Are You Looking for Engaging U.S. History Activities?

September 2, 2019September 3, 2019Leave a comment

Does the idea of trying to find time to teach Social Studies give you a pain as you are trying to plan your school schedule? With all the emphasis on the testing of math, science, and reading in my state, it was really hard to find activities that would help my students learn about our country’s history AND engage my students attention. Since social studies and history are not state tested subjects in elementary school in my state, too often I had to leave the subject as an afterthought…a subject to visit AFTER end of grade testing was finished.

Let me help you make U.S. History a part of your reading lessons with a great book AND a variety of engaging activities for both reading and social studies lessons. I found Blood on the River by Elise Carbone! A great novel about the founding of James Town as seen through the eyes of a young boy who is servant to Captain John Smith. My students love this book and I am able to slip social studies lessons into my reading lessons! WALLAH!

Blood on the River allowed me to introduce vocabulary of the times, explore primary sources, compare characters and discussion questions along with meeting historical figures such as John Smith and Pocahontas. All this and more is included in my TpT store product Blood on the River Activities Just clink on the link to check out my Blood on the River products!

If you aren’t able to choose your reading materials, don’t despair! I have a bundle of activities that you can use to add hands-on, rigorous, yet engaging activities to go along with your studies of America from the early explorers to the American Revolution. You can find this fabulous bundle in my TpT store American Social Studies Activities

Check out some really fun activities…my students really like the United States Branches activities. Make history come alive with the I Have, Who Has of the American Revolution!

I hope these activities will help your students develop an interest in the history of our country!!

Fraction Lessons Have You Tearing Out Your Hair?

November 10, 2018November 13, 2018Leave a comment

Trying to make teaching fraction more interesting? Tearing out your hair? It was that frustration that had me looking for a way to give my students information they could understand and more opportunities to practice those skills. The math book just didn’t seem to meet the needs of my students. I was reminded by my mentor that textbooks should be a supplemental tool and not the curriculum.

Let me help you by showing you what I did to make multiplying and dividing fractions less frustrating!

I decided to take the textbook information and put it into kid-friendly words.

I had the kids glue the notes into their journals so the information would be at their fingertips!

And because the dreaded “End of Grade” test looms all year…I decided to create word problems to go along with the note students put into their journals. That would give my students more practice than what was in our math textbook.

I also used the word problems as a review game. I put one word problem on each student’s desk, in no particular order. Students stand behind their chairs and the game begins as each student solves the problem on their desk. As they finish, students put their hands on their shoulders. When everyone has solved the problem on their desk, students move to the next desk. When all the students have moved around the room and are back at their own desk, we go over the answers and students share how they solved the problems.

The word problems can be used in a lot of different ways in your classroom, beyond just a review game! The word problems can be used as bell ringers to get students thinking. You could put the word problems in your math center for independent work.

If you want to check out my word problems, just click on my picture.

Make Earth Day Fun and Meaningful

April 16, 2018April 18, 2018Leave a comment

Two for the Price of One!

With Earth Day right around the corner, those pesky end of the year tests are also beginning to show on the horizon, too. As a public school teacher, I was ALWAYS looking for thematic activities that would also help my students sharpen their tested skills. Sort of a twofer! I think my Earth Day Activities will do both for you!

earth day 1970

Earth Day itself began in 1970 and was the brainchild of U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson. He was very concerned that the Earth’s environment did not seem to be an important political issue and his first Earth Day drew millions of people to his cause. Later that year President Nixon and Congress created the Environmental Protection Agency as a result along with legislation concerning both water and Endangered Species Act.

Earth day today!

In the 48 years since that first Earth Day, there has been a lot more awareness of our need to recycle, reuse, and reduce. I decided to combine facts about cleaning our environment with my students need to practice their math skills. As a result, I created 24 word problems that will help my students learn how recycling can help improve our environment AND work on their problem solving skills at the same time! I love being able to combine two school subjects; in this case, science and math within a single lesson!!

I also added a fun activity using Earth Day vocabulary. My kids love, love word searches and so my Earth Day Activities also include a word search AND a writing activity! I also included answer keys for both the 24 math problems and the word search. Take a look and let me make your Earth Day lesson a snap!

What are you doing for Earth Day? Share your ideas with me!

Kick worksheets to the curb and engage your students!

March 11, 2018Leave a comment

Mid Year slump

Check this scenario…It’s March and you’re lesson planning for next week. Suddenly, you look at what you’ve written! It’s the same as what you have written for this week…Intro, teach lesson, practice worksheet, assign homework, moving on! Where did the beginning of the school year eagerness and fun activities go? I know, I know….those activities got lost in the day to day paperwork, school meetings, pacing guides, benchmark testing…and on and on! I know because I’ve been there many, many times! You’re draggin’ and so are your lessons!

What to do?

I decided to look back at my beginning of the year lesson and WALAA! It was right there in front of me…activities that I used before the day to day of school dragged me down! I want to share some ideas with you and I hope you’ll do the same for me, as I am always lookin’ to add to my own bag of “tricks”!

here we go!!!

#1 Dictionary Dash!!! I teach reading using novels and one of my favorite is Blood on the River. It’s a historical fiction novel about the founding of Jamestown. The vocabulary in the novel can be a challenge, but the idea of making students sitting at their desks, looking up definitions of unknown words and writing them in their journal gave me chills!!

Dictionary Dash to the rescue…My students, the year I created it, were VERY competitive and this was right up their alley. I let my kids partner with a friend and gave each pair a dictionary. On my white board I created a chart: Word Part of Speech Definition

I wrote the vocabulary word in the “Word” column and then I said, “Go!” The first group that located the word got the privilege of writing the part of speech and definition on the board. When all the words were defined and written on the board, the students then copied down the vocabulary words into their journals. My students BEG to play this game once I have them play it.

While I have used it for reading, I have also used this game in Science and Social Studies. Let your imagination be your guide!!

#2 Task Cards!!!!

Love, love, love task cards! The cards lend themselves to SOOOO many uses and really energize my students. I print them out on card stock, laminate, and they are ready!!

A. Pass A Problem I put one or two cards on each student’s desk. I have my students record the number on the task card on their answer sheet and then solve the problems. They record their answers and put their hands on their shoulders. This lets me know and once students have recorded their answers, they move to the next desk and start the process of recording and solving the task card problem. The students move clockwise around the room solving problems at each desk. When the students arrive back at their desk, the game is over and now the class checks their answers.

B. Station/center lesson They can be differentiated to meet the needs of all your students very easily. Print the cards on different colored paper and WALAA! Stations/center planning done! Here are a couple of examples I use with my class. Click on them to check out some of my task cards or the Upper Elementary Measurement Activities task cards located in my TpT store.

2c. Small guided group lessons Task cards fit really well into small group lessons. They allowed me to really differentiate my tasks without spending a lot of time looking for the exact activity. Task cards made it a snap! to meet the needs of all the levels of my students and reinforce what had been taught or reviewed in the whole group lesson.

3. Whiteboard Jeopardy!!! My first year at a new school left me without a SMARTboard so I created a paper and pencil version of Jeopardy. I created a grid with letter columns across the whiteboard and numbers down the whiteboard. Within each box of the grid, I placed an index card with such messages as “100 pts.” or “Lose 25 pts.” and placed them face down on the white board with magnets. The students were placed on two teams and each team was given a question to answer. If correct, the students then chose a card using the grid addresses. The message was read and points added or subtracted. Teams also could win extra turns. The game is only limited by the creator’s imagination. I like to use this one for review.

I hope some of my ideas have generated some more ideas for you! Please share what you do to overcome the mid year slump that seems to grab us every year!!!

Thanks!