Brain Ninjas

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Get Great Anchor Charts Without Making Great Anchor Charts

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Anchor charts are an excellent way to help students reference information as they are learning, but they don't need to be complicated or even pretty. Come learn how we make great anchor charts without any effort.

We make all our anchor charts with our students as we learn each lesson. It helps them connect to the information, and all of the language on the chart comes from the kids, but let’s face it: They are ugly. We’ve admired beautiful anchor charts online, and while we would love to decorate our classroom with those types of works of art, we believe that our students should be part of making them.

Come learn some of the ways we include our students when making anchor charts.

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How to Teach Students to Measure Area

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Teaching your students to calculate area can be a challenge, but we've pulled together great ideas to help introduce, practice, review and assess how students measure area.

The biggest mistake students often make when they measure area is that they aren’t quite sure what they are supposed to be measuring. Generally, the area is the amount of space inside a two-dimensional shape. We try to teach students math using plenty of hands-on activities. Come read about the ways we measure area in our upper elementary math class.

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The Cubic Quest: How to Teach Volume

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Measuring the volume of objects can be tricky for some students, but we put together our best ideas to get you started, help you review and even assess how your students are learning. Come read the whole post today!

Some students struggle with the concept of volume, but we’ve been doing this long enough that we can help. Generally, students mix up volume with capacity or don’t completely understand how to calculate the volume of different shapes. Come learn some of our tried and true activities that we use to help students understand volume.

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Five Amazing Capacity Quests to Enliven Your Classroom

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Teaching students to measure capacity can be a fun and engaging hands-on activity for your upper elementary math class. Come learn about some of the different ways we help our students learn to measure capacity in metric units.

Teaching students how to calculate capacity using metric units is an essential skill in mathematics and in life. If you’ve ever tried to put your leftovers in the wrong container, you know it’s important to be able to use referents and measure containers properly. Finding resources that measure capacity in metric units can also be a challenge for teachers in Canada, but we have you covered. Learning about capacity is more than just using formulas. Come learn some of the ways we teach this measurement concept in our upper elementary classroom.

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Love Math and Explore Perimeter With Your Young Mathematicians

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There are lots of fun ways to explore perimeter measurement in your upper elementary classroom and we've written up a whole post full of our favourite ideas. Come read it today!

When people ask, “When will I ever use this?” perimeter is often an example of a real-world skill that people need. Understanding how to measure it is important for construction, landscaping, sewing, and painting.

Students usually start off understanding perimeter when we measure with non-standard units. But, as soon as we start adding formulas or other measurements, like area, students begin to struggle. Check out the ways we help build a strong foundation for measuring perimeter with our upper elementary students.

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How to Teach Poetry All Year Long

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Instead of teaching poetry in a unit, have you ever considered sprinkling poetry throughout the school year? It's a great way to show students that poetry is all around us. Come learn about some of the ways we include poetry in our language arts lessons throughout the year.

Many teachers add a poetry unit to their Language Arts programming, but what if you teach poetry throughout the school year? It’s not as hard as it sounds and you don’t even have to be a poetry expert.

Poetry is a beautiful and expressive form of literature that allows students to explore language, imagery, and emotions in creative ways. Many students enjoy poetry because it’s short and the rhyming is catchy. Come learn some of the ways we teach poetry throughout the school year.

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How Change the Noise Level in a Chatty Classroom

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What are you doing to contribute to the chattiness of your classroom? Come learn how we control the noise level in our classroom and spoiler alert-the kids still talk.

Do you ever have days where you just want to put in earplugs? Do you smile at the serenity of sitting in your quiet car all the way home? Is your noise level burnt out when you get home and wish for the sound of silence?

As an introvert, I always felt my classrooms growing up catered to noisy kids. I was so lucky that I often got sent to work in the library or other rooms with smaller groups. Some of that was a reward for having my work done, but I know Miss Rodney could see I was drowning in the noisy chaos.

It makes me sensitive to the students who probably feel the same way. Come learn some of the ways I’ve tried to manage the chatter in my upper elementary classrooms over the years.

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How to Chuck the Classroom Management Charts

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If you are still using clip charts or behaviour charts as part of your classroom management plan, it's time to rethink it. Come take a look at these options.

Did you know that it is possible to have good classroom management without the use of charts, rewards, or bribes?

The kids in our classrooms now are not the same as those in our classrooms even ten years ago. Many students struggle with regulation. Most students and families have not dealt with the trauma (yes, it’s trauma) that the global pandemic caused. This trauma trickles into the classroom daily.

We’re not saying you can’t reward your students when they exceed your expectations. The key here is to exceed. Come read about some of the classroom management strategies we use to help maintain the sanity of everyone in our classroom without the use of charts, rewards, or incentives.

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Inspire New Friendships With Classroom Buddies

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Classroom buddies can be much more than reading buddies. We've collected some of our favourite mentoring activities that you can use in your school to make the most of buddy time. Come learn about how you can foster these meaningful relationships.

One of the most rewarding aspects of teaching is fostering positive relationships between students. A powerful way to do this is through cross-age buddy programs. Pairing older students with younger students can create lasting friendships, enhance social-emotional skills, and promote academic growth. Buddy teachers can also become life-long friends. Come learn the benefits and collect these ideas to add to your classroom buddy time.

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Teach Your Students How to Create Line Plots

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Teaching line plots can be challenging, but we've got some tried and true methods to teach dot plots (or line plots) to your students when you are introducing graphing or reviewing. Come take a look.

Most students feel comfortable making a bar graph, but line plots (or dot plots) can be difficult for some students. It is important to understand line plots so you can teach your students to master them. Come learn how we introduce and teach dot plots to our students as part of our graphing and statistics lessons.

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10 Quick Ways to Celebrate World Kindness Day

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World Kindness Day is a way to remind each other to be kind, but we focus on being kind all year in our classroom. Come learn some of the ways we celebrate kindness in our upper elementary and especially for World Kindness Day.

World Kindness Day is observed on November 13th. It’s a great opportunity to promote kindness, empathy, and compassion in your classroom, school, and community. One of the most important lessons about kindness is that it is possible for everyone to be kind. It doesn’t have to cost money or take a lot of time. Here are some of the ways we celebrate World Kindness Day in our school.

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Inspiring Ways to Celebrate the Festival du Voyageur

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If you are looking for ways to celebrate the Festival du voyageur at your school, check out this list of ideas. It's a great way to teach French culture in your French, FSL or Core French classes.

Each year, we organize a Festival du Voyageur for students learning French in our school. Over the years, we’ve learned some tips to make the planning easier because there’s already enough to do in February. Come check out these activities and see which ones the French learners in your school might enjoy.

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