Ninja Notes

Let us help you teach like a ninja!

Holidays

Spring Classroom Activities To Make You Bloom

by

Spring is here and we have collected our favourite spring classroom activities to help you get through spring fever. Come read our list a get some ideas you can use right away.

Spring is a great time in upper elementary classrooms. By this point in the school year, students understand the routines and things tend to start running smoothly. Of course, there is also the spring fever that tends to creep in and make students a little squirrely as the weather changes. Nothing says spring like the smell of damp socks and slushy halls after recess breaks.

We put together some of our favourite spring classroom activities that we use to keep students learning and moving forward. Come see which of these would work in your upper elementary classroom.

[Read more…] about Spring Classroom Activities To Make You Bloom

Free Winter Classroom Activities Worth Scooping Up

by

Are you looking for some simple and free classroom activities to keep your students busy during the long winter months? We collected many winter activities for language arts, math, scrience, art and some just for fun and put them all together in one big post. You can use these activities for instruction or give them to your students during indoor recess on those long winter days. Come take a look!

Depending on where you live, winter can be a very long season. In northern Canada, where we teach, winter can start as early as October. It continues up to the end of March. That means we are always on the lookout for winter classroom activities to use in class. More importantly, we use them during those dreaded indoor recesses when it is just too cold to go outside.

[Read more…] about Free Winter Classroom Activities Worth Scooping Up

Resources to Celebrate Diwali in the Classroom

by

Are you looking for resources to use to celebrate Diwali in the classroom? We put together a list of resources to learn all about the Festival of Lights including a book list, videos and art projects to celebrate. Come have a read!

Diwali is the Festival of Lights. It is also known as Dipawali and it is the most important festival of the year for the Hindi religion. Other religions like Buddists also celebrate Diwali. While it was traditionally celebrated by Hindus, now it is more widely celebrated by people around the world including by Buddists, Jains and Sikhs. Since this celebration is important to many different people around the world, it is very possible you will have students in your classroom who celebrate. To those students, Diwali is as important to them as Christmas is to Christians. Many school districts in Canada have added Diwali to their school calendars. Read on to find resources you can use to celebrate Diwali in the classroom.

[Read more…] about Resources to Celebrate Diwali in the Classroom

How to Honour National Indigenous Veterans Day

by

How will you be observing National Indigenous Veterans Day in your school or community? Come read about some of the ways you can teach your students about the important contributions made and learn about some of the most notable Indigenous veterans from Canada.

Canadians are aware of observations and ceremonies that honour the service of Canadians in the military. Those who served and died in war are remembered on cenotaphs, named in ceremonies and recognized in military records. But Indigenous Veterans Day is unknown to many Canadians. Only in recent years have Canadians started to recognize the service of those who identify as First Nations, Metis and Inuit and their contributions in the Canadian Armed Forces. It is now recognized on November 8 each year. What does your school or community do to National Indigenous Veterans Day?

[Read more…] about How to Honour National Indigenous Veterans Day

9 Easy Valentine’s Day Ideas for Upper Elementary

by

Valentine's Day in upper elementary isn't quite the same as the little kids or the older ones. It's this weird time in a kid's life where they are too old to care about paper cards but also want to be included in getting paper cards. They are just starting to have crushes but the maturity level is all over the place. We've spent a lot of time watching our Valentine's Day ideas flop. Come read some of our students' approved Valentine's Day ideas.

Valentine’s Day in upper elementary isn’t quite the same as the little kids or the older ones. It’s this weird time in a kid’s life when they are too old to care about paper cards but also want to be included in getting paper cards. They are just starting to have crushes but their maturity level is all over the place. We’ve spent a lot of time watching our Valentine’s Day ideas flop. But not anymore!

Over the years, we’ve watched students in our Grade 4 and Grade 5 classes to see how they respond to different activities for Valentine’s Day and we’ve settled on focusing on friendship and kindness. Some of these activities can be done any time of year because they are not specific to Valentine’s Day. These are the best Valentine’s Day ideas that were approved by our students.

[Read more…] about 9 Easy Valentine’s Day Ideas for Upper Elementary

Inexpensive and Easy to Make Mother’s Day Ideas

by

Are you looking for easy to make and inexpensive projects for Mother's Day (or Father's Day or Grandparents Day or basically anyone appreciation day)? As upper elementary teachers, this event usually gets overlooked so we came up with a list of some tried and true gifts we made over the years. Come see if one of them will work for your class this year.

Mother’s Day tends to sneak up on us every year, so this year, we’ve made an effort to show some of the best Mother’s Day ideas we’ve created over the years. It’s funny how we always know when Mother’s Day will be, but it’s in that rush near the end of the school year, so it tends to be something we can do quickly and fairly inexpensively.

While we’ve called this post “mother’s day,” we are very careful to include all types of parent roles throughout the year. It is important to know who is in your classroom and know if there are parents, guardians or even foster parents. Have these conversations early.

So, what types of projects do we do for any parent or guardian appreciation do we create? Read on.

[Read more…] about Inexpensive and Easy to Make Mother’s Day Ideas