Here are some good links for teaching about Earth Day:
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Starfall: A story about Earth DaY
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Teaching Kids About Earth Day
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April 2 – Autism Awareness Day
Autism Awareness
West is not West
For those of you traveling in Texas, be sure to stop in West, Texas, the heart of the Czech community in this region. However, West is not west. In other words, the community of West is not in west Texas. It’s actually in the central part of Texas and was founded in 1882. It’s located on I-35 between Dallas-Ft. Worth and Austin.
West is famous for its Czech Stop & Little Czech Bakery which is well known for its “kolaches” (pastry buns filled with either fruit, poppy seeds, cream cheese, or sausage) and also for its cakes, pies, cookies, breads, and fudge. They also serve a variety of sandwiches. It was a family tradition to stop there when we were traveling to Austin for UIL competitions, and it was a very tasty tradition I might add!
Bloom’s Taxomony – Higher Level Thinking Skills
These six levels start with the simplest and progress to the most complex level of higher level thinking. As teachers, we need to make sure we cover all six areas. As we teach these, we need to model and think out loud as we demonstrate to the students how to do it. With younger children, we may only work on the first few levels. It’s good to go ahead and model some of the harder levels for those gifted students who might be in your class though.
1. KNOWLEDGE
- Recalling of information such as places, dates, and events (who, what, when, where, how)
- Knowledge of subject matter, main ideas, basic concepts and principles
- Memorizing
2. COMPREHENSION
- Understanding meaning
- Applying knowledge in a different context
- Simple comparing and contrasting
- Making inferences
- Predicting outcomes
- Describing in one’s own words
- Making interpretations
- Making summarizations
3. APPLICATION
- Problem solving
- Applying what has been learned through exhibits, demonstrations, graphs, charts, etc.
- Using information, concepts, and methods in different situations
- Using facts to answer questions such as “How is ___ related to ___?”
4. ANALYSIS
- Dividing a whole into its component parts
- Outlining and diagramming
- Identifying literary elements and breaking the story down into different parts
- Distinguishing between inferences and actual facts
- Analyzing components of an event in history
- Identifying motives and hidden meanings
- Separating the components of the scientific process
- Seeing patterns
- Teacher asks questions such as “What is the order of steps in ___?” or “What are the functions of ___?” or “How does ___ compare/contrast with —?”
5. SYNTHESIS
- Using already existing concepts to create new concepts or ideas
- Creating and designing something new and original. This could be a short story, poem, music, plan for an experiment, new way of classifying ideas, etc.
- Combining information from several sources
- Finding solutions
- Teacher asks questions such as “How would you create a new ___?” or “What ideas can you add?”
6. EVALUATION
- Comparing ideas
- Developing opinions and judgments
- Judging the value of something for a given purpose, based on definite criteria
- Resolving differences of opinion
- Making value decisions about issues
- Teacher asks questions such as “Do you agree?” or “What do you think is most important?”
National Punctuation Day, September 24
Credit: Free pictures from acobox.com
National Punctuation Day was founded by Jeff Rubin back in 2004. It brings awareness to this important but sometimes overlooked skill. Knowing how to use correct punctuation is a skill that students need and will use their entire life, but sometimes teaching about it can be a little boring to students. Here are some ideas to help make teaching about punctuation fun:
A Listing of the Most Used Punctuation Marks:
- 13 Punctuation Marks and information about each one
Fun Activities:
- The Punctuation Relay
- Wynken, Blyken, and Nod Poetry Punctuation Game
- Pin the Punctuation Mark on the Sentence
- Punctuation Rap – view the words
- Punctuation Rap – listen to the rap
More Information:
- How to Celebrate National Punctuation Day (funny)
- Photos for National Punctuation Day (real signs and posters – examples of bad punctuation)
- Punctuation Playtime Video
Herbs on Popcorn?
Have you ever felt a little run down? Do you find yourself wanting an afternoon snack to boost your energy, take away that hungry feeling, or maybe you just need some comfort food? I find that popcorn usually does all of the above for me.
There are several benefits from eating popcorn. Not only is it a delicious snack but it’s a great source of fiber, and most of us do not get enough fiber in our diets. Popcorn is also good for helping to lower cholesterol levels and control blood sugar levels. It’s good for helping people lose weight because of the fiber content.
My favorite way to eat popcorn is to pop organic popcorn in my hot air popper, drizzle it with extra virgin olive oil (not too much), and sprinkle it with sea salt or pink Himalayan salt. Yum! Whenever I want a different taste then I add one or two spices to it. These herbs also boost the immune system so it’s a win/win! There are a lot of good herbs to put on popcorn. These are just some of them.
Use your imagination to come up with a healthy, sugar-free snack. A combination of Parmesan cheese and oregano together sound good to put on popcorn. What sounds good to you?
If you can’t tell, popcorn is one of my favorite snacks. I pop a small amount for a snack, probably four cups of popped popcorn (maybe five). In fact, it sounds good and I may go have some right now.
PS ~ Try to use organic popcorn but at the very least use Non-GMO.
Teaching Kids About Columbus Day
Have you Heard About the Frontier Texas Museum?
Frontier Texas in Abilene is a great educational experience. In fact, it has even made the New York Times and they describe it as “kind of like a little Disney World only with cowboys and Indians.” When our family visited there, I thought it would probably be the average historical type of museum but I was mistaken. It’s an impressive museum where one can experience state-of-the-art technology. I won’t tell you too much so you can discover it for yourself if you’re ever fortunate enough to visit there.
Abilene is located in west Texas and has a lot to offer. Not only is it home to Frontier Texas but Abilene is also the Children’s Storybook Capital of America. It was designated by the 84th Legislature of the State of Texas and was later designated in 2019 as the Children’s Storybook Capital of America. This charming west Texas town is off I-20 and is definitely worth visiting!
Techniques for Teaching English as a Second Language (ESL)
I taught at an ESL school for several years. We had a high percentage of ESL students but there was usually one parent who spoke English. One year, however, I had two boys who came from another country and spoke zero English and had never been in school. They were placed in second grade because of their age. That was a challenge!
Here are some good techniques I used that are great for teaching ESL children:
- Face the children when you are speaking.
- Speak clearly at an average to slow rate. Do not exaggerate your words. Speak normally.
- Avoid using idioms or confusing phrases.
- Explain things in more than one way.
- Repeat key words, phrases, and ideas.
- Use comparisons, similes, analogies, and opposites when appropriate.
- Brainstorm using a white board or chalk board or if you’re at home then a piece of computer paper works great.
- Build upon the children’s experiences.
- Use visuals and props as often as possible.
- Use culturally appropriate materials.
- Demonstrate whenever you can (act it out).
- Provide a print-rich environment. Label objects all over the room with the name of the object written on an index card. I like to use colorful, neon cards when available
- Ask children questions often to determine understanding.
- Have the children role play.
Khan Academy Nonprofit – Free Online Educational Videos
Here is an awesome resource for teachers and students! Khan Academy, a nonprofit global classroom for anyone in the world who has access to a computer, has a library of thousands of videos online that are free. This provides quality instruction to people all over the world, no matter where they are located. They also offer Teacher Resources as well. Here is an example of some of the topics they cover:
ALGEBRA (many lessons in each of these subtopics):
- Algebra Intro
- Linear Equations
- Inequalities
- Rations & Proportions
- Absolute Value
- Exponents and Radicals
- Logarithms
- Polynomials
- Quadratics
- Functions
- Conic Sections
- Complex Numbers
- Matrices
It’s easy to see by this listing that there are many lessons from which to choose. Here is a partial list of more topics without subtopics listed:
- American Civics
- Arithmetic & Pre-Algebra
- Art History (for many different eras)
- Astrology
- Banking & Money
- Biology
- Brain Teasers
- Cryptography
- Calculus
- Chemistry
- Differential Equations
- Economics
- Finance
- Geometry
- Healthcare & Medicine
- History
- Physics
- Statistics
- Trigonometry
- Computer Science
Khan Academy is a global classroom of students who learn at their own rate and choose what they want to study. Here are reviews and stories of the academy so you can read first hand from teachers and students all over the world.
Teaching Patterns to Young Children
A very simple, inexpensive way to start out teaching young children patterns would be to have three different colors of caps from gallon containers of milk or water. Have several of each color. If you don’t have the caps, then cut squares out of colored cardboard or paper. Start with a very simple pattern and then make it progressively harder. Start out demonstrating the whole pattern at first, showing how to duplicate the pattern to make sure the child understands the concept of “pattern.” Then see if the child can duplicate it. For example:
- Red, blue, red, blue, red, blue, ____, ____, ____, ____, ____, ____
- Red, green, red, green, red, green, ____, ____, ____, ____, ____
- Red, blue, blue, red, blue, blue, ____, ____, ____, ____, ____, ____
- Red, red, blue, red, red, blue, ____, ____, ____, ____, ____, ____
- Red, blue, green, red, blue, green, ____, ____, ____, ____, ____
- Red, green, green, blue, red, green, green, blue, ____, ____, ____, ____, ____, ____, ____, ____
As the child masters each level, have more complicated patterns.
Then add in two dimensions of color and shape:
- red circle, blue square, red circle, blue square
- red circle, green square, blue triangle, red circle, green square, blue triangle
As the child progresses, make patterns out of stickers (excellent way to make patterns) and other things besides color and shapes. Or you can use game pieces if you have multiple pieces that are the same. You could even use cans of green beans, corn, and tomatoes. Be creative with things around your house.