Ninja Notes

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Holidays and Seasonal

Your Big List of Must Have Books for Ramadan and Eid

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If you are looking for books about Ramadan and Eid to use in your upper elementary classroom, check out this list put together by our school community.

Reading is a huge part of our classroom, and it’s important to us to make sure the books and characters reflect all aspects of the lives of our students. That includes books about and including different faiths, backgrounds and cultural beliefs.

Ramadan is an important part of our classroom culture, so we searched high and low to find books that our students could use to learn from and reflect on. Here are some of the titles we found and thought you should check out yourself.

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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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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 Host a Maker Walk

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Create an opportunity for your makers to show off their creative sides by hosting a Maker Walk. We' veput together a planning guide to get you started. Come check it out-so easy and fun!

Are your students using your makerspace and now you want to show off their hard work? Host a Maker Walk. Picture a science fair, but so much cooler because it’s filled with the creations your students made in your makerspace!

This can be done with the school’s makerspace or you can just use the creations your students have created from your classroom’s makerspace (like us),

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How to Celebrate Poem in Your Pocket Day

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Are you looking for ways to celebrate a love of poetry with your upper elementary students? Try taking part in Poem in Your Pocket Day as part of National Poetry Month. This can be done any time of year and is a great activity to explore poetry throughout your school. Come read the whole post to get ideas how you can celebrate poetry.

We’re hosting a “Poem in Your Pocket” day as a celebration of completing our poetry unit in Language Arts. It coincides with the National Poem In Your Pocket Day held each year in April. It’s coming up soon! You can join us this year even if you haven’t taught poetry in your classroom yet!

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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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