Brain Ninjas

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Classroom Management

Silly Classroom Games to Break Up the Day

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Come learn these simple and silly classroom games for your grade 3-6 classroom.

Teaching is stressful. It can be exhausting for everyone in the classroom. Sometimes you just need to break the tension with a silly game.

We use silly games strategically. They are not just randomly thrown into the day. The games we’ve included are very simple and can be modified for any of your needs. Read about the different silly classroom games we use in our classroom and how we use them to help strengthen our students mentally and physically.

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30 Free Ways to Reward Students

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If you are looking for some free classroom rewards that you can use for extrinsic motiviation, this is the list for you. Come check out these classroom rewards that you can use without it costing any money.

While not all students are motivated by rewards, many are. But, either way, rewarding students shouldn’t cost you a fortune. In fact, we’ve found that students will often perform better and feel more rewarded with simple and free rewards. Are you looking for ways to reward your students without breaking the bank? Here are 30 free ideas to motivate and reward your students.

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Are You Still Wasting Time With Brain Breaks?

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Are brain breaks taking up too much time in your lessons and interrupting learning? You're probably using them incorrectly. Come read this post to help put the best practices for brain breaks into your classroom.

Do you find that brain breaks are disrupting your learning and working time? Do students seem more stimulated after a brain break? Is it difficult to get them calmed back down? Maybe you’ve been using brain breaks wrong? Stop wasting your learning time with brain breaks by managing them differently.

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13 Ways to Deal With Behaviours Without Taking Away Recess

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Stop taking away recess from your students who need it the most. There are better ways to deal with behaviours and help students learn to behave postively without getting into the vicious cycle. Come read the whole post the help you deal with classroom management and save you time in the long run.

Fortunately, we have worked at schools with administrations who also don’t believe in taking away recess from students who act out in class. Sometimes, it feels like our hands are tied when it comes to dealing with student behaviour, but we have a few strategies that go beyond “building a relationship” to help get you through it. Come read our ideas so you don’t have to take away recess.

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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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5 Field Trip Problems and How to Prevent Them

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Field trips can be a great way to enhance student learning and for many students it is their only chance to see and do things in the community. While they are so valuable, field trips can come with some challenges when it comes to getting volunteers to help with the supervision. Come read about five common problems on field trips and how to deal with them proactively.

Field trips can be so much fun when they run smoothly. However, there can also be those field trips where you want to pull your hair out or vow never to do it again. We’ve gone on hundreds of field trips over our careers. Some of these trips are cherished memories of special classes. Others are permanent scars and trauma (ok, that might be pushing it). Come learn from our mistakes so you can avoid these field trip problems.

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5 Games We Love More Than Dodgeball

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Here is a whole bunch of games that aren't dodgeball. Come read the whole post.

As a student, I hated dodgeball with a passion. I wore glasses and could barely see without them, but I wasn’t allowed to wear them in case they were broken. So, there I would be, blind as a bat, wandering around, trying not to get pelted by those giant red rubber balls that always left a mark. I saw a pattern immediately. The few top athletes (usually the biggest boys) knocked everyone out, usually hurting them in the process and then continued playing amongst themselves while the rest of us sat bored on the sidelines licking our wounds.

I vowed, as a teacher, I would never let any of my students experience that. This means there is no dodgeball in any of my gym classes. These are some of the games we love to play instead.

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15 Ways to Use Sticky Notes in the Classroom

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Are you looking for ways to use sticky notes in your classroom? We put together a list of some of the ways we use sticky notes because we love to use them. They are so easy to use, kids love them and there are endless possibilities. Come read!

Sticky notes are a versatile tool that can be used in a variety of ways to enhance classroom learning. It’s no secret that most teachers love sticky notes because they come in a variety of styles, sizes and colours. There are so many different ways to use them whether they have lines or are blank. We’ve collected our favourite ways to use sticky notes in the classroom and felt we had to share them with you.

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How to Thrive During Your Student Teaching

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Are you ready for your student teaching placement? Come read through some of our best advice to help get you started on the right foot. There are even some free resources to get you started.

Of course, you want to be a great teacher, so congratulations on getting the chance to be a teacher! Your student teaching experience is usually the first chance you’ll get to take control of the classroom. Many factors can come into play and you might have lots of “when I have my own classroom” moments, but use this time as a chance to learn and ask questions.

We’ve been lucky enough to have amazing supervising teachers when we began our careers and it was important to us to take on student teachers when we were ready for it. Passing on our knowledge is important. This is all the advice we have given to our student teachers over the years and we hope it can help you, too.

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9 Quick Games to Teach Your Students

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Quick games are a great way to help your students transition, build relationships, foster teamwork and give your students a brain break between instruction and working. We've pulled together some of our favourites. Come read the whole post.

The pressure is always on teachers to move through the curriculum and to use their learning time as wisely as possible. We agree. There are already enough interruptions to learning these days that you don’t need to create more distractions. So, why would we encourage you to place games with your students? Quick games are one way we build relationships, teach students to follow directions, teach our classroom management expectations and foster teamwork between classmates. Come read some of our favourite quick games you can use in your upper elementary classroom or with your fellow teachers.

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Quiet Classroom Games You’ll Love

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Here are quiet classroom games that will be fun for your students but won't give you a headache.

Every once in a while, you need a few minutes to regroup, handle a student issue, clean up a disaster, or smooth out a transition. There will be moments in your teaching day where the lessons don’t line up, or you’re waiting on someone else.

Everyone knows silent ball. It’s a quiet game where students toss an object around the room to each other but cannot make any noise while doing it. Our students have loved silent ball over the years, but we like to mix things up with a variety of activities that will keep students engaged.

We’ve collected some of our favourite calm and quiet activities that you can use almost anywhere and almost anytime. Keep this list of quiet classroom games handy (and maybe even learn a few to take with you on that next field trip).

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