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How to Add Some Meat to Your Idioms Lessons

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Idioms can be challenging for students, so we brainstormed different ways to learn and practice the meaning of different idioms in the classroom. Come have a read.

Idioms are a complicated thing for many English Language Learners. In fact, many students struggle with them in their day-to-day life. Every language has its own idioms: phrases that say one thing literally but mean another thing figuratively.

Learning idioms helps students understand the cultural context and conversational skills. Many idioms come naturally to native English speakers, making them challenging for English Language Learners. Students with learning challenges like Autism or cognitive issues can find figurative language misleading and frustrating. In our experience, many native English speakers don’t always know the meanings of the idioms either, so they are great for all your students to learn.

What are some different ways you can help your students learn idioms?

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Enlightening Resources to Celebrate Diwali in the Classroom

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A picture of a watercolour diya. Are you looking for resources to use to celebrate Diwali in the classroom? We put together a list of resources to learn all about the Festival of Lights including a book list, videos and art projects to celebrate. Come have a read!

Diwali is the Festival of Lights. It is also known as Dipawali and it is the most important festival of the year for the Hindu religion. Other religions like Buddhists also celebrate Diwali. While it was traditionally celebrated by Hindus, now it is more widely celebrated by people around the world including by Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs. Since this celebration is important to many different people around the world, it is very possible you will have students in your classroom who celebrate. To those students, Diwali is as important to them as Christmas is to Christians. Many school districts in Canada have added Diwali to their school calendars. Read on to find resources you can use to celebrate Diwali in the classroom.

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How to Honour National Indigenous Veterans Day

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A coloured poster highlighting details about National Indigenous Veterans Day in Canada on November 8.

Canadians are aware of observations and ceremonies that honour the service of Canadians in the military. Those who served and died in war are remembered on cenotaphs, named in ceremonies and recognized in military records. But Indigenous Veterans Day is unknown to many Canadians. Only in recent years have Canadians started to recognize the service of those who identify as First Nations, Metis and Inuit and their contributions in the Canadian Armed Forces. It is now recognized on November 8 each year. What does your school or community do for National Indigenous Veterans Day?

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15 Free Activities for the First Month of School

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Are you looking for free activities you can use during the first month of school? We gathered up some of our favourite writing, math, reading, art and classroom community activities just for you. Best of all, they're all free! Come check it out!

The first month of school is filled with so many new adventures. There is so much to do regarding setting up classroom routines. We don’t start teaching content until a few weeks into the school year. Up until that time, we see what our students can do. We generally assess reading and writing, and review math. This is a great way to get to know your students so you can plan your lessons for their needs. Here are nine free activities we use for the first month of school.

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7 Fantastic Ways to Create Classroom Community

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Building a caring classroom community doesn't happen by chance. It takes skills to create a classroom community where students take care of each other. Come learn some of the ways to build classroom community in your upper elementary classroom.

Have you ever seen those students that just work together in a classroom like a well-oiled machine? Have you ever dreamt of a classroom community full of harmony where students are on track and work together to learn in the best possible environment? It can happen, but building a caring classroom community doesn’t happen by chance.

We work hard teaching our students how to work together, how to care about each other and how to create a strong community of learners. Come read some of the ways we do this in our classroom.

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How to Use Collaborative Tasks to Create Classroom Community

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Collaborative tasks help students learn to work together toward the classroom community they want to achieve. Read more about how we use collaborative tasks to build classroom community and learn more about the types of tasks we use.

One of the most effective classroom management strategies is the classroom community you build with your students. We start our school year with collaborative tasks to help students get to know each other. These activities help students learn to communicate and build trust. Collaborative tasks help students learn to work together toward the classroom community they want to achieve.

Come learn more about how we use collaborative tasks in our classroom.

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Resources to Learn About Indigenous People in Canada

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It can be tricky finding books and resources that are good for students to use for research about Indigenous People in Canada. Come read about some of the Indigenous resources we use.

It can be tricky finding books and resources that are good for students to use for research about Indigenous People in Canada. Most are not at the right reading level. Often, they are either outdated. Old resources are inaccurate. Many depict stereotypes of Indigenous cultures. More resources written by Indigenous authors are starting to become available. Books are thoroughly checked for historical accuracy. New books highlight current events and issues. We have been collecting some of the Indigenous resources we find most helpful. Come read about some of the Indigenous resources we use.

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Make Wellness Lessons a Priority in Your Classroom

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Wellness skills are life-long skills that benefit everyone. It's important for students to see these skills in action throughout their days if they are going to build them into their entire lives. Come learn how we do that every day.

When the health and wellness curriculum just becomes a list of things to teach, it really misses the mark. If the goal of health and wellness lessons are to teach student life-long ways to take care of themselves, it should be woven throughout their days at school in addition to explicit teaching. We’ve evaluated some of the ways we put our wellness lessons front and centre in our classroom.

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How to Set the Noise Level in Your Classroom

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Is the noise level in your classroom driving you up the wall? When noise gets out of hand, it's time for a reset. Come learn what we discovered and how you can make it work for you.

Do you ever feel your classroom just keeps getting louder and louder until you want to take your ears off? As your students get more comfortable, the noise level can get out of hand. Of course, the activity going on in your room can often impact the noise, but your body language and your tone of voice play a bigger role than you may realize. This is a real experiment we tried on our students.

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How to Leverage the Power of YouTube in Your Classroom

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Are you using YouTube in your upper elementary classroom? Why not? It is full of ready-made resources for everything from science, to math to documentaries. Come take a look at how we make the most of it and you can, too.

As you know, YouTube is a wealth of resources for professional learning, both for fun and for learning how to fix your broken gas dryer (ninjas like to fix their own things, after all). Using YouTube in the classroom with your students is also a powerful tool (assuming you are allowed to)! Schools and districts that block YouTube are living in the wrong century! To us, it would be like banning a library (but that is a whole other issue and worthy of its own post).

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Why You Should Revive Old Playground Games

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Playground games are a great way to build classroom community, burn some energy and have some fun. Come learn some of our favourite playground games and learn why teaching them is important.

Are you looking for something quick, easy and fun to do in the gym or outside at recess? We’ve been searching for games that students can play that don’t require a lot of equipment and or are simple enough that students can play them on their own with adult support. Playground games are the answer!

Students love older playground games that seem new to them. Even something as basic as teaching students a new chant to use while skipping can boost engagement. Read more to learn how we use playground games to build relationships, get in some physical activity and have some fun!

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How to Escalate Your Chemistry Experiments

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Are you looking for some simple and easy chemistry experiments that can be done safely in the classroom with household materials? We've got lots of resources for you. Come read!

Our classroom chemistry unit is one of our favourites to teach because it allows for so many opportunities for students to explore and experiment. Sometimes, we let students explore on their own by posing questions to them. Other times, we demonstrate experiments. Either way, experiments take a bit of work to set up, do, and clean up. Don’t let that stop you. Here are some of our favourite chemistry experiments!

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