Ninja Notes

Let us help you teach like a ninja!

task cards

How to Add Some Meat to Your Idioms Lessons

by

Idioms can be challenging for students, so we brainstormed different ways to learn and practice the meaning of different idioms in the classroom. Come have a read.

Idioms are a complicated thing for many English Language Learners. In fact, many students struggle with them in their day-to-day life. Every language has its own idioms: phrases that say one thing literally but mean another thing figuratively.

Learning idioms helps students understand the cultural context and conversational skills. Many idioms come naturally to native English speakers, making them challenging for English Language Learners. Students with learning challenges like Autism or cognitive issues can find figurative language misleading and frustrating. In our experience, many native English speakers don’t always know the meanings of the idioms either, so they are great for all your students to learn.

What are some different ways you can help your students learn idioms?

[Read more…] about How to Add Some Meat to Your Idioms Lessons

How to Teach Successful Long Division Strategies

by

Do your upper elementary students struggle with long division? We've collected all our best tools for helping students master long division and you can have them all. Come read this post and see how we can help your students feel better about math.

Long division has long been one of the most challenging concepts for students in Grade 4 and Grade 5 to master. There are a few reasons students struggle with long division, so we’ve tried to break down some of the ways we set our students up for success.

[Read more…] about How to Teach Successful Long Division Strategies

Saved by the Bell Ringers in Upper Elementary

by

It can be difficult to use every momemt of your instructional time, but bell ringers might be the key in upper elementary. We use them in every subject area to make transitions smoother, keep behaviour on track and to ignite the learning for our students. Come read about how we use bell ringers in our classroom.

Your class trickles in as you watch the time tick away and the punctual crowd starts to get restless. A student hands in work, another tells you all about the taco salad they had for lunch, while two others argue over which of two seemingly identical chairs is theirs. Does this sound familiar to you? It sounds like bell ringers might be the solution!

Bell Ringers Can Take Back That Wasted Time

Silent reading is a great way to start the day or for use during transitions. But maybe you want to shake things up? Or you want to make every minute of the day count. Bell ringers help to get things rolling from bell to bell. Read on to find out how we use them in our classroom and all the different types of bell ringers that can work.

[Read more…] about Saved by the Bell Ringers in Upper Elementary

How to Help Your Students Master Decimal Operations

by

We find that many students struggle with decimal operations because their understanding of decimal number sense has a few holes in it. Come learn some of the ways we support our grade four and grade five students before, during and after learning to add and subtract decimals. And come grab a free set of decimals place value task cards to get you started.

Some students have difficulty working with decimals. Others misunderstand how place value helps when working with decimals operations. And other students struggle with number operations in general. Read on to find out the ways we support the different math learners in our classroom before working with decimal operations.

[Read more…] about How to Help Your Students Master Decimal Operations

Mastering the Angles: Innovative Approaches to Teaching Geometry Concepts

by

Are you looking for ways to teach geometry concepts in your upper elementary classroom? This is one of our favourite units. We teach 2D shapes, 3D objects and transformations with interactive math notebooks, task cards, Boom Cards and a huge project where we build an arcade. It's so much fun! Come see how we do this in our math class.

When we start talking about quadrilaterals, trapezoids, and parallel lines, many students get lost quickly. There are so many new and uncommon words introduced in our geometry concepts unit and it is especially difficult for English Language Learners. These are some of the ways we build an understanding of shape and space concepts in our classroom.

[Read more…] about Mastering the Angles: Innovative Approaches to Teaching Geometry Concepts

The Trouble With Task Cards and How to Fix It

by

Do you think task cards are more work than they're worth? Maybe you're using them wrong? Or maybe you're using the wrong ones. Let us help you navigate the challenges and get you more bang for your time!

Do you need some convincing about how you can effectively use task cards in the classroom? Do you like the idea of task cards but don’t have the time to make them? All that printing, laminating and cutting can look like it’s not worth your time. Well, we have some solutions to get the most out of task cards for your students in the least amount of time for you. Keep on reading to find out how we use them and why we think they’re so valuable.

[Read more…] about The Trouble With Task Cards and How to Fix It