Teaching FUN for end of FEB

It’s almost time to say goodbye February, hello March! Valentine’s Day and Presidents’ Day have come and gone, however Black History Month is still in full swing!

Here are 5 fun and easy teacher-tested ideas to help you teach your students during Black History Month.

1. Have your students select an influential person related to Black History and represent them to the class.  (2012′s theme is “Black Women in American Culture and History”)
2. Write a play about women who influenced the abolition movement.
3. Integrate tidbits about black history and culture into every subject you teach.
4. Select art by influential black artists and use the pictures to decorate your classroom.
5.  Write rhythmic songs that mimic the music movement in black history.

Do you have a favorite Black History Month activity or lesson that would like to share?

 

Continue Random Acts of Kindness

HAPPY ST. VALENTINE

In addition to Valentine’s Day, this week (February 13^th-19^th) is Random Acts of Kindness Week? We love that teachers are sharing the love, and challenging their students to show kindness in small and/or big ways. Along with the Kindness Week Kickoff Project – below are some easy ways to help your students celebrate Random Acts of Kindness all week:

1. Make Cards for a Nursing Home or Local Business.  Help your little artists make cards or pictures and then deliver them to cheer the residents at a local nursing home or to help decorate the offices of a local business.
2. Help other kids.  If you teach older students in a school, have your students to go read stories, tutor or play with the kids in a younger class.
3. Make a Wall of Kindness in your classroom.  Have your kids write all the ways they can show kindness both now and throughout the school year on slips of paper and then post them on a wall of kindness to remind them.
4. Who’s Kind?  Research kind “heroes” from throughout history or literature and have each kid write a report about one person who inspired them to be kind.
5. Write letters.  Help your kids write letters home to their parents or grandparents telling them how much they love and appreciate them.
6. Start Kindness Journals.  Give each kid a notebook and ask them to record each time they do or see an act of kindness and how that act made them feel.
7. Create a Kindness Chain. Start a chain of kindness that will reach your whole school or your whole city by challenging another classroom (or the whole school) to do something kind for someone else.
8. The Giving Tree.  Read “The Giving Tree” by Shel Silverstein and discuss how the tree showed kindness to the boy even when the boy wasn’t showing it in return.

How do you celebrate Random Acts of Kindness Week?

 

Kindness Week Kickoff!

Ask students to list the names of the other students in the room on a sheet of paper, leaving a space between each name.

Think of the nicest thing they could say about each of their classmates and write it down and turn in. Only positive comments are acceptable.

Write the name of each student on a separate sheet of paper, and list what everyone else said about that individual.

Give each student his or her list. Before long, the entire class will be smiling.

Tell the students to fold them up and see how long they can keep them. 

KINDNESS COUNTS!

 

School Calendar – February

A friendly reminder of upcoming events in the month of February from imagestuff.com.

This week: National School Counseling Week highlights the tremendous impact that school counselors can have in helping students achieve success in school. School Counseling Week Feb 6-10

Other important dates:

Black History Month Feb 1-29

Kindness Week Feb 13-19

Valentines Day Feb 14

Presidents Day Feb 20

Download February FREEBIES:

FREE Kindness Certificate. Random Acts of Kindness Week is February 13-19. Kick off the week by awarding all of your students a certificate, or reward random acts of kindness throughout the week with this certificate. However you choose to use it, you students will be proud to receive a RAK certificate!

Check out this fun and easy to implement RAK classroom project

Students can learn Presidential Trivia and have fun with this Presidential Trivia crossword.

For younger students, this “If I Were The President” book project is cute!

Happy February!

 

Valentine BragTags™ WINNER

THANK YOU for the fun comments and ideas for Valentines BragTags™!

Congratulations to the winner – Jennifer Knopf!

EVERYONE CAN BE A WINNER with this FREE Kindness Certificate. Random Acts of Kindness Week is February 13-19. Kick off the week by awarding all of your students a certificate, or reward random acts of kindness throughout the week with this certificate. However you choose to use it, you students will be proud to receive a RAK certificate! Also, check out this fun and easy to implement RAK classroom project.

 

Just in Time for a Valentine! GIVEAWAY

 

VALENTINE’S GIVEAWAY CONTEST One lucky winner will receive 40 personalized Valentines Day tags and neck chains!

 

ONE CONTEST RULE: Leave a comment on this post answering the question:

In what clever/creative way will you use your BragTags™ for Valentines day if you were to win?

WInner will be announced MONDAY, FEBRUARY 6TH. (So you can receive the tags before Valentines Day!)

Check out the cute cookie bag our aunt created using our heart tags as a name tag and twisty.

 

 

 

Just Around The Corner

Whew! Does anyone else feel like January just flew by? With February just around the corner, a few important dates come to mind. When planning for February, you may find these dates useful.

Presidents Day – February 20

Students can learn Presidential Trivia and have fun with this Presidential Trivia crossword. For younger students, this “If I Were The President” book project is cute!

Valentines Day: February 14

Check out this darling valentine treat bag that my aunt (a retired teacher) made for her friends. She used our heart BragTags™ as a name tag and twisty! The uses for BragTags™ are limitless! Do you have a clever way to utilize BragTags™?

National School Counseling Week: February 6-10

Random Acts of Kindness Week: February 13-19

Click here for list of other special recognized days/weeks for the school year

Don’t forget about Science Fair!

 

High Five! We have five winners!

Thank you everyone for the valuable feedback and AWESOME suggestions. Our next giveaway will involve BragTags™ – so if you didn’t win a set of Flash Tags, you still have more chances to win other fun stuff!

Congratulations to our five winners!

Cindy Luoma

Rachael Sterling

Carey Waye

Jennifer Harper

Sandra Matadamas

 From the “imagestuff.com girls” (and owners) – we thank you!

Kim & Stacey

Here are a few “scientific fun facts”:

1. Your brain is 80% water.
2. Sound travels about 4 times faster in water than in air.
3. Oak trees produce 2,200 acorns in a season, but each acorn only has a 1 in 10,000 chance of becoming an oak tree.

Check out fun science stuff here! 

 

WIN Flash Tags – one day left!

WE NEED YOUR HELP

Answer two simple questions and you may be ONE of FIVE winners. Each winner will receive both sets of these super cute FlashTags™ for your classroom.

There are 90 tags in the addition set and 54 tags in the subtraction set. Students can quiz each other in classroom study groups, or use them individually. Implement a system for students to “check out” the FlashTags™ for home study. Tags are organized together on 4″ key chains, so keeping them maintained and all in one place is easy! More details here.

WIN TAGS FOR YOUR CLASSROOM:

Please answer 2 questions in a comment on this blog post, and you could WIN a set of FlashTags™ for your classroom. Your comments and email will be added to the contest drawing. The winners will be contacted on or before January 17.

1. Would you find these flash tags useful?  If your answer is no, please explain how they could be changed to make them more useful?

2. Would you pay $24 for the set of 90 addition tags & chains and $15 for the set of 54 subtraction tags & chains?

Thanks for your help! We respect your expertise and appreciate your feedback!

(Edit)

 

Keeping up with the…”Johnson’s”

You’ve heard of “keeping up with the Jones” – well recently I read about another family we should all try to keep up with – the Johnson’s! Ok, yes I first read about them in “People” magazine (my guilty pleasure) – but then immediately researched the article to learn more about this ZERO WASTE FAMILY.

See the yellow circle around the jar? That is the amount of trash this family of four threw out over the course of ONE YEAR! Wow. Bea Johnson’s philosophy is simple:

Refuse, refuse, refuse. Then reduce, reuse, and recycle (and only in that order).

Truly inspiring; check out her blog. There is a short video in the “about” section, that shows a glimpse into this lifestyle. The family is adorable and Bea has a cute french accent! If only all elementary, junior high and high school students think and live the same way her two son’s do, our future would be even brighter.

I love her “top 10 TIPS“!

Reading articles like this, makes me think of one person. My mom. She has lived somewhat like this for most of my life. She continues to go in this direction with composting, re-using, re-cycling, organic gardening and inspiring others around her to do the same.

My new New Years Resolutions: Along with my re-usable grocery tote – I’ll bring jars for bulk items to the grocery store and farmers market. I’ll start composting again and fight junk mail. (To get off lists go to: dmachoice.org or catalogchoice.org).

I’m sure you’re all doing something already! Can you think of a New Years Resolution heading more in the “zero waste direction”? Hope 2012 is CLEANER and GREENER for all of us!