If you're looking for a fun and ready to use template to use with your students in social studies, then give this a try! Students can research a city or country and incorporate some creative writing as well!
If you're looking for a fun project to display that incorporates both research and poetry, why not try a box project? Each of my students selected a famous person to research. Each student then decorated a box of his/her choice with decorations that suited the person (based on research).
Students then wrote poems on their boxes as well about their research subject. This accompanies a written piece and is a great project to display at Open House or Parent Night. You may even want the students to place something inside the boxes such as index cards with notes, etc.
If you're looking for a sweet new way for kids to practice and display grammar or punctuation rules, why not try this? We made giant ice cream cones to display comma rules AND write research facts at the same time. Every student chose a famous person to research. He/she then had to write facts learned from the research using the comma rules we had studied in class.
I cut out patterns for the scoops and the cones. The students then traced the patterns onto colorful paper and used corrugated brown paper for the cones. We did use poster board for backing so that our cones would have some support when students decorated the scoops.
These made a cute bulletin board display when finished!
If you're like me, you start every year in social studies with a unit on map skills and geography. Are you looking for new, creative resources to enhance student engagement? Why not try my "Less Mess" Map Skills and Geography Interactive Notebook Activities? This resource will add some color and creativity to your unit while helping students stay focused on the task at hand.
This resource is also available in a discounted bundle with my popular "Less Mess" Social Studies Interactive Notebook Activities. Just click on the picture below to check it out!
Well, it's almost that time again, and that means BACK TO SCHOOL! If you're like me, the first weeks are spent just trying to get students READY. We tackle topics like:
Getting Organized
Setting Goals
Being Prepared
Setting Up a Study Area
Time Management
Using Class Time Wisely
Studying Smartly
Test Taking Skills
My "Less Mess" Study Skills Interactive Notebook helps you tackle all of these topics and more in a ready-to-use, creative format. Just like all of my other "Less Mess" Interactive Notebooks prove, less mess equals LESS STRESS for you as a teacher. Don't use all your time cutting, pasting, and gluing. Do it in one quick step and get RIGHT TO THE CONTENT!
I can't help it. I LOVE teaching parts of speech! There are so many fun and creative ways to add a little pizzazz so that your students don't become bored. I know the content can be a little dry, but it wont be if you make it FUN!
Students always seem to love art and hands on activities, so why not give these activities a try? They are shown here using pronouns, but they could easily be used for any part of speech. The first activity is called Poppin' Pronoun Profiles.
DIRECTIONS:
Why not try some poetry writing using pronouns? In the pictures below, Japansese tanka poetry is written using a specificed amount of required pronouns. Then backgrounds are designed for the poems using pictures torn from magazines, newspapers, etc.- no scissors! They look beautiful when finished and make a great bulletin board display!
At the end of a unit, students can create a Pronoun Picnic! They love making the three dimensional picnic food!
Are you looking for more creative pronoun activities? All of these activities plus MORE are featured on my Pronoun Picnic resource. Just click on the picture below to check it out!
It's so important to me each and every January to pay tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in my classroom. Yes, we have the day off each year in honor of him, but too many times, students dont stop to think about WHY we are honoring this great man.
There are some wonderful videos on YouTube that I show to my class every year. This one is one of my favorites. The cartoon drawings are so cute and the narration is wonderful (if a little fast). My students always enjoy it! They take notes on important facts they learn about him in this video. I often play it a few times because of the quick narration.
I often follow this video up with a puzzle activity that enables my students to learn even more about Dr. King. You can click on the picture below to be taken directly to this puzzle in my Teachers Pay Teachers store.
Another of my favorite videos features a cartoon version of Dr. King reciting his "I Have a Dream" speech.
I often have my students identify what their own dreams are for the world. Students write about such topics as animal rights, pollution, equality, peace, environmental issues, etc. It allows them to see that even they, as middle school students, can have dreams about which they CAN do something.
I like to provide my students with an opportunity to read some of this great man's words. We read quotations by Dr. King and students reflect on their meanings for the world today. This makes a great small group or center activity as well and encourages deep thinking and excellent discussion. Click on the picture below to see this item in my Teachers Pay Teachers store.
Research a City or Country
