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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Category Archives: Educational Ideas
April 2 – Autism Awareness Day
Autism Awareness
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
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.
Book Review: “Carly’s Voice” & Autism Tips
Carly’s Voice: Breaking Though Autism
by Arthur Fleischmann with Carly Fleischmann
I highly recommend this book to anyone who works with children or adults with non-verbal autism and to anyone who would like to have a better understanding. My friend, who has a granddaughter with this type of autism, recommended this book to me. I’m so glad she did! It gives insights into non-verbal autism in a way that a therapist or doctor cannot do, through the “voice” of Carly. The book begins with Carly’s early years, her struggles with her severe autism, and the struggles of her family. But with undying persistence for many years, Carly was finally able to communicate through typing her responses at age ten.
If you read the book, be sure to read “A Conversation with Carly: The Truths and Myths About Autism” at the very end of the book. But don’t read it until you’ve read the whole story so that you have insight into Carly’s personality and character. Through reading the book, the reader gets a better understanding of just how hard it is to overcome the difficulties that accompany autism and also gets a glimpse into the day-to-day life, year-after-year.
Here are some tips that Carly gives, along with my opinions, that are useful to me in the classroom:
- Medications can cause mood changes for no reason. This could result in crying or feeling angry.
- Carly was around nine years old when she was able to “audio filter” all the sounds around her. She took in many sounds at once, some sounds that most people couldn’t hear, some sounds being louder than others. (headphones are helpful for some to do audio filtering in the classroom )
- Make sure kids with autism are around words all the time so they can develop their ability to spell. (label everything you can in the classroom) Work on simple words at first. They just need someone to give them a push and encourage them.
- Even when it may appear they are not paying attention, they usually are. They are looking at things all the time, and they are probably looking out of the corner of their eyes.
- In the very early years, use pictures to help communication.
- It takes a lot of concentration to be able to type words.
- Carly said, “Flapping and humming and rocking does not calm me down(.) it helps me cope with stuff around me.” All the sensory input can be overwhelming to those with autism – sensory overload.
- Some, like Carly, have a photographic memory that allows them to memorize a page of a book in seconds.
- Here’s insight to what it feels like for some like Carly: “…you don’t know what it’s like to be me. You don’t (know) what it feels like when you can’t sit still because your legs feel like they are on fire or it feels like a hundred ants are crawling up your arms. How can you help me when you don’t know?”
- Carly said once, “I act up because I feel so trapped inside myself.”
- “When I look at someone I take over a thousand images of that person’s face in less than a minute. The more I look…the more pictures I take…my brain…gets full. I am no longer able to process…and I am forced to turn away.” (Carly’s experience)
- Many with non-verbal autism have an inner voice but don’t know how to express themselves. Don’t give up on them!
- You can visit Carly on Facebook @ Carly Fleischmann.
Teaching Kids to Wash Their Hands
It’s hard to teach kids how to wash their hands correctly. Some want to skip the soap. Some want to just wet their hands and then they’re finished. Having taught school before, I know that some even turn the water on just to make you think they washed their hands, when in fact, they didn’t even get their hands wet!
One thing that really helped to motivate my students to wash correctly were these cute videos. Some would even sing one of the songs while washing their hands.
VIDEOS:
“Wash My Hands Song” | Teach Children Hand Washing, Toddler Learning Video, Baby Song, Nursery Rhyme
Germ Smart – Wash Your Hands Our students loved this video!
Hand Washing with Soapy the Germinator
Children’s pack Animation – Wash Your Hands (with sign language)
Hand Washing for Kids – Get Rid of Germs Learn How to Wash Your Hands
Germ Smart Kids – How To Wash Your Hands
If your kids are like the ones in my class, they will pick out one or two of the songs that they really like and that will stick with them. Demonstrate to your kids how to wash hands properly while singing part of a song.
Here’s how to wash hands thoroughly. Wet hands and apply soap. Hands need to be washed for at least 15-20 seconds. Rub hands together to clean the top of the hands and in between fingers. Rub palms together to clean the other side and in between fingers again. Rub finger tips on palms of hand, alternating hands. Then cup your fingers around your thumb to clean, then alternate to the other hand. Rinse well and dry on a towel.
This is such an important skill for our children to learn. Try to make it fun. Watch the videos, sing songs while washing hands, and maybe have an incentive chart. The chart doesn’t have to be anything elaborate. You can use a calendar that you already have or you can print a free one online. You can also draw your own. The main thing is to have a square for each day. If they do a good job of washing their hands that day then they can get a sticker to put on their chart. Or you can draw a smiley face or something they can relate to on the daily square. Decide on a reward for a certain number of stickers/happy faces.
Make sure the reward is something they like and remember:
- Make it fun.
- Keep it positive.
Set a good example by washing your hands properly. Use your imagination and you might come up with some other fun activities and incentives to add to these. The old saying is true, practice makes perfect. It may take a lot of practice with some but it’s worth the patience it may take. Stay healthy, everyone!!