Category: Teacher’s Pay Teachers

With winter holidays fast approaching, now is the perfect time to teach students about how the holidays are celebrated in other parts of the world. If you’re looking for the perfect holidays around the world activities for your kindergarten, first, or second-grade students, you’re in the right place! 

Celebrations from around the world provide an opportunity to discuss geography, social studies, and culture in a way that gets students excited. 

Take your students on a digital trip around the world to see how holidays are celebrated in different countries. You can do this with YouTube videos or even Google Earth! It’s so cool to see how excited they get about learning about different holidays, traditions, and celebrations. 

What are some interesting holidays around the world? 

When it comes to teaching holidays around the world for kids, there are some really cool options to include. You can cover Christmas, Hanukkah, Diwali, and Los Posadas. 

Looking for some holidays around the world lesson plans? I have you covered. 

I created the only holidays around the world resource you’ll need. It includes a journal made with your kids in mind! It is full of links, activities, information, posters, and even a yummy home connection! 

With each page, students will read and learn about a different holiday around the world. Then they will practice writing the name of the holiday and drawing a picture to show comprehension. Bonus: The journal makes a great keepsake! 

Here’s what’s included: 

• Suggested Lesson Plan
• Cover for Journal
• Draw about my Holiday
• Compare 3 Holidays (Christmas, Diwali, Las Posadas)
• Venn Diagram Christmas in America and Mexico
• Write about Hanukkah (menorah)
• Blank page for Interactive Notebook Page (p. 11 with this page)
• That’s a Wrap – Explain what you found most interesting.
•  Rubric
• Interactive Notebook page use with page 8
• Sample of Interactive Notebook
• Extra ( Countries Visited and the Holiday Celebrated)
• Mini Informational Book
• Home connection – Families bring in a treat representing a different holiday or country.
• Posters

Check it out here! 

What are your favorite ways to teach your students about different holidays? Let me know in the comments!

For more holiday or Christmas fun, check out my PBL resource here!

As teachers, we know the importance of giving our students breaks throughout the day to give them a chance to get re-energized and increase engagement in learning. But how do you do it? Brain break activities for elementary are a great way to give students a break from using their noggin and a chance to let loose for a minute or a few. 

Especially when it comes to elementary students, sometimes they just need to take a break and get all those wiggles out! Brain breaks for the classroom can be used to raise or lower the energy of your students. 

Are brain breaks good for students? 

Of course! They help students reduce stress levels, frustration, and restlessness. By taking a minute to just relax and have a little fun, their prefrontal cortex gets a break and their focus will be improved when they resume their regularly scheduled learning activities. It increases executive function, alertness, and motivation to do well with their lessons. 

What are good brain breaks for kids? 

If you’re looking for brain break activities for your students to do, you’re in the right place. There are so many things you can do to help students decompress during the school day. You can take a minute to get a little physical movement in like stretching, jumping, or even a short dance party! Alternatively, you could do some simple games like Simon Says or even Heads Up Seven Up. It could even be as simple as pulling out some coloring pages and crayons. 

If you want some brain break activities that go above and beyond, you’ll love my brain break resource. 

This is my favorite collection of 48 different Brain Breaks. These task cards can be used as transitions, breaks during an activity, something to raise or lower the energy of the group, team-building activities, and so much more!

What’s included?

• 48 Printable Task Cards in Black and White (4 per page) PDF

• 48 Printable Task Cards in Color (4 per page) PDF

• 48 Printable 8×10 Cards in Color (1 per page) PDF

• 48 GOOGLE SLIDES in Color for Digital Displays or Sharing at a Distance

• 2 Editable Slides to Create Your Own Brain Breaks (Google link digital option provided in the PDF)

Place these on a ring, popsicle sticks, or in a crayon box for easy storage! Use the Google Slides in presentation mode to randomly pick a brain break.

These simple activities require little to no prep, take about 1- 3 minutes to play, and get oxygen flowing to students’ brains to help them better retain information. 

Check it out here! 

What are your favorite brain breaks to use in your elementary classroom? Let me know in the comments! 
For more classroom management tips, check out this engaging classroom management system!

Summarizing seems like an easy enough subject to teach to elementary students, but it can be a little tricky! Reading a text and explaining the main points of the story seems straightforward forward but it’s getting all of those important parts that’s the hard part. 

As an elementary teacher, I’m sure you know the struggle! We have to teach them the difference between retelling a story which includes all of the details, and summarizing, which only includes the highlights of the story, and is told in their own words. 

How do you teach elementary summarizing? 

There are many ways you can approach this topic, and the most important part is going to be that you practice, practice, practice! Make summarizing fun and engaging and your students will get it in no time. Start with the 5 steps of summarizing. 

What are the 5 steps of summarizing? 

1. Read the story or text
2. Separate it into sections
3. Find the most important parts of the story
4. Write them down in your own words
5. Check your work

Pull out a funny story or something seasonal to make it an extra fun activity to complete for your students! 

If you are looking for the perfect resource to get your students summarizing this Thanksgiving, make sure to check out my summarizing resource! 

I created ​​my A Plump and Perky Turkey Lesson Plan and Summarizing Activities to make it easy as pie! 

These printables go along with the book A Plump and Perky Turkey by Teresa Bateman and they are perfect for Thanksgiving or fall. It includes a week-long lesson plan for teaching students about summarization, vocabulary, self-to-text connections, and graphic organizers. It is full of extras too! 

Here’s what’s included: 

• Suggested week plan focused on summarizing
• Home Connection Project (invite families to participate in the fun of creating an art turkey project)
• Text to Self Connection
• Story Elements
• Summary Mini Book (students fill in the writing)
• Summary Mini Book (students add pictures) You choose
• Venn Diagram Compare a Turkey and Shredded Wheat
• Graphic Organizer
• Sandwich Organizer
• Intermediate Lined Writing Paper to Summarize the Story
• Primary Lined Writing Paper to Summarize the Story
• Intermediate Lined Writing Paper (How I Would Trick a Turkey)
• Primary Lined Writing Paper (How I Would Trick a Turkey)
• Rubric
• Writing Award
• Comprehension Check (write in the blanks)
• Comprehension Check Circle the Answer
• Answer Key
• Acrostic Poem
• Acrostic Poem Sample
• Model Wanted Poster
• Posters (Vocabulary from the story)
• Turkey Headband

Your students will love these activities for teaching summarizing. If you want even more Thanksgiving resources, check out this Turkey in Disguise family project resource! Learn more about it in my post here. 

What are your favorite tips for teaching summarizing? Let me know in the comments!

In early elementary when students are learning to read and write, the most important thing they can do is practice, practice, practice! After they have mastered their letters and sounds, it’s important that they get to work putting those newfound skills to work by sounding out words and writing some masterpieces. 

So how do you get their creative juices flowing at a young age? Writing prompts, of course! Writing prompts can be fun, engaging, and imaginative for kids. If you choose the right prompts, your students won’t be able to get enough, I promise! 

Whether it’s funny writing prompts for kids or you’re looking for, or creative writing prompts for kids, you’re in the right place! 

What are some fun writing prompts? 

When coming up with prompts, it’s always a safe bet to incorporate student interests. What are your students loving right now? Minecraft? A TV show? Popular songs? A trending dance move like “flossing”? Sports? Coming up with a simple prompt that includes something they love is sure to increase engagement. 

For more writing prompts for students, you can try incorporating things like the seasons and holidays. These are great for adding a festive feel to your classroom activities! 

If you want to skip the trouble of coming up with good prompts on your own, you’re in luck! I made it easy to incorporate writing practice each and every day with fun, engaging writing prompts that students will love. 

These Writing Prompt Journals are zero prep, all fun! 

This resource is packed full of journal prompts for kids! These print-and-go journals help engage your students in writing daily all year long! 

This resource includes 365 themed, engaging, writing prompts ready for you to print and staple into 12 monthly journals. Each journal has a rubric, a self-checking list at the bottom of each prompt, a word bank, and a decorative cover. Just print and staple! 

It honestly couldn’t be easier for you or your students.  It even comes with some bonus silly prompts for when you’re in the mood for some fun! 

For more writing fun, check out my blog post here! 

What do you think? What are your favorite prompts for kindergarten or early elementary? Let me know in the comments!