Teach the Teacher Activity

This is a fun end of the school year idea for older kids who have some good reading and writing skills.

Editors note: The original link from More than a Worksheet has now expired as the domain is no longer there. However the free printable was still available via the linked resource and we have updated the link below with this copy.

The teach the teacher printable from More than a Worksheet asks kids to come up with something they can teach their teacher how to do and write about how to do it.

She says she usually gives kids a couple of weeks to plan and prepare their lessons (which gives them an idea of how tough it is for their teachers to plan lessons every day!) but you could also let kids team up to come up with a quick lesson like how to tie your shoes, how to do a yoga pose or a gymnastics move.

Of course this would be more meaningful if the kids choose something they know how to do that not everyone else already knows.

There’s even an evaluation for so the teacher or other students can grade the presentation and the lesson plan. It’s such a fun idea for those kids who love doing reports and presentations.

[Photo: More than a Worksheet.] Teach the Teacher Activities and Lesson Plans That Put Students in Charge

Did you know that October is Squirrel Awareness Month? I didn’t know we needed more awareness of these little creatures, but let’s take it as a sign to learn more about squirrels!

Let’s start with some fun facts via Kids Konnect: did you know there are five subfamilies and more that 280 species of squirrels? The smallest are pygmy squirrels and the largest, the Bhutan giant flying squirrel, can be longer that 4 feet (1.2 meters).

Tree squirrels can climb down trees so fast because their ankles can rotate 180 degrees, allowing them to grab the tree bark as they go down. While most squirrels don’t survive their first year of life, they can live five to 10 years in the wild and squirrels have been known to live up to 20 years in captivity!

Rhythms of Play has more fun facts and tips for observing squirrels if you want to add some real life nature to your nature study.

We always like to start these collections with life cycle and parts of the animal printables, so let’s grab the squirrel life cycle an parts of a squirrel worksheets from Montessori Nature. (It doesn’t look like these are free any more but they have a whole unit study on squirrels you can buy that includes life cycle and parts activities, characteristics of different kinds of squirrels, a printable poster, information about predators and more.)

Grab the squirrel lapbook printable (free with email address) from Homeschool Share to learn the parts of a squirrel, where they live, what they eat, whether they hibernate and more. There’s also a nut taste test printable, a place for making observations about squirrels, life cycle of an oak tree, games and more.

Simple Everyday Mom has some cute squirrel themed worksheets including tracing the letter s, labeling the parts of a squirrel and a letter s maze. She also has more activity pages with a squirrel theme, including matching, a more traditional maze and a counting and graphing activity.

Work on letter recognition with this squirrel and acorn game printable from Teaching Mama. I love the idea of hiding the letters in a fall themed sensory bin for kids to find, identify and match to the letter on the worksheet.

For older kids you can do this “if I were a squirrel” writing prompt from Lesson Planet.

And throw in a little counting with these squirrel and acorn tens frame printables from JDaniel4’s Mom, which you can use to count real acorns or any other little fall themed thing you have handy.

Have you read?

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