Teacher’s Brain

Author: teachersbrain

Educator

Turkey In Disguise Project For Kids

Teacher's Pay Teachers

 As a teacher, you know that family involvement is an important aspect of developing successful learners. Studies show that when families are involved in students learning, the students are more likely to succeed. However, it can be hard to find activities that families actually want to do together and that aren’t too time consuming.

With Thanksgiving right around the corner, this Turkey in Disguise project would be a great way to get family involvement while working on an engaging holiday themed activity (check out my Thanksgiving escape room here). This turkey project is a great tool for helping families have fun together, while using reading and writing skills. 

The Turkey in Disguise project incorporates listening, writing, and problem solving in one activity. In a busy classroom, finding activities that address multiple objectives is necessary. When they are fun for students and parents as well, that’s even better! 

Here’s a walk through of the Turkey in Disguise Project

This fun turkey project includes everything you need to get your students’ creative juices flowing. First, students will listen to a read-aloud featuring a turkey that tries several disguises to save himself from being Thanksgiving dinner.

Then, they will work with their families to come up with a disguise to protect their turkey. They will use their writing skills to describe the disguise. This simple project will engage students in creative problem solving, writing for a specific purpose, and making connections to text. As an added bonus, they will enjoy getting creative with their families.

turkey

What ways do you use to get families involved in learning? Let me know in the comments!

turkey in disguise

If you are teaching VIRTUAL, try the digital version of this activity here.

Thanksgiving Escape Rooms For Kids

education, Thanksgiving in Kindergarten

As we approach the holiday season, your students might be growing weary of the usual classroom activities. Are you detecting a little bit of restlessness when you assign a reading comprehension passage? Don’t worry, I have the perfect activity to inject some life into your reading practice- escape rooms!

 Students will have a blast using their reading skills to solve the puzzles and escape the room. Trust me, it will be one of the most memorable activities of the year! 

There is even a Thanksgiving Escape Room perfect for the fall- The Thanksgiving Mystery. 

To successfully complete this activity, students have to “break the box” to “escape the room”. As they try to solve the mystery, they will practice their reading skills as well as using teamwork and critical thinking skills. 

thanksgiving escape room

 

Your students will be having so much fun trying to escape, they might not even notice that they are developing higher level comprehension skills. Application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation are all necessary to open the box. Rather than using simple worksheets, you will be letting your students develop their higher order thinking skills while having fun! 

Thanksgiving Escape Room

This Thanksgiving Mystery video will introduce the activity to your students and hook them in.

The Thanksgiving Escape the Room resource includes all the steps you need to engage your students in the Thanksgiving Mystery. After a little bit of preparation following the easy checklist, you’ll be ready to guide your students through their adventure. 

The escape room can be used if your children are in the classroom, or easily adapted for at home learners. Your kids are going to have a blast exploring the different steps including a corn maze!

For more Thanksgiving fun, check out my Thanksgiving Turkey Run Digital Escape Room.

This activity would be perfect for the days leading up to Thanksgiving break. Have you used escape rooms in your classroom yet? Tell me in the comments! 

thanksgiving escape room

 

 

Election and Voting Activities for Kids

Teacher's Pay Teachers, Teaching Tips, Writing

Teaching students about the importance of voting in a democracy is very important.  Now more than ever kids are curious about politics. So, how can you teach students without getting too political? If you teach about elections and the voting process instead of using real political candidates, young students will still develop an understanding of how elections work, the responsibility of voting and how their feelings tie into the process. Election and voting activities for kids can be simple.

Here are some things your can do to teach about voting:

  • Share books like Grace for President by Kelly Dipucchio or  Vote for ME! by Ben Clanton.
  • Talk about commercials, signs or local leader positions.
  • Write opinion papers about voting or elections.
  • Discuss how feelings help make decisions.
  • Hold a class pet election.
  • Students can take polls about favorite snacks or sports.
  • Make a voting booth or box. Have ballots for students to pick their end of the day activity.
  • Create a class campaign for a class mascot with posters, stickers and commercials.
  • MOST IMPORTANTLY, lead by example. Let them see your “I VOTED” sticker or tell them how you take time out of your day to vote.

Ideas for PARENTS to do with children to help them learn about voting:

  • Take your child to vote and discuss why you are voting for a particular candidate.
  • Write a letter to an elected official as a family.
  • Talk about how peaceful protesting is patriotic. Loving a country means speaking up when we disagree with actions.
  • Share your beliefs with your child.
  • Discuss how people all have different ideas and how to respect each other.
  • Read a book about voting, democracy or citizenship.
  • Point out signs about elections and discuss how they help us learn about candidates.
  • Let the family vote about what is for dinner.
  • Vote on a family vacation.
  • Use math to explain how we count results.

Virtual Teaching about Voting

Google Slides and Forms make it easy for students to learn about the voting process. You can create a poll using Google Forms to send to your students virtually. Share the results with the class over a live virtual meeting.

Election and Voting Activities for Kids

Check out the K-3 Google Slides for teaching kids about the voting process.


If you are needing some tips for teaching while social distancing, check out my post here! 

Teaching Social Skills To Kids

Teaching Tips

Reading, writing, and arithmetic- that’s all you have to teach, right? Once you’ve wiped the tears from your face from laughing so hard, take a moment to think about the non-academic skills that you teach in your classroom. Students learn study skills, organization, public speaking, and many other important tasks. These skills are necessary and worth our time as teachers. Perhaps most importantly, students learn in our classrooms how to engage in appropriate social interactions. 

Social skills help students succeed in the classroom, but also impact their success as adults entering the “real world”. Appropriate social behaviors help your classroom run smoothly and help students learn how to interact positively with their communities. Although you teach lots of social skills implicitly while running a classroom, students often need explicit instruction in managing their emotions and behaviors. 

Why teach social skills?

  • It helps students manage their emotions
  • You can give your students support on how to handle certain emotions
  • It teaches self-regulation
  • Improves behavior
  • It creates better problem solvers
  • Can easily be incorporated into your lessons

Not to worry- I have developed some tools that will make social skills instruction painless!

First, the Daily Behavior Chart Resource is perfect for addressing specific ways students can control their behaviors throughout the day.

social skills

Teachers can target the behaviors that students need to develop social skills successfully. It includes editable charts to track students’ behaviors, which are great for parent feedback and data collection. There are several styles of charts to help you best meet your students’ needs.

Students will also love the included contracts for earning rewards. By recording and looking back on their choices, students will learn that they can control how their day develops. 

Next, the Calm Down Corner Printables are perfect for helping students learn to control their emotions and reactions.

social skills

Learning about feelings and how to express them is key to developing strong social skills. The printables in this set will help you create a calm classroom space while assisting students in working through their feelings.

social skills

This resource includes visual cue cards, charts to track students behaviors, printables to help students identify triggers, and even posters for your Calm Down Corner. 

Grab these resources today and watch your students develop amazing social skills!

If you are needing some tips for teaching while social distancing, check out my post here! 

social skills