Too many classroom icebreakers require students to take big social risks with people they barely know. Or they don't really help students get to know each other. Or they are just plain cheesy.

You will love these Olympic-themed party ideas, from food to backyard games and lots of kid-friendly crafts! Who else is super excited about the Olympics starting? We cannot wait! Especially since it's now been 3 years since the last Olympic games. As a family, we decided that we're going to have an Olympic-themed party for the opening ceremonies, and my kids are already brainstorming ideas. There are so many fun ideas that we found, we just had to share with you guys. Which one of these ideas is sticking out to you? I want to make them all! This isn't

These all about me, back to school art activities for kids are engaging icebreakers. Encourage creativity and build community during the first week back

With this fun Olympics activities for kids, you can be active participants in the games while practicing skills to prepare for the school year ahead.

Explore the layers of the ocean with this easy but fun activity and learn more about the ocean and its animals! Free printable resources available here!

With the Olympics just days away, children are very excited to learn more about the Olympics both in school and at home. Parents and teachers will love the

to practice vocabulary school - ESL worksheets

We have a lovely school counselor this year who came to visit each of our classrooms and explain a common "Peace Process" for conflict resolution. I loved this for so many reasons and can't wait to share it with you! For one, common language across all grades is invaluable, especially when kids experience conflict at recess, in the lunch room, or even in the hallway when they are away from their classroom teacher and intermixed with other grades. Also, the fact that this process is broken down into such simple and manageable parts gives kids the confidence to go through it themselves, complete with sentence starters and all. I want to share this Peace Process with you in case you are looking for a way to help manage conflict and empower your students to problem-solve with one another. Feel free to download the freebie to share with others in your school, or even send home to parents... this can work with anyone in any situation! Step 1: Breathe The first step is the most important: make sure your body is calm enough to engage in the process of making peace. In the heat of the moment, the "fight or flight" response is in high gear, anger may be driving the show, and there is no way the rest of the process can be successful. By stopping to breathe, everyone can get back into a more calm state. How you breathe is just as important. Start by "smelling a flower" by breathing in through your nose and counting to three slowly. Then, hold for one count, and exhale our your mouth as if you're "blowing out a candle" for four counts. Practice this with your students and see how it changes the feel in the classroom. Some may be silly for the first breath or two, but after practicing for several breaths, the whole tone of the class will be calmer and more subdued. It's a good practice to keep on hand for other times during the day, too! Remind kids to take as many breaths as they need. This process can't be rushed, so even if they need some time alone to compose themselves, that's a-okay. I would still encourage a few common breaths together at the start of the process to be sure there's lots of fresh oxygen in the brain! Step 2: "I" Statements This is the first back-and-forth conversation that takes place. The person who feels harmed begins with a statement about how they felt. The framework of: "I feel ____ because ____" always gives kids a good place to start. During this time, the other person must stay silent and practice listening. This is important, because the second part of this step is to repeat what that person said. When the first person is done with their "I" Statement, the second person repeats what they heard, including all of the important parts, not just generalities. "I heard you say you felt ___ because ___" is a perfect launching point. At the end of their retell, they need to ask if they got it right. Person 1 needs to feel confident enough to say no, if needed, and retell the parts that were left out. This may need to happen a few times, especially at the beginning. The inclusion of "I heard you say..." is also crucial because it reinforces the idea that this is a listening exercise, not just an airing of grievances. Step 3: Repairing the Harm We want to encourage kids repair the harm, and sometimes "sorry" is enough. Other times, they may need an apology and an additional follow-up about what will happen if this occurs again. There may be something that they need or can do for one another, like get an ice pack or take turns with the item in question. There are other alternatives, too, and usually two or three actions are needed to repair the harm that was done. The important part is to make sure they are reasonable, and that both are agreeable to the ideas. Person 1 should feel that the harm is indeed repaired, or on the way to being repaired as best as possible. Step 4: Moving Forward While a physical touch may not always be appropriate, it is often a useful and effective starting point for moving forward. A handshake, high five, or fist bump can be powerful "wrap up" gestures that solidify the discussion and resolutions discussed. The important part, like the rest of the steps, is that both parties agree on the common gesture. Even a thumbs-up or peace sign can work. ... Always be sure to offer your presence and guidance, especially at at the beginning, as kids are working on practicing and internalizing these steps. After a while, you will not need to be as present, although you should always need to be available to help. Some conflicts go beyond the Peace Process and will need additional intervention by you or others to be truly effective and safe. However, I think you will find that this can be an excellent tool for navigating issues throughout the day. * As you introduce this to your classroom, have kids role-play through the Peace Process with common conflicts and/or issues that you have been hearing about. Extend the areas beyond the classroom and onto the playground, bus, neighborhood, and lunchroom. This activity will also get them more familiar with the steps and language in real-life scenarios. * An even more powerful way of incorporating this schoolwide is to have older student be "Peace Aides" and help younger students work through the process. How powerful for all parties involved! If you're interested in the freebie, click HERE to find it in my Teachers Pay Teachers Store. Have you used a process like this at your school? Do you have additional steps or any feedback? Please leave a comment and share your experiences!

Check out these 9 first week of school activities for your students. They help to forge those lasting bonds for a successful year!

Free printable Bible lesson for kids on the book of Psalms. Ideal for home or church use. Coloring pages, worksheets, Bible crafts, games, study guide and much more.

Print our Christmas Nativity religious baby Jesus themed I spy activity to use for a great holiday kids activity at home or at church.

Learn about countries for kids with Around the WOrld Country Coloring Pages! These coloring sheets are easy way to explore 19 countries!

Discover 12 SMART goals templates to improve your success. Easy to use templates to help you set specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely objectives. | SMART Goal Templates | SMART Goal Printables | Smart Goals Examples | Goal Setting Worksheet | Performance Goals | Life Skills | Goal Setting Template

Classroom jobs work great in middle school, too! Learn about the 10 jobs I use in my classroom and the system I use to keep everything running smoothly.

Learn About the 7 Continents! Exploring the 7 Continents has never been more exciting! It’s a Small World Continent Study is filled with over 35 activities to help your students gain a greater understanding of the seven continents. This 130+ page unit is filled with great resources, posters, printables, activities, and projects that will open […]

The topic for today’s activity was Light and Shadows. We did some fun and educational Light and Shadow experiment to learn about shadows.

Ever since I was a child, I have loved watching the Olympics. It’s my dream to one day attend an event in person, but for now, I’ll settle with getting…

Crack the Code – Penguin Facts – Codebreaker Worksheet Going along with the Cold theme, I thought we could learn a little more about some of the animals from the colder regions, specifi…

Now that the weather is getting warmer in the Northern Hemisphere (and we are getting closer to the end of the school year) it’s great to have some learning opportunities available that can b…

Children with healthy social-emotional skills tend to lead successful lives. These activities will help improve your child's social-emotional skills.

If you want to know how to teach kids about germs and the importance of proper handwashing, this collection of germ activities for kids will not disappoint!

Helping K-2 Teachers Like You Save Time, Grow Instructional Skills, and Teach With Confidence!

Learn what plants breathe through with this easy leaf & tree science experiment as kids get hands-on with the process of photosynthesis!

Here are completely free escape room ideas to help you build your own room.

Introducing our "Angles in Triangles Mastery Worksheets" – a comprehensive set of four engaging worksheets designed to consolidate students understanding of angle sum in triangles. Each worksheet contains up to 26 missing angles in which students will need to use a variety of angle rules, such as triangle sum as well as complementary and supplementary angles. Each worksheet will also require students to draw on their understanding of different triangles such as equilateral, isosceles and scalene triangles. Included in this product: 4 x colour triangle sum worksheets (each with up to 26 problems to solve) 4 x B&W triangle sum worksheets (each with up to 26 problems to solve) Answer guide This worksheet pack can be utilised for individual practice, math centres or as an extension activity. Download it and use it in your classroom today! Like what you see? Try our Christmas Missing Angles in Triangles Worksheets which includes three seasonally-inspired worksheets on triangle sum. Follow my store for all the latest updates and to be the first to know when I launch new products!

A fun Free Printable pack of learning activities with an exciting Pirate theme. Kids will enjoy mastering skills with this pack.

This Halloween Roll-A-Story is an old favorite, where students roll dice to determine their story’s character, setting, and conflict. Print it out and give it to your student for a fun, Halloween-themed activity!

Hello Everyone! What a great day to start a study on clouds!! Dark clouds this morning releasing a deluge of rain! By 1:00 beautiful clear sky with just a few cirrus clouds! Perfect example of our ever changing skies. I'll share our Cloud Unit in a second, but first I wanted to show some pics of our whole group math lesson. We are continuing our study of place value. After all the activities we did last week, it was time to see how all of this fits in relationship to other numbers. I pulled out our bigger than life 100 board and handed out some mystery picture clues. Each clue described a number in place value (tens and ones). The kids took turns putting their cards on the number for which their clue stood. When we finished putting all the clues down, a cloud was revealed! Use your imagination! It looks like a cloud, right??? The kids loved working together to create it!! I'm not even sure they realized they were growing their number sense!!! I did put together a little integrated cloud unit. We are going to try to get most of this in this week!! The unit also includes some poetry, another science activity and more!! You can get it if you click HERE!! Stay tuned for more cloud fun later in the week! Until then, have a wonderful week!! Thanks for stopping by for a peek!! Joyfully! Nancy

Welcome to Day 2 of Speech-A-Palooza! I hope you enjoyed Whitney's post yesterday! Today's post is from Jen Alcorn, author of Crazy Speech World. Themes are something new I am trying this year, too. I had always done the traditional holiday themes, but I am now trying out a new theme every other week. This post will be helpful for any of you that use themes in your therapy sessions... or are thinking about doing it! One of the most popular questions I get is about using themes for therapy. Mostly, how do I plan my themes? I'm sure other people have different methods, but here is how I do it... My therapy themes are simple and straightforward. Over the summer, I sit down with my calendar and map it out. It takes an hour or two, but it ends up making therapy planning incredibly easier. Why? Because you are able to narrow your focus. When I tackled this project the first time, it was a little overwhelming. But the more you do it, the more comfortable you become with the process and it ended up being pretty easy for me this past summer. Something you may find helpful is from Perkilou Products...it is a four week calendar for every month of the year. It gave me ideas when I was first starting to create my own. My own version is a little different. I center my planning around holidays and seasons, some of which I use for two weeks. You can download my version HERE. I also created a blank version, which you can grab HERE. After this part comes the fun stuff...finding materials! Blogs. I think these are the best places to get inspired and find activities. Pinterest. I have seen tons of Pin Boards dedicated to specific holidays, seasons, or themes. You can even search by theme using the search box. Books. Look through your own or go visit the library! You can find a book on any topic, try to find various levels, as well as fiction and non-fiction. Go through your STUFF! Pull your files out and go through your cabinets. I bet you have tons of your own materials that you can use :) I have started organizing my themes by binders to keep up with it all. I bought tons of page protectors to keep all my original worksheets and materials in, and all of my activities for that theme go in the binder. I also make a list of all the manipulatives that I have that go with the theme...like I have jack-o-latern baskets I can use for Halloween or the Popcorn containers with the carnival theme. I just don't want to forget what I have! We always have so much STUFF! I still use my trusty bag of favorites...CandyLand, Apples to Apples, Chipper Chat etc. to fill in the gaps. Not everything I do is related to the theme, but I love having the organization of using themes in therapy. I really believe that it has positively impacted my therapy and I would encourage any SLP to do it!

If you want to teach your little ones about the concept of opposites you will want to check out these fun opposites worksheets and activities.

Help kids learn about rocks by making a rock of their own.

Introduce kids to the concepts behind curling with this simple printable table-top version.

We have been learning about Ancient China in our homeschool. The history of China is so interesting, and the children have really enjoyed learning more about the Chinese culture. In addition to the history of China, we have learnt more about the physical Geography of China, including map work and read some Ancient Chinese legends.

No study of architecture and engineering would be complete without talking about the Great Pyramids. Egyptian architecture is as mesmerizing in the 21st century as it must have been mystifying when they were constructed. And thanks to Bubble Guppies, a subject of great fascination to my preschool and toddler too! Egyptian Architecture…

We love Japan in our home! My children have learned a lot, but still they crave more. All About Japan is a wonderful book with a wealth of information.

Verse is an inextricable part of human existence. We start exposing children to it from the moment they're born, through lullabies, Dr. Seuss books, and Sesame Street segments. But when you look back on who really unlocked the power and potential of…

Looking for a quick and easy review game? Try Pass the Chicken! Great for any classroom, this blog post shows you how to play the game and gives you a free list of music themed categories to use. FUN for music class or any classroom.

The Summer Olympic Games have begun! It's so fun watching people who are so amazingly talented and who love what they do! Since the games started, we've been watching them together as a family in the evenings and really enjoying it! So far my son loves the swimming and is mesmerized by the gymnastics. I think it's great for our kids to watch these athletes achieve their dreams. I also love that they get to hear some of the athletes' stories and learn that their lives haven't always been all that easy and that hard work and dedication can take you so far in life!