Teacher’s Brain

Category: Teaching Tips

Thanksgiving Activities Including Tortilla Tepees

Craft Ideas, Giveaway, Teaching Tips

Where has all the time gone this school year?  It is already time for the turkey which also means Christmas is here now.  I must admit I LOVE this time of year, but it is so busy.  This blog is all about saving you time and money as a teacher.  So, here are a few ideas for Thanksgiving Crafts.  Follow this post to the end to see the huge giveaway ending November 15th at 12:00 EST so you can get some holiday CASH.

One of my favorite crafts to do each year no matter what grade I teach is Tortilla Tepees! They are super easy to make and the kids love decorating them!

Materials: 1/2 of a round Tortilla for each student, pretzel sticks, markers, toothpicks

Directions: 1. Cut the tortilla in half. 2. Fold it into a cone shape. 3. Cut the pointed end off. 4. Unfold the tortilla. 5. Let the kids use markers to draw a picture on the tortilla. (I like to go review Native American symbols prior to this activity, so they can use some on the tepee.) 6.   Place a small amount of blue on the edge of the fold using a toothpick to hold it together. 7. Use 3 or 4 pretzel sticks with glue in the top of the tepee and lay sideways, so it will dry overnight.

Placemats are always nice to send home as a keepsake.  Here is a FREE download to make prep easy.  Just have kids cut, color and glue!

Thanksgiving Placemat

MORE Thanksgiving Resources:

Native American Headbands, Disguised Turkey Home Project, A Plump and Perky Turkey, The Old Lady Who Swallowed a Turkey, Turkey Trouble Writing, November Writing Prompts,  Turkey Opinion Writing, Thanksgiving Play

As promised, I said if you stick around to the end of this I would tell you how you can win some holiday MONEY!  Here is a raffle that you can join easily.  I joined up with lots of other authors to bring some lucky teachers some holiday joy! PRIZES include $200 in gift cards to Amazon, TpT, and a Rose Gold Heart Locket.  Good Luck!

Image may contain: 4 people, people smiling

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Surviving the School Year

kindergarten survival, Teacher's Pay Teachers, Teaching Tips

My job is to help make planning a SNAP!

I know a lot of you have been busy with hurricane clean up, fires, flooding, and more.  It has been a crazy start to the school year for a lot of you.  I personally just finished cleaning up from Irma. Now is the time to show students how we bounce back quickly from disasters and/or help others in need who were less fortunate.  To help you with your year, I have a few resources I made free for a limited time, and a SURVIVAL KIT for KINDERGARTEN teachers for  a super low price to help your year run smooth. BE SURE to scroll down to get the FREEBIES.

If you want to know when products are 1/2 off, please follow my store by clicking the green follow button found HERE. 

Free Happy Birthday Hat

What kid doesn’t want to feel special on their birthday?  Treat them with this birthday hat. (Free for 48 Hours)

One last thing…

This is good for any teacher who is having trouble with tattling in their classroom.  The best part is that I made it FREE for 48 hours.  Hurry and get yours, so your year with be smooth with teaching students the difference between tattling and telling! #lifesaver

NEW RESOURCES to check out:
Author’s Purpose FLIP BOOK
OCTOBER Writing Prompts (JOURNAL)
Constitution Day Flip Book/Activity
3 Week Lesson Plans – ENERGY K-1
3 Week Lesson Plans – What is a Scientist, The Scientific Method, Science TOOLS K-1
Reading Comprehension Passages and Questions Assessment – YEARLONG K-3

 

Happy to help.

If you need help, have a request, or find any errors in products you have purchased, I am here for you!  Unlike big textbook publishers, I can tailor products to meet your needs in most cases. Contact me at cindy@teachersbrain.com

 

Celebrating The Great American Solar Eclipse

Science, Teaching Tips

I know today is such an exciting day with children! They get to witness The Great American Solar Eclipse! My daughter has texted me three times trying to get me to pick her up early because “No one else is in school Mom!” Don’t worry! If you didn’t get a chance to experience the real thing with your NASA approved glasses, you can still make the eclipse a great “hook” for a lesson! Students can learn about he motion of the earth, and moon as they travel around the sun. Here is a simple and effective way for free to teach them the rotation. Get a ball to represent the moon, a globe, and a flashlight to represent the sun. Turn off the lights. Have the student who is the “SUN” with the flashlight, shine it on the globe. Next, have the ball, “moon” rotate around the sun slowly, blocking the sun from the earth. Ask questions here to generate thinking. “What do you think the moon looks like? Where is the shadow?”  Then, for older kids, have the earth rotate around the sun with the moon still rotating around the earth. They will get a good understanding of the rotation from this activity. You can do this with printable hats as well.

You can spend the whole week learning about shadows, rotation, gravity and more! Use this week unit on the solar eclipse to captivate your students all week. It’s a great opportunity to really hook your students into developing a love for science with this Great American Solar Eclipse, so use it.  After all, it’s been 99 years since the last one! Get the students involved in celebrating their PLACE in SPACE!

Solar Eclipse 2017 Activities WEEK LESSON PLAN with Crafts and Home Connection

Teachers Pay Teachers 2017 Conference

Teacher's Pay Teachers, Teaching Tips

If you want to know what it is like to be lucky enough to work for Teachers Pay Teachers and attend the conference in Anaheim, you are in the right place! The BEST part of this conference is making connections in person with all the other teacher-authors you only knew on-line. Here is a picture of the Fabulous Five (well, that is the name I gave us after meeting at the 2016 conference in Florida), posing with our Peace, Love, TpT shirts. Meet Tori from Teach with Tori, Kelly from Mrs. Avery’s Island, Lisa from Lisa Taylor Teaching the Stars, and Shelly from Appletastic!

 

Attending the 9 Step Process workshop with Shelly Rees, is a MUST! She offers an awesome course for teacher-authors who need to focus on how to plan a product from start to finish! PRICELESS! There is a great Facebook group you can join if you are in the course. This is how the five of us became close friends. The group is a positive place to gain valuable information to help you grow and connect with others. This year I had the honor to sit with educational expert, Deanna Jump! She is such an inspirational person who is down-to-earth and easy to talk to about the business.

 

Erin Cobb and Catherine Reed were the inspirational teacher-author speakers who told their personal stories. They both inspired the rest of us that hard work and dedication can produce great success.

If you never met our “Director of Happiness”, Amy Borrell Berner, you HAVE to take the initiative to meet her. She is exactly what her title conveys.

 

After a long day of doing what teachers love… LEARNING, TpT hosted a happy hour to help us all decompress and meet other teacher-authors. This is where a few of us were able to talk to the BEST CEO, Adam Freed. I totally felt like I was one of the girls in The Bachelor, willing to interrupt other teacher-authors to steal him away for a chance to talk to him. (Sorry, to whoever I booted out of the way.) It was happy hour though, so I can blame it on the wine. ? I don’t regret it!

Another super nice, intelligent and fun teacher-author is Chris Kesler. He is the best for learning how to build an email list and engage a TpT audience! We attended his session and discovered a lot of tips and tricks to grow our businesses. You can see him below with me and fellow teacher-author Sarah Barnett, who is my new TpT BFF. ? We hit it off as if we have been friends forever. We danced at the Happy Hour with awesome Shem, leading us as DJ/Motivator. She lead a great session about how to Put Some STEAM in your STEP. This is what the conference is all about, meeting people who share your interests, inspire you and help you along your journey.

Should you bring your family? YES! My family went to enjoy the tourist attractions while I was busy learning at the conference. I loved seeing them at the end of the day!

I learned so much! My head feels like it is going to explode with new information, but I’m excited, motivated and (a little) exhausted at the same time. This Dr. Seuss quote sums it up. I’m looking forward to next year in NASHVILLE! So, plan now, if you need some inspiration, tips and tricks.