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Holidays

Free Winter Classroom Activities Worth Scooping Up

by BrainNinjasWP

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

Filed Under: Engaging Lessons Tagged With: Art, Holidays, Holidays and Seasonal, Math Worksheets, Reading, science, Teachers Pay Teachers, Winter, Writing Prompts

Resources to Celebrate Diwali in the Classroom

by BrainNinjasWP

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

Filed Under: Engaging Lessons Tagged With: Art, Art Lessons, Classroom Community, Collaborative Posters, Diwali, Holidays, Holidays and Seasonal, Teachers Pay Teachers, Writing Prompts

How to Honour National Indigenous Veterans Day

by BrainNinjasWP

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

Filed Under: Engaging Lessons Tagged With: Canadian History, Holidays, Holidays and Seasonal, Indigenous Cultures, Indigenous People of Canada, Indigenous Veterans Day, Remembrance Day, Remembrance Day Art Lessons, Teachers Pay Teachers

9 Easy Valentine’s Day Ideas for Upper Elementary

by BrainNinjasWP

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

Filed Under: Classroom Tips Tagged With: Acts of Kindness, Art, Art Lessons, Be Kind, Holidays, Holidays and Seasonal, Kindness, Kindness Matters, Logic Puzzles, Math, Math Worksheets, Mathematics, Poetry, Poetry and Drama, Valentine's Day, Valentine's Day Ideas, Writing, Writing Activities, Writing Prompts

Inexpensive and Easy to Make Mother’s Day Ideas

by BrainNinjasWP

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

Filed Under: Classroom Tips Tagged With: father's day, gift ideas, grandparent's day, Holidays, Holidays and Seasonal, mother's day

How to Celebrate Asian Heritage Month in Canada

by BrainNinjasWP

How will you be acknowledging Asian Heritage Month in Canada? We pulled together resources that you can use in your upper elementary classroom to learn about the contributions of Asian-Canadians throughout history. Come read the whole post.

Every year in May we celebrate Asian Heritage Month. It started in the United States in the 1990s but eventually, it made its way to Canada. We recognize the history and value of Asian Canadians across the country. Asian Canadians strengthen Canadian society, whether they have been here for years or have newly arrived.

Explore Asian Heritage Month in Canada with us.

[Read more…] about How to Celebrate Asian Heritage Month in Canada

Filed Under: Engaging Lessons Tagged With: Asian Heritage Month, Asian History, Asian-Canadians, Canadian History, cultures, Holidays, Holidays and Seasonal, Teachers Pay Teachers

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