Great Resource: I Love That Teaching Idea

March 8, 2009 by beth Leave a Comment

When I taught sixth grade, one of my favorite resources for creative ideas to use in the classroom was I Love That Teaching Idea. It is a website where teachers submit their creative teaching ideas for others to use. Some even include printable worksheets and forms! The ideas are divided into categories so you can easily locate an idea for any subject!

Here are a couple of example ideas from the Social Studies category

World Map Skills–For a take-home assignment in my class, I make a copy of a world map for each student. The assignment is to look through the yellow pages of a phone book and make a list of all the ethnic restaurants in our area. Then they are to plot on the map where the country is that this food was originated.

The ABC’s of My Great State–At the beginning of a study of your state, have your students keep an “ABC” book that they can add to thoughout your unit. Simply staple or bind 26 pages, each with a letter of the alphabet placed on the page. As students learn about the state bird, for example, they can go to that page in their book and draw a picture of it. Students continue to add to their books until it is full. Title it, “The ABC’s of My Great State!” Older students could even go and share their books with a younger class.

Ancestor Party-Plan a class party where the students each come as an ancestor of theirs. They can wear costumes, and each will tell the rest of the class a little bit about the person they are dressed as. Previous to the party there are activities that can be done, such as writing about the person they will be. We have had students come as a flapper, Butch Cassidy, an Indian, a mom, etc. It was lots of fun.

Next Plan Idea:

Fun End of the School Year Activities for the Classroom

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Reflecting on the Past Year with Kids

I’m in deep denial about the fact that new year is almost upon us again! It’s been the fastest and the longest year at the same time, and I can look back and see some good things as well as some things I wish had gone differently.

Doing a year in review with your kids — whether in the classroom or at home — is a good way to capture some of their memories and the things they really liked about the year gone by.

There are a lot of different printable year in review worksheets you can use if you want to make this super easy. Here are links to a few (often part of larger posts about NYE celebrations with kids that are worth a read, too):

Teach Beside Me has lots of fun printables fro the end of the year, including a year in review that covers favorite memory, funniest memory and the best book they read, among other topics.
NurtureStore‘s version has space for a self-portrait and prompts like favorite toy, best day out this year and future dream job.
Remember favorites, their “best idea” of the year and have room for setting goals for next year with this one from The Keele Deal.
The year in review from Yes We Made This has room for drawing or writing and includes things like something they learned, a memory they made and a place they visited.

Of course you could pretty easily make your own year in review for the whole family to do that asks questions based on what you most want to remember. (Favorite video game? Best friend? Favorite family memory?)

And if after the year in review you’re ready to look ahead a bit, Mrs. Merry has new year’s resolution printables to inspired kids to look ahead and set goals for things they want to try. You can totally fill this one out as a grownup, too.

[Photo: Mrs. Merry]

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