seen something in a store and thought, “I can make that for way less money?” Maybe. Or, have you ever thought, “Wouldn’t it just be easier for me to buy it instead of making it?” That’s how we’ve usually felt looking for wooden ornaments for Christmas.

We accidentally made these little Christmas ornaments and they turned out so cute that we knew we had to write about them so others could make their own. This project started completely by accident, but sometimes, the happiest of accidents turn out to be blessings in disguise. So, this is our path to making some wooden ornaments from recycled game pieces, but you can take a few shortcuts with our lesson below.

[Read more…] about How to Create Wooden Ornaments for Christmas

Filed Under: Engaging Lessons Tagged With: Art, Christmas, Christmas activities, Christmas Crafts, Holidays, Holidays and Seasonal, Makerspace, ornaments, recycled materials, Recycling, Seasonal

How to Make Christmas Wreaths With Recycled Materials

by BrainNinjasWP

This simple lesson can be done by anyone using recycled fabric. It makes a great Christmas gift from your students to their parents. Come read through all the instructions and make one for yourself and check out some of our other Christmas crafts.

Here is a great activity your students can do that is both environmentally friendly and makes a wonderful Christmas gift. If you plan on using this as a Christmas gift from your students to their families, you’re going to want to start collecting the materials a few months in advance so that you have enough pieces.

[Read more…] about How to Make Christmas Wreaths With Recycled Materials

Filed Under: Engaging Lessons Tagged With: Art, Christmas, Holidays, Holidays and Seasonal, Makerspace, recycled materials, Recycling, Seasonal, wreaths

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