Learn how to make both a basic homopolar motor and a tiny dancing motor! Great science fair project for older kids!
Free printable list of calm down tools and toys for older kids and teens
Determination Hope Contemplation True Love Excitement Security Scary Adventure Contentment Curiosity Aspirations Confusion Honor Accomplishment Perseverance Companionship Caring Relating Loneliness…
Really? I Mean, What Kind of Kid Doesn't Want 100 Unicorns? - The absolute funniest family FAILs & WINs that every parent should see once their kids are old enough.
This Is My Life Now
We have been doing lots of indoor growing recently and planted some beans at the same time that we grew our cress letters last month. This is a really easy, visual way to teach children about root systems and is something I used to do with my school children each Spring time. Plus it’s very exciting to...Read More »
Because You Have a Terrible Math Teacher - School Fails
If you are under 55, you simply won’t understand…
Just guess which member said it :)
Summarizing is tricky skill for kids of all ages, but I'm sharing a tip to make summarizing easy for older students. Read this post to get the full scoop!
Learn how to make both a basic homopolar motor and a tiny dancing motor! Great science fair project for older kids!
Can you tell we are tackling Beowulf next week? I am amazed at the number of quality resources available for free! This list includes research pages, writing assignments, history lessons, and literature guides. Updated 08/12/22 Beowulf Resources Beowulf: Still a Hero An Introduction to Beowulf The Beauty of Anglo-Saxon Poetry: A Prelude to Beowulf [...]
A fun and simple musical theory and rhythm game to teach the difference between finding the beat and the rhythm of a song to kids.
Hello, everybody! And happy summer! In this post, I am going to show you how to teach some basic critical thinking skills to young ch...
Build a simple device that propels paper airplanes really far! My kids love anything that can launch or fling items, and thishomemade paper airplane launcher really fits the bill! It’s easy to build and will take ordinary paper airplanes to a whole new level. Very fun for a stuck-indoors sort of day, and building and […]
Weddings are amazing! It really is going to be the best day of your life, but when you start planning your wedding it can all seem pretty daunting! Where
UPDATE: I am unable to share any of my 7 Habits resources. I have left this page up for inspirational purposes (hehe) only. Best of luck to all of you on the Leader in Me Journey! My school will be using the 7 Habits this year. If you haven't heard about the 7 Habits/Leader in Me, let me refer you to their website (you'll find all the information there): Leader in Me The 7 Habits are: One way to empower students to get involved in their own learning and set learning goals is to use "Data Notebooks". In these notebooks, students set goals and graph data from assessment scores. These notebooks are described in the book, "The Leader in Me" and most 7 Habits schools use them. One great resource I've found for such notebooks are: Montgomery Schools (lots of links to data notebook downloads) I decided to create a Music Data Notebook for grades 3-5. Due to space and resource constrains, I'm going to print out all pages ahead of time and staple them together. They will be stored in a plastic page protector with the cover-page showing (cover-page has student name, grade, and homeroom teacher). Depending on what their homeroom teacher chooses to do, I will either have them clip the page protector into their class data notebook or keep them in the music room. Let me preface this by saying this is a new thing for me and not something I've tried out before. We'll have to see how it goes. Last year, when my 3rd-5th graders were working on various levels of Recorder Karate, I had a bulletin board (shown empty below) with all student names (separated by class) on it. As students progressed, I colored in each square with a black marker. To get a "black-out", they had to reach the black-belt level. When they did this, I took a picture of them and put their picture on the bulletin board near their class. It was SO motivating for so many of the kiddos that I realized - "I can use data in the music room too". Here are some pages from the Music Data Notebook: Table of Contents Classroom Mission Statement Each class will work together to create a short mission statement (first week of school). In the mission statement we'll incorporate words like "leader" and "work together/synergize". 7 Habits Slips Log The 7 Habits Slips (see below) are incentives given by teachers to students who are exhibiting a specific habit. The students turn these slips into a box in the front of the school. The principal draws names from this box and these students get a special "Leadership Lunch" with her and other staff members on the stage (so other students can see). I intend to give these out to students who have achieved their learning goals, or if they didn't achieve it, can articulate why or why not and set a new goal for next time. Here is the goal sheet. It is pretty broad because, unlike a language class where students can make a goal to spell all 10 spelling words correctly by the test on Friday, the music class is less structured. This year, I will assess older (3-5) students 6 times a semester (three melodic-based assessments and three rhythm-based assessments). These assessments are not always a worksheet, composition, or test, but can use manipulatives (such as popsicle sticks to dictate rhythms) or performances/improvisations (for non-worksheet assignments, I have rubrics upon which the students are graded). Therefore, I asked the students to pick a specific skill to focus on: At the end of the Nine Weeks, will discuss their goals with their group as I go around and chat with them (Step Four). If they reached their goal, they earn a sticker on the sheet. The assessment graphs look like the one below. After an assignment is passed back and graded, the students will color in the number of bars which correspond to their grade. 10 pts is the max for the assignments (either 10 questions or 10 points earned by certain criteria). Then, they set a goal for the next assessment. If you are at a 7 Habits school, what ways do you incorporate it into the music class? More posts to come, I'm sure ;)
These people who had one job, and they failed.
"Map out your classes before the first day."
1. Today is mine and my Chief Culinary Consultant's 1st anniversary! I can't believe that's it's already been a year since we headed to the beach to say "I do." We've packed a lot of fun and
Thousands of Britons live every day in conctant pain as a result of post-polio syndrome. But many, like Mary McCreadie, are misdiagnosed as suffering ME. And once it is confirmed very few doctors know how to treat it
Middle Child Syndrome really exists. Middle children are often mysterious. They are often pulled between the older and younger siblings. No wonder they struggle with identity issues!
When I was a kid, we had jungle gyms. They were on the playground at school, at public parks, at campgrounds ... and I never met a jungle...
The best, or worst of Tumblr, depending how you look at it.
Devils and tritones and nuns! Oh my!
The following is a guest post written by Caroline Starr Rose of Caroline by line and the verse novel May B. What’s the point of historical fiction? Publisher’s Weekly recently ran an interview with Newbery and Newbery-Honor medalist Karen Cushman, one of children’s literature’s most celebrated authors. Here’s what she had to say: “I think …
These activities for Algebra, Geometry, & middle school make great stations or critical thinking puzzles. I created these for easy differentiation, and really loved them. They turned out to be durabl
