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Poetry and Drama

How to Teach Poetry All Year Long

by BrainNinjasWP

Instead of teaching poetry in a unit, have you ever considered sprinkling poetry throughout the school year? It's a great way to show students that poetry is all around us. Come learn about some of the ways we include poetry in our language arts lessons throughout the year.

Many teachers add a poetry unit to their Language Arts programming, but what if you teach poetry throughout the school year? It’s not as hard as it sounds and you don’t even have to be a poetry expert.

Poetry is a beautiful and expressive form of literature that allows students to explore language, imagery, and emotions in creative ways. Many students enjoy poetry because it’s short and the rhyming is catchy. Come learn some of the ways we teach poetry throughout the school year.

[Read more…] about How to Teach Poetry All Year Long

Filed Under: Teaching Strategies Tagged With: English Language Arts, language, Language Arts, National Poetry Month, Poetry, Poetry and Drama, Professional Learning, Teachers Pay Teachers, Teaching Ideas, Teaching Strategies

Are You Missing Out on the Love of Drama Circles?

by BrainNinjasWP

Are you missing out on the benefits of using drama circles in your upper elementary classroom? Come learn how to use them to help with listening skills, reading abilities and for the fun of it.

Before learning about drama circles, we weren’t sure how we could incorporate drama into our classroom in a meaningful way that didn’t take away from all the work we needed to do. Putting on a play just didn’t seem like a good use of our learning time, but we knew our students enjoyed acting. That is when we considered some of the benefits of drama circles in our upper elementary classroom.

[Read more…] about Are You Missing Out on the Love of Drama Circles?

Filed Under: Teaching Strategies Tagged With: Classroom Community, Confidence, Drama, Drama Circles, Expression, Listening Skills, Poetry and Drama, read aloud, Reading, Reading Activities, reading comprehension, reading strategies, reluctant readers, Teachers Pay Teachers, Teaching Reading

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

How to Add Some Drama to Your Classroom

by BrainNinjasWP

Add some drama to your classroom to bring your lessons to life. Check out these practical ways to spice up lessons with dramatic flair for your students. Add some drama to your upper elementary classroom with these activities and lessons.

A strange thing happened this year. Our students were so dramatic-and by that we mean we started using drama in the classroom as a way to help teach, review and reinforce our learning in every subject area. The kids loved it-even the shy and quiet ones.

[Read more…] about How to Add Some Drama to Your Classroom

Filed Under: Engaging Lessons, Teaching Strategies Tagged With: Drama, Drama Circles, Lesson Plans, Poetry and Drama, Teachers Pay Teachers

How to Celebrate Poem in Your Pocket Day

by BrainNinjasWP

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!

[Read more…] about How to Celebrate Poem in Your Pocket Day

Filed Under: Engaging Lessons Tagged With: Drama, ELA, Holidays, Holidays and Seasonal, Lesson Plans, National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, Poetry, Poetry and Drama, Reading, Writing

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