Classroom subject areas
Presidents’ Day falls midway between the birthdays of Lincoln and Washington, but we like to take the day to study all the presidents of our nation. If you prefer to focus on Washington and Lincoln, these ideas will still work for your classroom. First, get clear on what exactly… Continue reading
For the celebration of Asian American Heritage Month, you might like to learn how to use chopsticks. Continue reading
Groundhog Day is February 2. An old name for February 2nd is “Candlemas.” An Old Scots saying holds that, “If Candlemas is bright and clear, there’ll be two winters in the year.” Europeans had various animals (bears, badgers, hedgehogs…) looking out of their dens or burrows on Candlemas to see… Continue reading
Do you feel that the guys get left out when you study folk and fairy tales? Here are three lesson plans at different levels of complexity that focus on the heroes of the stories. Let’s hear it for the boys As you read folktales and fairy tales, create character maps… Continue reading
A study of heroes gives opportunities for working on research skills, reading, writing, critical thinking, and more. You can work within the content areas of social studies, science, literature, math, and even physical education. It suits Veteran’s Day, heritage months, the birthdays of famous people, and character education themes. Begin… Continue reading
Here are our favorite online resources for math, including games to play in the compauter center: Absurd Math: Pre-Algebra from Another Dimension MIT’s free online math courses for high school Mathbun, a sort of free-floating celebration of geometry and other cool math concepts Create a Graph is an excellent… Continue reading
SpellQuizzer spelling software from TedCo is a very handy piece of classroom technology. It’s a minimalist approach (read, it’ll work on your elderly classroom computer) that does just exactly what you need it to and no more. Here’s a screen shot. Let’s go through the top row first, left… Continue reading
Dr. Martin Luther King had a dream for the children of our nation. Here are some ideas for studying this 20thcentury hero in our 21st century classrooms. Online Research All our students need to learn how to do online research effectively. Make it easier for younger students by starting… Continue reading
It’s almost time to return to the classroom for the new calendar year — some of us are already back in school. That’s a great time for us all to think about what we’re doing in the classroom, and whether it might be time to make some changes. So… Continue reading
Integrating writing into math lessons, and vice versa, can be challenging. After all, the main point of equations is to avoid having to put complex things into words. On the other hand, for many people, one of the great things about words is that they allow you to avoid… Continue reading
