• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Ninja Notes

Let us help you teach like a ninja!

  • Engaging Lessons
  • Teaching Strategies
  • Classroom Tips
  • Free Resources
  • Shop
  • Contact Us
    • Privacy Policy

Classroom Set Up

9 Things To Do During the First Month of School

by BrainNinjasWP

Getting back into the school year is an exciting time, but there is can be so much to do that it can be difficult to prioritize what needs to be done first. Come read through our must-do list during the first month of school in your upper elementary classroom and we'll help you out.

As a student, I never appreciated the first month of school. It always seemed like we didn’t get too deep into the content and spent a lot of time playing games and doing art projects. It wasn’t until I became a teacher that I recognized how much work teachers do during the first month of school. While we created a list with nine of the most important, there really are so many more that could be added.

[Read more…] about 9 Things To Do During the First Month of School

Filed Under: Classroom Tips Tagged With: Back to School, building relationships with students, Classroom Community, Classroom Organization, Classroom Set Up, communicate, communicating, communicating with parents, communication, communication with parents, First Year Teachers, first-year teachers, Holidays and Seasonal, Math Worksheets, new teacher, new teachers, Professional Learning, Teacher Mental Health, Teacher Organization, Teacher Wellness, Teacher Workload, Worksheets

How to Thrive During Your Student Teaching

by BrainNinjasWP

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.

[Read more…] about How to Thrive During Your Student Teaching

Filed Under: Classroom Tips Tagged With: Classroom Community, Classroom Management, Classroom Set Up, First Year Teachers, mentor teacher, Professional Learning, Student Teachers

15 Free Activities for the First Month of School

by BrainNinjasWP

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 new 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.

[Read more…] about 15 Free Activities for the First Month of School

Filed Under: Engaging Lessons Tagged With: Art Lessons, Back to School, Classroom Community, Classroom Set Up, Free Activities, Holidays and Seasonal, Reading, Teachers Pay Teachers, Writing Activities, Writing Prompts

How to Set the Noise Level in Your Classroom

by BrainNinjasWP

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.

[Read more…] about How to Set the Noise Level in Your Classroom

Filed Under: Classroom Tips, Teaching Strategies Tagged With: Classroom Community, Classroom Management, Classroom Management Strategies, Classroom Noise, Classroom Set Up, classroom tips, Listening Skills, Noise, Noise Level, Professional Learning, Student Teachers, Teacher Stories, Teacher Workload

22 Amazing Ways to Use Word Wall Words

by BrainNinjasWP

Are you trying to use a word wall, but are running out of ways to make it worth the time? Come check out this big list of ideas for how to make your word wall interactive and useful for all your students.

What are word wall words?

A word wall is an organized display of a collection of words that are usually left posted on a wall or bulletin board for a long period of time. The words are typically high-frequency words. Posted word wall words can provide a visual reference for students throughout a unit of study, a term, or a year. Teachers and students use these words continuously. 

But are you guilty of hanging up your words and then forgetting about them? Come learn how we make our word wall more interactive.

[Read more…] about 22 Amazing Ways to Use Word Wall Words

Filed Under: Teaching Strategies Tagged With: Classroom Set Up, ELA, ell, English Language Arts, esl, Language Arts, Teachers Pay Teachers, vocabulary, word parts, word study, word wall, word wall words

Art Projects That Will Last All Year

by BrainNinjasWP

If you are an elementary teacher who has to teach their own art lessons, this is the post for you. It comes with a big list of things you need in your elementary classroom along with several free art lessons that don't require special materials. Come take a read to get your art lessons organized for the whole year. Best of all, these are art lessons designed for Canadian students.

Most Canadian elementary teachers teach their own art lessons and most do not have any formal training outside of what they learned while earning their Bachelor of Education. That training can vary from a semester of learning to techniques to an afternoon painting one watercolour painting. Don’t worry, ninjas, we got a collection of art projects that will last all year. No planning needed!

[Read more…] about Art Projects That Will Last All Year

Filed Under: Classroom Tips, Engaging Lessons Tagged With: Art, Art Lessons, artists of canada, Classroom Set Up, Holidays and Seasonal, Indigenous Artists, Indigenous Artists of Canada

Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

Most Recent

  • 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!
    Love Math and Explore Perimeter With Your Young Mathematicians
    When people ask, "When will I...
  • 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.
    How to Teach Poetry All Year Long
    Many teachers add a poetry unit...
  • 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.
    How Change the Noise Level in a Chatty Classroom
    Do you ever have days where...

Before Footer

Looking for something?

Footer

Copyright © 2025 · Wellness Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.AcceptReject Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT