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Ninja Notes

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Classroom Community

The End of the School Year is Coming!

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The end of the school year is a very busy time. It can be stressful for your students who love the structure and routine. Come check off some things you can get get done at the end of the year to help wrap it up successfully.

You are in the home stretch! It’s nearly the end of the school year! Maybe you’ve had the most difficult year of your career, or maybe it’s been a highlight. Either way, you’ve made a difference in the lives of the children who’ve come through your classroom this year and so it’s time to clean up, pack up and celebrate.

The end of the school year is not always a happy time for your students. For some children, school is a sense of stability they don’t have at home. You know your students.

Celebrating the end of the school year might need to be more focused on celebrating the time you’ve spent together. Be aware of the different feelings of all your students and be sure to talk about how the end of the year is always a mix of emotions. Read on to find out how we finish the year.

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How to Teach Multiple Perspectives in the Classroom

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How do you teach controversial or challenging issues in your classroom? We try to teach students about multiple perspectives so they can learn to proper research and debate issues that are important to them. This is even more important in the age of fake news. Come check out these activities you can do in your upper elementary classroom to teach students to investigate multiple perspectives.

The Canadian news is flooded with discussions about pipelines and where they should or shouldn’t be built. So, how do we address the multiple perspectives of different issues in the classrooms? It’s important to be impartial while presenting all the facts from both sides of the issue.

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How to Prank Your Students

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Are you looking for a fun but harmless prank for April Fool's Day? Pranks are great any time of year and they are a great way to bond with your students. Check out these free and easy to use pranks for your upper elementary classroom.

Do you like a lighthearted and fun prank? Do you have students that enjoy a good laugh? Are you looking for a way to celebrate April Fools’ Day? We were always struggling with ways to prank our students in a fun and caring way, and we’ve come up with a few great ones over the past few years.

If you have the kind of relationship with your students where everyone can enjoy a lighthearted, silly prank, then you’re doing something right. We are very clear with our students about what does or does not make for a good prank.

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How to Create Back to School Power Words

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Try this quick activity that will last all year. We use power words instead of making goals. We talk about growth mindset and words that help us be our best. Then we make a display to share our words. This makes a great back to school activity or works perfect in the New Year. Come take a look!

Do your students write goals? It can be an effective way to have students learn to take responsibility for their behaviour or learning. We tried something new this year. Students chose power words instead of goals.

Back to school is a great time to reflect on past years in school. It’s the right time to think about the positive changes you and your students can make. This will help you all have a wonderful year together.

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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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How to Create a Community Culture in Your Multi-Grade Classroom

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How do you teach a split class or combined grades? Start by combining your students into a culture where they get to know each other and create a classroom community that your students will love.

How do we create a community culture where all students feel they are equal and belong? It turns out we’ve had more combined-grade classes than straight-grade classes since we began teaching, so we can’t imagine teaching any other way. First of all, we call it a combined class rather than a split class. It’s the first thing we do with parents because our combined classes are not like the old ‘split’ classes.

When students come into our classroom on the first day of school, they immediately collect into two different groups-the lower grade and upper grade. They don’t know each other well and like to sit with their friends. We don’t give students a seating plan right away (or sometimes at all) so we can see which relationships form or are already in place, but then we slowly start changing their mindset about the combined class.

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