The iCivics website is an incredible free resource that I have blogged about in the past. Recently, the site added a downloadable, printable resource called, “My County Works,” for elementary students that gives an overview of the way county governments work here in the United States. There are other links to lesson plans and activities … Read more
I overheard some of my students talking about a cooking show called, “Nailed It!” and decided to make my next Digital Breakout based on that title. Because we have been having a few glitches with Google Sites in our district, I decided to use Weebly to create this one. “Kaled It!” is a bit harder … Read more
I’ve been lately trying to use more Integrative Thinking in class. It bring about really deep discussions, and I like to see the students make visual models of their thoughts. In the past few weeks, I have been working on “Causal Modelling” with my 3rd-5th graders with varying degrees of success. You can see a … Read more
So, my first graders dropped a piano on my head last week. I should not have found it quite as surprising as I did, but they still caught me off guard. I showed them the Creativity video from Apple, and I asked what I thought was kind of a rhetorical question, “Is creativity important?” One … Read more
UPDATE 3/22/2022: For a list of over 50 Poetry Activities, see this collection! I also have a special collection on Amanda Gorman! April is National Poetry Month. Here are a few poetry activities I’ve done in the past that I felt were really worthwhile: Parallel Poetry Blackout Poetry Poetry Pairing Interactive Onomatopeia Interactive Bulletin Board … Read more
Apple made some announcements yesterday regarding additional support for educators with new products and management tools. You can read about it here. As part of its “Everyone Can Create” campaign, the company released a new video, “One Person Can Change the World.” Of course, its ultimate purpose is to sell Apple products, but listening to … Read more