education Archives - Page 12 of 14

Why Escape Rooms Are Great For Elementary

September 25, 2020 teachersbrain education

You probably already know that escape rooms have become hugely popular in primary grades recently. They’re exciting, unique, engaging, and make your students think! What’s not to love? They’re perfect for any grade in elementary.

If you haven’t heard of this before, you may be wondering what escape rooms are.

An escape room is an escape game where your students have to work together in real life to discover clues, solve puzzles, and complete tasks in order to escape. But how do you do an escape room with 5 and 6 year old kindergarten students?

It may seem obvious, but you don’t actually need to have expensive locks, fancy boxes, or big prizes. My escape rooms meet standards, don’t need locks, encourage 100% engagement, and get kids to work together in teams to help each other open any box and escape their room. The activities and puzzles are grade level appropriate so they will be just challenging enough to be fun.

My escape rooms have 3 to 5 tasks for students to solve in order to get their next clue. They also have video hooks to build anticipation. You can make it fun by letting them escape the room and go to recess, the library, or really get the excitement up with a cookie party!

Escape rooms make a GREAT Holiday activity, especially. The Christmas Escape will add to your students learning all about Holidays Around the World!

Students find clues, solve puzzles and work as a team to help save the holidays while Santa is on a VACA! It has a fun video hook!

“We loved doing this! I didn’t have a wooden box or real keys! This resource provided everything but the treat at the end! I highly recommend and will be purchasing more!”

— Patricia T.

There is a digital escape FOUND HERE if needed.

The Halloween theme will add a spooky and fun twist.

This Halloween Escape Room is for kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grade students. It includes step-by-step instructions that will guarantee student engagement while your students work together to find the missing classroom pumpkin that was stolen by the werewolf.

Check out this escape room Halloween Mystery video to hook them in!

Want to see this Halloween Escape Room in action? Check out this fun video from The Magical Teacher to see how she used in her classroom for a thrilling Halloween mystery.

The MOST POPULAR Escape the Room is the Sight Word Mystery Escape! Students work together to solve mysteries all involving sight words. This escape is EDITABLE, so you can tailor the words to meet your needs.

Do you use escape rooms in your classroom? Let me know in the comments!

Looking for more Halloween activities, check out my post here for Halloween crafts and center ideas!

5 Ways To Help Students Master Their Names

September 11, 2020 teachersbrain education, kindergarten survival, Teaching Tips

One of the first things we teach our little learners when they come to kindergarten is how to write their own name. It is so important for students to get plenty of practice and learn this readiness skill early on. It is something they will write often and for the rest of their lives. Knowing how to write it will help build their confidence in their own abilities in school and help set the stage for learning the rest of the alphabet during the school year.

Here are some different ways to practice and make learning names fun:

Handwriting. You’ll want to place a lot of focus on good old fashioned handwriting when it comes to learning their names. This is one of the most important ways to practice. It feels like second nature as we grow up but learning to hold and control a pencil takes lots of practice for our younger students.
Tracing with a finger. Write the letters to their names out and have your students practice tracing the letters with their fingers. This will help them get used to the shape of the letters and help with memorization.
Dry erase board practice. There’s just something about a dry erase board and dry erase marker that students love. It is just more exciting to use than a plain old pencil. Pass them to your students for an engaging and fun way to practice writing their names. A bonus is that it is easy to wipe away any mistakes!
Painting or shaving cream. What is more fun for kindergarteners than getting messy? Make this fun and educational activity by spraying some shaving cream on their desk and having them trace their name into it or by pulling out some paint and brushes.
Digital practice. These days, it is just as important to practice digitally typing and identifying letters in their name as it is writing it. Your students can practice this by identifying the letters in their name, counting the number of letters, and typing it out on their keyboards.

These interactive, Editable Name Practice Google Slides will help your students master this skill. They can be easily personalized to make sure your students will know their names, letters, and be engaged in learning. It is perfect for virtual or in personal learning. You’ll get 20 colorful Google Slides with titles, editable text boxes, directions, and moving parts.

You can also get this resource in Spanish if your students are not English speakers!

You can try out the Editable Name Practice Activity by checking out this freebie!

Here is a video tutorial for how to use this resource!

Do you have any fun activities to teach your students to write their names? Let me know in the comments!

For some more kindergarten resources, check out my post here.
Names

50th Day Of School Activities

September 4, 2020 teachersbrain education, Teacher's Pay Teachers

In the classroom, I love any chance to have a themed party! It is such a fun way to take a break from the ordinary school routine, shake things up, and have a little fun with my students. It also gives them something to look forward to! You have all the usual holidays like Christmas and Halloween, but we also like to celebrate the 50th day of school!

This is an exciting way to celebrate the number 50 on our 50th day of school together. So what kind of things do you do to celebrate the number 50? Celebrate 1950’s style!

Here are some fun ways to have 1950’s style celebration in your classroom

Have a dress up day. Bring on the poodle skirts and leather jackets!
Have a good old fashioned sock hop with lots of dancing
Play some 50’s music in your classroom (from a jukebox if you have one!)
Make some root beer floats
Do themed activities in your lessons
Have a photo booth (with props from the resource below!)

I created some fun 50th Day Of School Celebration activities for you to use in your classroom!

In this resource you’ll get fun ideas and printables to engage your kindergarten or 1st grade students in meaningful ways with the number 50 on the 50th day of school or during a full week of centers! It incorporates literacy, math, and science activities. Each activity is about 20 to 40 minutes long.

Here’s what’s included in the 50th Day Of School bundle

20 IDEAS

50 Days Smarter Activity

Write 50 Words

Block Building with 50

50 Gumballs

10 Ten Frames for Counting Items

100 Chart

50 Chart

50 Tasty Treat Chart

If I had $50 Writing

Tootsie Roll Pop Experiment (predict and use tally marks)

Science Inquiry 50 Drops of Water In A Jar

50th Day Fun Fitness Activities Log

I can count to 50 Mat

50th Day Celebration Hat with Dots

Two types of Lined Paper for Prompts

Two types of Lined Paper for “If I had 50 Gifts” Prompt

I’m 50 Years Old Drawing and Writing Papers

50 Rocking Days of School

Root Beer Float (goes with Fifties Themed Day)

Root Beer Float Writing with Transition Words

50 Days of School Letter To Parents To Dress Fifties

Photo Booth Props

Do you celebrate the 50th day of school? Tell me about it in the comments below!

Want some ideas for the 100th day of school? Check out my post here!

Teaching Your Students About Civics and Government

July 31, 2020 teachersbrain education, Teacher's Pay Teachers

Civics and government is a very important part of your kindergarten and first grade students’ education. Understanding the basics including rules and laws is going to be vital as they grow up and enter the world. Unfortunately, it can seem a little dry trying to teach it in a way that your students will find fun and interesting.

To do this, you want to find engaging lesson plans for your students so they will not only learn the material, but really understand and retain it. The key is to make your lessons fun! This is especially important with any lessons you do for kindergarten and first graders. The more fun the lessons are, the more interested they will be, the more they will learn!

I have you covered with my Civics and Government bundle!

This extensive resource includes nine full weeks of detailed lesson plans and everything you need for the entire unit. You’ll also get a home connection parent letter, American History Journal with a wordbank, a rubric for the journal, 9 interactive notebook pages, and posters for your classroom,

This Civics and Government resource will cover:

Primary Sources
Sequencing events
Calendar Skills
Being a GOOD Citizen
Rules and Laws
Conflicts and Fair Decisions

Extras included for centers: primary source activity, months of the year (what comes next), sort the pictures activity (rules vs laws), Tattle Tale Officer Activity (to teach your students the difference between being helpful and hurtful), big problem, medium problem, and small problem posters, and a Write the Room Activity (a great way to incorporate writing into your social studies lessons).

I created this resource to make your life easier and take the stress out of lesson planning! My goal is that this resource will cover all standards and truly engage your students so that they learn and retain the lessons.

Check out my tips for for social distancing while teaching here!

Do you have any tips for making civics and government fun? Let me know in the comments below!