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Engaging Lessons

Unravel the Magic of Fractured Fairy Tale Activities!

by BrainNinjasWP

How are you using fairy tales in the classroom? One of our favourite ways is to use fractured fairy tales to help students write their own stores. There are already so many great examples out there. Come read through this list of ideas you can use right away in your upper elementary classroom. Add some magic to your language arts lessons.

Once upon a time, there was a teacher who discovered her students didn’t know the story of Little Red Riding Hood. Yes! It’s a true story. It is not a fairy tale. With each year, it is surprising that fewer and fewer students know the traditional fairy tales. It seems that reading classic stories before entering school has become less and less common at home. With the huge selection of stories, teachers just don’t have time to read them all.

Even in upper elementary, one of our favourite units is fairy tales. We start our fairy tale unit by reading some of the old classics. If you have older students who are a little twisty, you can even share the darker versions. We talk about why fairy tales were used by parents and how the stories have changed over time. Come learn about how we use fairy tales in our upper elementary classroom.

[Read more…] about Unravel the Magic of Fractured Fairy Tale Activities!

Filed Under: Engaging Lessons Tagged With: Drama Circles, English Language Arts, Fairy Tales, Fractured Fairy Tales, language, Language Arts, Lesson Plans, Teachers Pay Teachers

Rich Financial Literacy Lessons to Save For Your Students

by BrainNinjasWP

Financial literacy is so much more than counting money, but things change regularly so it can be difficult to keep up. We put together all the information teachers need to add these lessons to their upper elementary classroom. Talk about saving, investing, budgeting and so much more with these activities and all the the background information needed for teachers.

Gone are the days when parents would teach their kids how to use their money. In fact, many adults don’t know how to use their own money. According to a recent poll in Canada, seven of ten adults consider themselves financially literate. However, nearly 65% of Canadians admit to being in debt or living from one paycheck to another. So, what does it really mean to be financially literate, and what does this have to do with elementary education?

[Read more…] about Rich Financial Literacy Lessons to Save For Your Students

Filed Under: Engaging Lessons Tagged With: Budgeting, Canadian Money, Financial Literacy, Health, Investing, Lesson Plans, Money, Professional Learning, Saving, Teachers Pay Teachers, Wellness

5 Amazing Canadian Women Your Students Should Know About

by BrainNinjasWP

You don't have to wait for Women's History Month to learn about amazing Canadian women. There are so many creative, intelligent and trailblazing women in the world. I think many people don't realize how many fascinating women we have in our own country. Come learn about these women that you can add to your lessons any time of year.

You don’t have to wait for Women’s History Month to learn about amazing Canadian women. There are so many creative, intelligent and trailblazing women in the world. I think many people don’t realize how many fascinating women we have in our own country. Come learn about these women that you can add to your lessons any time of year.

[Read more…] about 5 Amazing Canadian Women Your Students Should Know About

Filed Under: Engaging Lessons Tagged With: Canadian History, Canadian Trailblazers, Historic Women, Indigenous People in Canada, Teachers Pay Teachers, Women's History

How to Have Snow Much Fun With These Snow Activities

by BrainNinjasWP

Have snow much fun with all these winter themed snow activities for your upper elementary classroom. There are snow activities for writing, reading, art and classroom community building. Come check out the big list of winter themed activities.

When you live in a winter climate like northern Canada, the opportunities to do activities related to snow are endless. We try to build weather-related snow activities into our classes wherever possible. We teach in upper elementary, but we’ve used some of these activities with our younger buddies and some we’ve challenged ourselves. Come check out these snow activities that will keep you busy all winter.

[Read more…] about How to Have Snow Much Fun With These Snow Activities

Filed Under: Engaging Lessons Tagged With: Art, Art Lessons, Classroom Community, Collaborative Posters, Holidays and Seasonal, Logic Puzzles, Teachers Pay Teachers, Winter, Winter Activities, Winter Art, Winter Art Projects, Winter Books, Winter Classroom Activities, Winter Language Arts, Winter Logic Puzzles, Winter Math, Winter Puzzles, Writing, Writing Prompts

How to Demystify Math With These 7 Algebra Activities

by BrainNinjasWP

If you are avoiding algebra activities in your math class, we're here to help. We have several lessons and activities that can take the mystery out of your introductory algebra lessons and get you feelling confident about teaching it. We've got activities for patterns and algebra that you can use with any resources! Come have a read today!

When we hear that we have to do algebra activities, the fear is real. Algebra is this haunting reminder of high school. When I was becoming a teacher, I didn’t want my negative experiences with math to influence how I taught it or, more importantly, how my students learned it.

In university, I was put in a “special” math class designed for education students who needed to refine their math skills. Truthfully, it was for us creatives who didn’t take enough math during high school and university. At first, I was scared of the class, but as the class progressed, I realized how lucky I was to be there. Not only did I get over my fear of math, I learned how to break down math concepts in so many different ways that I could teach it to any student. Come learn some of the ways to break down introductory algebra with these algebra activities.

[Read more…] about How to Demystify Math With These 7 Algebra Activities

Filed Under: Engaging Lessons, Teaching Strategies Tagged With: Algebra, First Year Teachers, first-year teachers, interactive math notebooks, Math, math error analysis, math errors, Math Lessons, math manipulatives, Math Worksheets, Mathematics, new service teacher, new teacher, new teachers, Pattern Lessons, Patterns

Create These 5 Fantastic Devices That Move

by BrainNinjasWP

Are you teaching a unit about simple machines or things that move? Use these tried and tested recipes to help get you started with student friendly instructions for devices that your students can build and test as part of their science units or makerspace. Come have a read!

One of the best sciences units includes making devices that move. One of the best things about teaching science is having students create amazing things when they are just left with their knowledge and their creativity. We love to foster this type of learning in our classroom.

If you teach simple machines, then there are so many different opportunities to have students create and build exciting contraptions. We pulled together a list of ideas and a few of our favourite recipes for devices that move to make your search quick and painless.

[Read more…] about Create These 5 Fantastic Devices That Move

Filed Under: Engaging Lessons Tagged With: Alberta science, Design Process, devices that move, Makers, Makerspace, Makerspaces, science, Science Lessons, Simple Machines

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