April is Poetry Month - Free Resources - Shel Silverstein

Every kids loves poems and illustrations by Shel Silverstein.  www.ShelSilverstein.com has some great poetry packets to help teach kids to write different types of poetry and illustrate them. 

These ideas will work with all ages and they can get super creative, or you can give them a specific theme to write the poems about.  Perfect for decorating a bulletin board.  It would be fun to have a poetry show where students share their artwork and present their poem.  Parents would love to attend.


More ways to share poetry.

•      Pick an expressive or abstract poem, read it out loud to students and have them illustrate the poem.
• Show the students pictures and have them share what they were thinking about when they were listening to the poem.
• Have a discussion about what they think the author was thinking or what the poem means.  You would be surprised at what context clues that students will pick up on.
• Read the words of a popular song.
• Explain to students that songs are poems set to music.

 

Make a Scrapbook

It might seem like a simple idea, but kids really love it.  Take a few snap shots when you are doing a fun activity and print them out.  Put them in a binder on cute paper and allow students to write about that day.  Even if only a few of them want to write a few sentences it would be fun for them to look and read later.  I have a book that I kept when I left my job after 15 years.  The kids enjoyed it while it was there and now it is great memories for me!

Extended Day Halloween Pumpkin Painting

 

Teaching Kids about Advertising Tricks - Sooper Goop! PERSUASIVE WRITING!

A fun way to teach kids things is through films.  I have always had a 16mm projector and plenty of films on hand.  I know, I know, most people wouldn't even know how to use one.  But, many of those fantastic educational films are on the internet now and available for you to share with your students.

This film, Sooper Goop, teaches kids about how cereal advertisers fool them into thinking their product is SUPER when it actually isn't.

I have used this, and other films about advertising, to teach kids about how to be aware of the commercials they see and to not let it influence them too much.  We talk about the different strategies they use to make things look or sound better than they are.

In addition I have broken the kids into small groups and allowed them to come up with some advertising for any random object that I give them.  They have to give it a dynamic name, draw a logo, and write a fun advertisement that they can act out for the group later.  You can even record them to make a commercial! 

This could be a great week long project.  With about 30 minutes a day of activity.

See update about Persuasive Writing at the end!

Day 1
   Watch the Super Goop film and talk about how advertising works and have the kids identify what they do to make things sound better than they are.  Make a chart to keep for future use.

Day 2
    Watch some fun vintage commercials and let the kids point out what they did to make things sound great and if they think it's true about the product.  Possibly add to the chart.

Day 3
    Separate the kids into groups, give them an object, and allow them to write a commercial and advertising(logos) to make it sound SUPER.  Have them use at least two of the advertising strategies on the chart.

Day 4
    Continue work on their advertising and commercial they can act out.

Day 5
    Act out commercial for the entire group.  You record it for commercials and let them watch it later.

Kids who are allowed to be creative can have a ton of fun and learn something important!

UPDATE, PERSUASIVE WRITING!

You can also include lessons on Persuasive Writing. I was substitute teaching today and the teacher asked me to teach a lesson about Persuasive Writing. As I was teaching it the students said it sounded like a commercial!   I forgot to take a photo of my anchor chart. Dang!  Anywho, it looked something like this.

I used some examples about Eating healthy to make a persuasive poster.

I then asked students to talk in small groups to brainstorm some ideas and they came up with some great ones.   Connect the advertising lesson with persuasive writing and the classroom teachers will thank you!

Read Across America - Dr Seuss Birthday - March 1

It's Dr Seuss Birthday on March 1.  Most school celebrate Read Across America Day.  There are LOTS of activities on Teaching Blog Addict.  Fun and education!  That's the goal of a great afterschool program!

 

St. Patricks or Spring Cupcakes - Rainbow

This would be a great cooking project to do with your littles if you have access to an oven.  If you are in a school, the industrial oven will cook faster, so keep your eye on them!

Kids LOVE to help with cooking projects!  You might want to start by reviewing good hand washing practices and then having them do a really good hand wash.  Give every student gloves and instruct them not to touch anything but utensils for food prep.

Basically you will make white cupcake batter as normal, but split it into 6 different containers and color it with food coloring.  Then you will pour a little of each color in each muffin cup, in order.  When cooked it will look like a rainbow.  It's a lot of work but comes out looking great!

Here's the link to the recipe.
 
http://spoonful.com/recipes/taste-rainbow

You'll need:

White Cake Mix.  Enough for as many kids as you have. I always make a couple of extras for building staff that are still there when you are enjoying your treat.

Cupcake Cups

Frosting

Food Coloring

Mixing Bowl including 6 smaller bowls, or cups for separating the batter.

Great jobs for kids....

• Start by having one of them read all of the cooking instructions on the cake mix box.
• Talk about how important it is to read all instructions first, that way you know what you will need to do and hopefully you won't mess anything up.
• Make sure you have all ingredients and utensils ready to go.
• Have kids pour pre-measured items into the mixing bowl.
• Stirring (Each can do it for a short time.)
• Teach them to break eggs and have an older student break the egg over a seperate bowl (incase of shells) and someone else can pour it in.
• Checking off steps on the directions and reading the next direction.
• You should do the food coloring to make sure you don't get too much, which can ruin the color.
• Have students take the colored frosting by the spoonful and pour it in.  That way the amounts should be pretty consistant.

 This could be done in different color combinations for different holidays, School colors, etc.

Fun Science Experiment - Yummy too!

I have created a fun and tasty science experiment for students.  Kids of all ages can do this experiment, although little ones will need help.  This would be a great small group activity with older students acting as the helpers and mentors.  Of course, they also will need a little guidance as well.


The Incredible Gummi Worm

If you don't have a budget to spend on lesson plans, just let me know and I will be happy to send it to you.  I understand how that works! 
At any rate it is only $1 on TeachersPayTeachers.com.

 

 

Making the Best of Recess #4 in a Series

To see all posts in this series click here.

Making the Best of Recess Series

Involvement

• Some kids don’t play at recess, and that is okay, if it is truly their choice.  The best way to get kids to hate exercise is to force them to do it.  For many kids, they don’t think of recess as exercise, but as fun.  If they are having fun, they can play and get the break and exercise that they need.  Once it becomes a forced activity, all the fun goes out of it.
• If they aren’t playing, but don’t seem happy about it, it is your responsibility to try to find out why and help solve the problem if you can.
• Is the child being bullied or otherwise excluded by the other children?
• Is the child having vision or mobility problems that are preventing them for entering a game?
• Try to encourage adaptations to a game to include students who have disabilities.
• Is a child feeling that the games or certain players aren’t fair?
• Review the rules of the game, or make sure that everyone knows the rules of a game that the kids have made up on their own.
• You may have to help with team choices to make sure that the teams are somewhat equal. 
• If the kids have organized their own game, it’s best to not intervene.  Let them set the rules and make the teams.  However, there are times when you will have to jump in and make a few changes or help facilitate teams, rules and fairness if arguments begin
• Sometimes kids just don’t know what to do at recess.  Give some ideas to the group about playing games they know well and can organize and play on their own.  If they have a problem playing on their own, be a coach and slowly work away after a few recesses, or assign a different sideline coach each day.  This would be a great way for some kids to build leadership skills.