Ninja Notes

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Holidays

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 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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How to Spread Joy With Handmade Community Christmas Cards

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Get your students involved in their community by making and delivering Christmas cards. It's so simple and yet makes such an impact. Find out how in this post complete with different types of cards to make and how to involve your whole school.

For eleven years we have been part of a proud tradition in our community: delivering Christmas cards to all the homes and businesses that make up our school community. We mail them to agencies and businesses involved with our school community. It is so easy, helps build community and teaches our students to do things for others.

Students love making cards. And they don’t need to be just for Christmas. You can apply this strategy to any type of holiday at any time of year.

Here is how you can start the tradition for yourself.

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Gift Festive Christmas Classroom Activities to Your Students

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Do you need some Christmas classroom activities to keep your students busy during December that are still valuable learning opportunities? Look no further than this list of easy to implement (and barely prep) ideas. Come check out some Christmas math or design a social media account for an elf. These Christmas activities are perfect for your upper elementary classroom.

You know that week in December when you’re constantly called down to the auditorium for concert rehearsals, some of your students are away sick, some have left for vacation early, and you have to keep a classroom full of excited kids busy? Do you need some Christmas classroom activities to solve the problem?

Christmas is fun and all, but it’s so hard to keep kids interested in learning, and it’s a challenging time to introduce new concepts with all those interruptions. What’s a teacher to do?

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How to Make Recycled Can Characters

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Upcycle cans from your house into these adorable can characters. It's great as a Christmas craft or a language arts character study.

Here’s a great reason to eat potato chips (you don’t have to eat them, but it’s a good excuse). Have your students collect Pringles cans or any other metal or cardboard can that has a plastic lid and upcycle them into a great holiday activity. Our students have loved making recycled can characters over the years.

This activity will work with other types of cans that are made of cardboard with a metal base and plastic lid.

We made our cans into snowmen, gingerbread men, penguins, Santas, elves and reindeer as a fun Christmas craft activity that parents will cherish for years to come.

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