Ninja Notes

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Engaging Lessons

How to Include Different Types of Writing in Your Classroom

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Are you looking for ways to include the different types of writing in your classroom each day? Come see how we do it in our upper elementary classroom.

Over the years we’ve attended hundreds of hours of professional development for teaching students to write. Our school has tried out resources from Ruth Guthrie and the 6+ Traits of Writing, Barbara Mariconda and Empowering Writers and even Lucy Calkins and her Writers’ Workshop model. None of these were perfect. Some students did well with some of the lessons and some students didn’t see a lot of growth in their writing. Some students learned to follow a formula but struggled with being creative. How do you include different types of writing in your daily writing?

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How to Teach Successful Long Division Strategies

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Do your upper elementary students struggle with long division? We've collected all our best tools for helping students master long division and you can have them all. Come read this post and see how we can help your students feel better about math.

Long division has long been one of the most challenging concepts for students in Grade 4 and Grade 5 to master. There are a few reasons students struggle with long division, so we’ve tried to break down some of the ways we set our students up for success.

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Ways to Bring Graphing Activities into Your Classroom Daily

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What are some fo the ways you teaching graphing to your students? We try to include graphing activities throughout all the subject areas. Come read how we make graphing more authentic in and out of math class.

It always surprises me when I hear teachers saying they are starting a math unit on graphing and statistics. Reading a graph or a chart is a skill we use throughout many subject areas. Looking at patterns in statistics comes up in science and social studies all the time. Here are the ways we weave graphing activities into our classroom all year long and throughout the different subject areas.

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Saved by the Bell Ringers in Upper Elementary

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It can be difficult to use every momemt of your instructional time, but bell ringers might be the key in upper elementary. We use them in every subject area to make transitions smoother, keep behaviour on track and to ignite the learning for our students. Come read about how we use bell ringers in our classroom.

Your class trickles in as you watch the time tick away and the punctual crowd starts to get restless. A student hands in work, another tells you all about the taco salad they had for lunch, while two others argue over which of two seemingly identical chairs is theirs. Does this sound familiar to you? It sounds like bell ringers might be the solution!

Bell Ringers Can Take Back That Wasted Time

Silent reading is a great way to start the day or for use during transitions. But maybe you want to shake things up? Or you want to make every minute of the day count. Bell ringers help to get things rolling from bell to bell. Read on to find out how we use them in our classroom and all the different types of bell ringers that can work.

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How to Learn French With French Canadian Celebrations

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One of the best things about learning French is learning all about the different cultural traditions. Come learn about some of the different traditions with lessons you can use in your French as a Second Language class.

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 Add Candy to Your Math Lessons

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Have you thought about using candy in your math lessons? It doesn't have to be candy-any little manipulative will work. Come see how you can weave candy into all of your math lessons with this list of ideas.

Adding candy to any lesson will always engage students, but why not get some math out of it in the process? We have found our students are very motivated by food. For many of them, it is a treat they don’t get often. Just add candy to sweeten up your math lesson.

There are lots of different ways to incorporate candy into your math lessons, so we’ve gathered up a list of ideas. Once you get started, you’ll see the possibilities for yourself.

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