Great Resource: I Love That Teaching Idea

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.

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Teach the Teacher Activities and Lesson Plans That…

Human brains are pretty amazing, allowing us to think, feel, create, communicate, move and more. But humans aren’t the only animals with cool brains, as Crab Museum explains in the book The No-Brainer Brain Explainer (illustrated by Bruno Valasse).

This book, aimed at kids in grades 1-4, is colorful and silly but also educational about how brains actually work, with billions of neurons sending electrical and chemical signals around the body.

“Everything we think, feel and experience comes from an electrical relay race, with neurons passing chemical batons to each other,” the book says. “The constant chatter of billions of brain cells creates your entire world.”

The book compares the brains of mammals to those of crabs (the book is “written” by a crab after all) and notes that crabs have fewer neurons and of course are much smaller, but they have separate parts of their brains that control their eyes and their legs. Crabs are also capable of remembering things, using tools and solving puzzles.

Some animals’ brains allow them to know more about their world in different ways from humans, such as spiders being sensitive to vibrations in their webs and catfish having an amazing sense of taste, with taste sensors all over their bodies.

It notes that 95 percent of brain activity goes toward things we do unconsciously, like breathing, walking and catching a ball flying toward us. It also talks about dreams, memory, how our emotions try to predict the future, where brains came from and fun facts about brains. For example, did you know a sperm whale is believed to have the biggest brain of any creature that’s even lived? Their brains weigh 18 pounds, compared to just 2.5 pounds for humans.

Information on what creatures have the smallest brains, the toughest brains, the most brains and those who actually eat their own brains will delight kids (and maybe gross them out a little bit). They’ll also enjoy learning about the mycelium network of fungi, which is like a brain without a body, and slime molds, which are like a brain without a brain.

It ends talking about why human brains are so special because we’ve found ways to work together, communicate and build communities on a scale bigger than any other animal.

Kids and adults alike will enjoy this colorful, silly and informational book about brains!

About the book: 64 pages, hardcover. Published 2026 by Wide Eyed Editions. Suggested retail price $19.99.

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