Ninja Notes

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Art

How to Create Recycled Paper Ornaments

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Use up all that paper laying around your classroom and make some great ornaments that make great gifts! These make great Christmas or Earth Day crafts.

Here’s a little task you can give to your students to make an environmentally friendly Christmas tree ornament. Using recycled paper products is good for the environment, especially if parents keep the ornaments that are created for generations. It’s especially great if you have lots of extra paper lying around. Rescue it from the recycling bin and use it to make the holidays a little brighter.

This is a great task to put into your makerspace for the month of December, but you can make these any time of year if your paper isn’t seasonal.

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How to Acknowledge Ramadan and Eid With Your Students

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If you are looking to acknowledge Ramadan and Eid with your students, come check out these activities you can use in your upper elementary classroom.

In our classroom, we celebrate everything. This year we learned about Ramadan with some of our Muslim students and celebrated Eid with a few different activities.

We think it’s important for all of our students to feel included. It doesn’t matter which different celebrations, observances or holidays they observe. Students share their customs and traditions with us. We celebrated Lunar New Year, Ukrainian Christmas, World Hijab Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas, and now we’re getting ready for Ramadan and Eid.

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How to Connect Social Studies and Art

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One of the ways to teach social studies is to look at the artwork created by different cultures. Geography also lends itself well to art lessons. Come learn about some of the ways we connect social studies and art in our upper elementary classroom.

In Canada, elementary teachers teach all the subject areas in most schools-except specialties like French or music. This means generalist teachers like us are expected to teach art, even when we aren’t trained artists. Our students have been known to question some of our drawings over the years, so we’ve had to be creative in finding projects we can teach our students that help them learn, but don’t stress us out. We want to share ways to connect social studies and art with all of you.

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How to Make Valentine’s Day Love Trees

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Create beautiful and simple Valentine's Day art project that can be used to make a piece art parents will treasure forever. You probably already have all the materials in your classroom. Come get the instructions and create this work of art in your upper elemetary classroom today.

Do you need a Valentine’s Day art project or activity that you can use to teach students about colour while making something special? Do you dread having to find something to do for Valentine’s Day? Are you a Valentine’s Day fool? Or Scrooge? It sounds like you need to learn how to make Valentine’s Day love trees!

There are several variations to make this Valentine’s Day-themed project listed below, but basically, it’s a tree with heart-shaped leaves. Sounds great, right? Who doesn’t need a heart-shaped leaf? So cute and easy to make! They are perfect for World Kindness Day or Pink Shirt Day too!

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How to Spread Joy With Handmade Community Christmas Cards

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Get your students involved in their community by making and delivering Christmas cards. It's so simple and yet makes such an impact. Find out how in this post complete with different types of cards to make and how to involve your whole school.

For eleven years we have been part of a proud tradition in our community: delivering Christmas cards to all the homes and businesses that make up our school community. We mail them to agencies and businesses involved with our school community. It is so easy, helps build community and teaches our students to do things for others.

Students love making cards. And they don’t need to be just for Christmas. You can apply this strategy to any type of holiday at any time of year.

Here is how you can start the tradition for yourself.

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12 Simple Christmas Tree Art Projects We Love

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These simple and amazing Christmas Tree art projects are great for any class or age. Treat yourself to easy to prep and teach lessons during the busiest time of the year. They make great family gifts, cards or just to make your school beautiful during the Christmas holidays.

If you are an elementary generalist who teaches your own art, it can be challenging finding projects that look great, teach skills and aren’t so complicated YOU can’t figure them out. Don’t worry! We’ve got some great Christmas tree art projects for you. They use regular materials you’ll be able to find in your school and don’t take more than an hour or so to create.

In fact, we think you’ll probably create more than one because they are just so cute!

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