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Halloween Escape Room

October 12, 2019 teachersbrain Teacher's Pay Teachers

If you have never planned an educational escape room with your elementary students, why not try one this Halloween? You will find that the students are all engaged, excited to learn while solving clues and discover how to work as a team without a lot of direction from you. It takes about 45 minutes to set up the materials. This Return the Pumpkin Escape Room Mystery is designed with your K-2 students in mind! The download is editable so you can tailor it to your needs, or just print and go!

Halloween Escape Room | Editable — Halloween Escape Room

Hook Them Early

First, a video story creates a “hook” for engaging the students in the mystery right off the bat! Students will have to find their classroom pumpkin that Willie the Werewolf stolen. The video is only a few minutes long. The video will tell you to press play so you can read the first clue, but then you can press play to have some background mystery music while the kids use teamwork to solve the mystery and open a box to escape the classroom!

Halloween Escape Room Mystery for Elementary Classrooms

Each escape room provides 3 clues for students to solve. The average time for them to be able to beat the clock is 40 minutes. This classroom escape room has students finding bags of letters to form words. Students are encouraged to help each other. Not just their own team, but the other team too because they can’t open the box without both keys. Paper keys provided, so no need to buy real locks.

Halloween Escape Room Mystery for Elementary Classrooms use Teamwork to Solve Mysteries — Solving the Halloween Mystery Escape Room Clue

Once student solve all three clues, they will find the missing class pumpkin, receive a prize from the box and escape the classroom to a monster dance party, recess or the library. You get to choose!

Check out The Magical Teacher using the Halloween Escape Room in her classroom! She shows you how to add that special teacher magic that only a great teacher can bring to get maximum engagement!

Why use escape rooms in the classroom?

Break OUT rooms or Escape Rooms encourage teamwork, academic skills, problem solving and require students to listen while following directions. Then there is also the incredible engagement aspect it provides. This is why many teachers like to use them for their evaluations.

Creating Classroom Routines & Relationships

October 11, 2019 teachersbrain Teacher's Pay Teachers

Classroom Routines

Having a consistent morning routine will help students to begin their day knowing what is expected before they get to school. There should be a morning greeting at the door. This will dissolve any anxiety a student may feel in the morning about entering your classroom. I had two morning routines in kindergarten that lasted a week to keep them from getting bored. One week they would work in morning journals that reviewed concepts learned during the week. Then the next week, there would be hands-on manipulatives for students to practice math skills. Something simple for them to pick up and do on their own, like puzzles or tangrams. Positive morning routines will help set the tone for the whole day.

Morning Greeting and Good Bye Posters — Free Morning Greeting Posters

When students have a regular routine, several things happen:

1. Students feel safer and happier when regular routines are established in their lives.
2. Their learning improves.
3. Students develop independence, so it makes it easier for you to help other struggling students.

The next questions that many teachers have is “What should I have them do in the morning when they stagger in at different times?”
There is no absolute answer to this question, but here are a few ideas:

Use a composition book for students to draw or write about choice topics each morning for a week. Then, slowly get them ready for writing on topics you choose that lead to them sharing their opinions.
Let students work in morning work themed journals that review math and literacy skills.
Here is a link to a Kindergarten Morning Work Freebie.
Let student take care of personal business, like talking to classmates, putting items away, going to the bathroom, reading book and maybe placing their lunch tag on an appropriate chart.
Provide daily writing prompts for students in a journal to make it easy to grade and store.

Easy enough? You’ve got this! Feel free to email me back and let me know if you have any questions.
Grab the Writing Prompts FREEBIE – FREE Writing Prompts K-3
Related Product : Writing Prompts for the YEAR K-3

ROI = Return on Investment

What does this mean for a teacher? We need to invest time and energy into where we will get the biggest return. Even though bulletin boards, fancy décor, and homework packets are great, they are not where you will get the maximum for student achievement. I’m not saying don’t do them. I’m saying spend less time on activities that don’t reach the highest academic achievement. So instead of spending two hours on personalizing cubbies, spend 30 minutes. Then, spend an hour and a half on planning for your small group activities.

Another great area to invest your valuable teaching time is in building relationships with your parents. Having a consistent communication with parents should be a priority. A strong relationship with parents will help you have a successful school year. Now with technology at your fingertips it is easier than ever! Using Class Dojo or Remind to send text messages or pictures is a great way to keep in touch with busy parents. Weekly newsletters are perfect for not only letting parents know about their child’s week, but help you get materials into your classroom for future lessons! Scroll down for a FREE Editable Newsletter Template!

When parents communicate:
1. Students feel like their parents are invested in education.
2. Reinforcement of class skills are increased.
3. Parent involvement improves.

The next questions that many teachers have is “What if I have a parent who never reads my communication?”
Don’t give up! Here are a few ideas:
• Send electronic and paper versions of your communication home.
• Ask the student to remind the parent to look at your communication.
• Pick up the phone and call them to let them know how valuable communication will be in the future.

You’ve got this! Feel free to email me cindy@teachersbrain.com and let me know if you have any questions.
Grab the FREE Newsletter Template HERE
Related Product : Behavior Chart (Editable)

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Johnny Appleseed Day Activities

September 26, 2019 teachersbrain Teacher's Pay Teachers

Lesson Plans and Apple Activities

Johnny Appleseed is famous for planting apple seeds across land while exploring and having an adventurous life. For older students, it is fascinating to have them research his life and find out WHY he really planted the seeds. They can discover that the apples were used to make HARD CIDER because they were too small and bitter.

Younger students learn about his love of animals, his real name (John Chapman) funny personality and kindness. For twenty years, I have taught primary students about Johnny Appleseed. At the end of each school year I would survey my class and most classes remember the week we learned about apples!

Apple Lessons

Introduce Johnny Appleseed by reading a book about his life. Discuss the facts from the book. Share a video about his life because most students are visual learners, including a short video is a great way to hook your students into wanting to learn more. Then, have a different activity about apples during the week that will help them not only learn about Johnny Appleseed but the science of apples. Incorporate all subjects into your lessons. Here are some activities that are easy to plan, but hits standards:

Sort apples by color or a large graphing chart.
Make home-made applesauce. (My favorite easy recipe will be at the bottom of this post.)
Dissect an apple so students can see the seeds.
Make apple crafts!
Label the parts of the apple. (skin, flesh, seeds, stem, core)
Write a letter to Johnny Appleseed.
Count the apple seeds during math.
Incorporate the 5 senses by letting students smell and taste different types of apples.
Invite parents to send in apples. (I use these all week for the activities above.)
Have students think about their favorite color or flavor or apple. They can make a graph to see what kind was the class’ most popular.
Make apple glasses for students to use while reading about apples facts or apple books.
Have an APPLE PARTY! Invite parents to send in apples snacks to share with the class so students can see how many different ways apples are used for ingredients.

Here is my favorite EASY applesauce recipe!

First, peel the apples. Next, remove the cores out of all your apples, (you need about 1 apple per kid in your class) cube the apples and place them in a crock pot on high. Do this as a whole group activity in the morning. The room will smell SO GOOD!

I like to have parent volunteers cut up the apples in front of the students or just send them in already cut up in bags. Then, cut one apple to show them the inside and let the students pour the rest of the cubes into the crock pot. Finally, add about 1/2 a cup of Cinnamon Red Hots Candies into the pot. The red hots add some sugar and cinnamon flavoring. The red color makes the applesauce different and fun for the students. Even students who said they hated apples, eat it and LOVE IT. I leave it on high, mash it up with a potato masher later. About 30 minutes before you want to serve it (at the end of the day, so it had about 3 or 4 hours of cooking) let it cool off before giving it to the kids. It’s warm, but not hot. SO YUMMY!

Labor Day Teacher Giveaway

September 1, 2019 teachersbrain Labor Day Sale, Teacher's Pay Teachers

TEACHERS… STOP laboring over your lessons! Here is your chance to win a MEGA shopping spree to buy everything you need at TpT!

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?You must be an educator to win and provide proof by providing your school name and grade level within 48 hours after contacted or a new random winner will be selected.This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with Facebook, Instagram, or Teachers Pay Teachers. You understand that you are providing your information to the owner of this page and not to Facebook , Instagram, or Teachers Pay Teachers. No Purchase Required.

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