Ninja Notes

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Holidays and Seasonal

How to Celebrate Halloween In the Classroom

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Are you looking for ways to celebrate Halloween in your upper elementary classroom? We gathered up some of our students' favourite activities for you to try. Come take a look!

Halloween is such a special time for many students. In past years, we’ve had parades and assemblies and handed out candy. There was a time when bobbing for apples was a good idea. Now, since the pandemic, the thought of countless students scrambling to bite into an apple floating around in a tub full of mouth germs…ugg.

Our classroom is usually bustling with parent volunteers who help out at different Halloween-themed stations. Still, some years, there might not be as many parent volunteers available as you need, so it’s nice to have easy alternatives in your back pocket.

If your school and students are celebrating Halloween, here are some generally easy ways to have a little fun.

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How to Get Your Classroom Set Up in One Day

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Are you stuck in a time crunch with one day to set up your classroom? Yes, it can be done. Get down to the basics and leave everything else for later. Come read about how we've set up our classroom in one day.

It was the first day we were allowed to reenter the school after a major renovation. It was a disaster. Before the end of the previous year, we packed up everything and carefully labeled it. Nothing was returned to the classrooms. Students would be arriving in ONE day! Yup! You heard that right.

What a nightmare! Fortunately, we worked with the most amazing staff on the planet. We planned out a solution to bring everyone’s anxiety level down to a manageable level. We hosted a walking set-up bus.

What is a walking set-up bus? Keep reading to find out.

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Easy to Use Classroom Activities for Earth Day

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Are you looking for activities to do with your upper elementary class? We pulled together Earth Day themed lessons and activities (but they can be used any time of year) for your upper elementary classroom. Come check out the resources, books, and ideas to use right away.

Every day in our classroom is Earth Day. It’s part of our science lessons to learn about energy conservation, so it’s easy to make sure we talk about the importance of conservation regularly.

One year a fellow teacher thought it would be a great idea to print a little paper globe for each student in our school (that’s several hundred) and write a “thank you to the Earth” type sentence.

I don’t often speak up at meetings, but I couldn’t resist this one. Isn’t it counterproductive to teach students about conservation by wasting all that paper?

Everyone agreed, but NO ONE had any suggestions on what we could do instead. And that’s how we came up with this list of Earth Day activities (and why you should try some of them).

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Quick and Colourful Activities for Holi the Festival of Colours

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Are you looking for upper elementary classroom activities you can use to learn more about the Holi Festival of Colours? We've gathered resources and books that are perfect for your classroom. Come take a look.

Learning about different traditions allows students to explore people and their cultures around the world. And it’s a cheap way to travel! We collected activities for Holi so you can travel with your students.

Holi is an ancient Hindu festival that originates and is widely celebrated in India. Although different regions of India have their own traditions and variations, they all share one thing, it’s so much fun! As people have moved around the world, settling in other countries such as Canada they have brought this celebration with them.

Many non-Hindu people around the world also celebrate Holi. In fact, this tradition has inspired all kinds of different events. It is often used to support all kinds of good causes, like children with chronic or life-threatening conditions and is incorporated into many different types of fundraisers.

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Christmas Books We Love

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Are you looking for Christmas books to share with your students this holiday season? Check out our list of books that will get everyone in the spirit of the holiday season.

There are so many amazing books that use Christmas as a theme that you could read one a day and probably not run out in your lifetime. Christmas picture books make great gifts and they can be read all year round.

Now, we recognize that not all of your students will be celebrating Christmas (and we have lots of book lists for other holidays and celebrations-see the bottom), but for your students that do, we’ve collected a list of our favourite pictures books, graphic novels and novels that bring on the Christmas spirit.

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Uplifting Picture Books for Lunar New Year

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Do you need a list of books to use for Chinese New Year, Korean New Year or Vietnamese New Year? Luna New Year is on its way and we've searched for some great books you can use to learn about these traditions.

Usually, we talk about Chinese New Year. Did you know that many other countries celebrate the New Year at the same time? In Vietnam, it is called Tết. It is called Seollal in South Korea. We find one of the best ways to help our students understand different traditions is to read books about the different Lunar New Year celebrations.

These New Year celebrations are based on the lunar calendar. The lunar calendar is calculated using the movement of the Earth around the Sun and the Moon around the Earth. The lunar new year is usually celebrated sometime in January or February. This time of year is a time when families gather, share food and participate in local traditions.

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