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What Should My Teacher Be For Halloween

October 25, 2021 teachersbrain Fall & Halloween, Halloween

This is such a fun activity to do with your students! Not only are your students going to be engaged with opinion writing, but you will also enjoy reading their papers about what their teacher should be for Halloween.

Halloween Writing

These prompts are easy to share virtually or in person. First, they are made using Google Slides. The background is not editable, but there are text boxes provided for those virtual students to write about what their teacher should be for Halloween. Students can move parts to design costumes for their teacher, edit the color, fonts, and add images. Included in this resource are printable pages with primary lines or intermediate lined worksheets to have students color or add materials to make a costume in class or for homework.

Brainstorming Ideas

Students will have a blast brainstorming ideas for their teacher’s Halloween costume! After, they complete the writing assignment, there is also an option for students to write ideas for their own costumes. They can design them using the virtual moveable parts in the slides or print for in-person learning.

If you do these digitally, spooky music is provided for you to use the student’s creations in a new slide show with the music to share with others. Just insert their slides in a new presentation, copy and paste the music and play in presentation mode.

Video Tutorial

Check out the video tutorial on YouTube to see how easy it is to work with these Google Slides. You do not need to have Google Classroom to use this resource. You can print the slides out or send them through email. No matter what you do, have fun this Halloween season!

Want to learn about other Halloween Resources? Check Out The MUST DO Halloween Lessons

Free Activities for Teaching Forms of Energy

October 22, 2021 teachersbrain Science, Teacher's Pay Teachers

Teaching sound, light, and energy is an important part of early elementary education. Energy is all around us! The sun that shines down on us, the food we eat, the lights in our home. Understanding forms of energy is essential knowledge to have to understand the way the world works.

Getting our kindergarten, first, or second grade students to understand this concept can be really fun if done right!

When teaching with younger students, just remember to take it slow to start. This lesson can get a little overwhelming. Explain what energy actually is first, and then introduce examples (sound, heat, light).

After that, you can read some books on the topic of energy. This is a great way to add variety to your lesson and increase comprehension.

Then make it fun with science experiments! This is a great time for some hands-on learning. Think Diet Coke and Mentos eruptions or popsicle stick chain reaction activities. These are a great way to see forms of energy in motion.

For more tips for teaching forms of energy, check out my post here.

One of my favorite ways to do that is to use these free forms of energy activities.

These printable activities are easy and fun for kindergarten or first grade students.

Included in this free resource you’ll get:

HOME CONNECTION – Parent Project
Energy – List the items that produce energy
Heat & Light Energy Mini-book
I Spy SOUND objects
What is energy? POSTER

If you want more, you can check out the full resource here. It covers Sound, Heat, and Light with a 3-week plan including 3 inquiry lessons, data notebook pages, a rubric, a home project, and so much MORE!

These activities are great for helping your early elementary students really understand the topic of energy in a fun and engaging way! They will love learning and it will set them up for success in later grades.

What are your favorite ways to teach about forms of energy? Let me know in the comments!

An Exciting Digital Escape Room For High School Students!

October 15, 2021 teachersbrain Distance Learning, Teacher's Pay Teachers

I know it is not normal for this elementary teacher to produce a high school product, but I have high school children who were bored because of the pandemic!

My daughter and her friends all asked me to make a fun digital escape room for them like I do for kindergarten. So, I thought no problem!

Well, let me tell you, since I have no clue about high school curriculum, this took me a lot of painful research and time to create for these high school students to enjoy for about 30 minutes.

But, it is one of my favorite resources because of the research and seeing the joy on the kids faces while they solved the clues together.

This one is an extension activity to the short story The Lottery by Shirley Jackson. I can’t believe I never read this story before or that it is something they read regularly in high school, but it is a great piece of literature!

The escape room I created is great for high school students because it is digital.

So students can do it in the classroom or from home while distance learning or as homework.

To get started, students will read the short story. When they start the escape, they will be tasked with helping Mrs. Hutchinson to escape The Lottery to change her fate.

There is a pdf included in this download with directions, the link to the site, an answer key and an optional note taking worksheet for students. This extension activity takes about 30 to 45 minutes to complete.

To complete this escape room, students will:

Read about Shirley Jackson and answer questions
Solve a Jigsaw Puzzle
Watch a YouTube video and answer questions about The Lottery
Complete a slide puzzle
Solve clues to unlock 4 locks

You can easily share the link in Google Classroom. Students can complete this activity on Chromebooks, laptops, on an iPad or in a computer lab. They can work individually or together for a fun group activity!

Check it out here!

For more escape room ideas, check out my post here!

The STEM Toothpick Challenge That Your Students Will Love!

October 8, 2021 teachersbrain STEM

When working with kindergarten and first grade students, it’s important to keep things fresh and exciting in the classroom. Their attention spans aren’t exactly long and they can get restless easily. STEM activities are a great way to do that!

When I was in the classroom, I was always looking for STEM activities that would make our lessons interesting and exciting for my students. I love STEM because it makes it so easy to increase student learning and educational outcomes. What kid doesn’t love to get their hands dirty and create?!

STEM challenges provide endless possibilities if you have some basic supplies stocked in your classroom.

Some great materials to have on hand include:

Bingo daubers
Whiteboards and Expo markers
Playdough
Pipe cleaners
Small candy
Finger paint
Shaving cream
Popsicle sticks
Aluminum foil
Pencils
Construction paper
Markers
Legos
Cotton balls
Tape
Straws

Another supply we use is tooth picks! These are a great, inexpensive supply you can use for so many things.

Our favorite activity is this STEM Toothpick Challenge.

This is a hands-on activity you can use when you are teaching about 2D and 3D shapes. This resource comes with Build A Shape mats to show students what shapes to make. Just print and laminate them and you can use them year after year.

Students build their 2D and 3D shapes with toothpicks and playdough. You can use marshmallows or gumdrops instead if preferred. Students will engage in STEM thinking as they count the toothpicks, sides, vertices, and trace the words.

Included with this resource you get:

8 2D Mats for shape building
6 3D Mats for shape building
2 Recording sheets
2 Answer keys

This challenge encourages thinking, teaches shape recognition, sides, and vertices, and increases problem solving skills.

Check it out here!

If you are looking for more STEM activities, check out my STEM challenge here that ties in with the book If You Give A Mouse A Cookie by Laura Numeroff.

What are your favorite STEM activities for kindergarten and first grade? Let me know in the comments!