education Archives - Page 6 of 13

Valentine’s Day Escape Room Students Will Love

January 15, 2022 teachersbrain education, Winter

One of the latest trends making waves in the education world (and in the outside world too), is escape rooms. If you don’t already know, escape rooms are a game where people (or in our case students) work together to solve clues, puzzles, or complete designated tasks in order to “escape the room” in a set amount of time. Sounds fun, right?!

These games are so exciting because they are very immersive. The interactive aspect really makes you feel like you are living the story of the escape room!

In the classroom, escape rooms can include puzzles or tasks related to the skills you are working on in your lessons. This makes it an educational activity for students that feels like fun, not work!

With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, I wanted an escape room that had a fun and festive Valentine’s Day theme while still being an engaging way to work on skills in the classroom.

So, I created this Valentine’s Day Escape Room!

This Valentine’s Day mystery requires little prep and includes detailed directions, 3 clues to solve, a video hook, and set-up photos to help you put it all together. The set-up checklist will help you ensure that everything runs smoothly for the activity.

To start, students will watch the video hook or introduction to learn about their mission. Then they will be tasked with solving 3 clues using comprehension skills. If you find that any of the activities are too easy for your students, there are additional activities included to differentiate. Students will practice teamwork skills while solving clues to help learn about holiday vocabulary and number patterns.

The clues will help them unlock the box and claim their prize. For prizes, you can use candy, homework passes, or bookmarks. Whatever you choose!

The supplies needed are simple. You’ll need a box , some surprises to put inside the box (homework passes and bookmarks are provided), pencils, 6 large file folders (or regular folders), candy hearts (paper ones are provided if you don’t want to use real candy) and magnifying glasses (2 or more).

This activity is so engaging! It’s so fun to see how excited students get to put their detective skills to work so they can solve the clues.

What are your favorite Valentine’s Day activities for elementary? Let me know in the comments!

How to Celebrate the 120th Day of School Virtually

December 31, 2021 teachersbrain Distance Learning, education, Teaching Tips

It’s a tradition in elementary school to celebrate when you reach a milestone in class. This could be reaching our reading goals, mastering sight words, counting, or reaching a certain number of days at school!

For kindergarten, it’s typical to celebrate the 100th day of school. In first grade, however, it’s more standard to celebrate making it to 120 days instead. Counting to 120 is a goal for many first graders and this is a fun way to tie our celebration in with our class counting goals.

If you are a teacher looking for some fun activities to do on the 120th day of school, you’re in the right spot! Here are some simple and exciting ways students can celebrate reaching this milestone.

Bring in 120 items. Students can find 120 pieces of an item at home to bring into the classroom. This gives them practice counting to 120 in a way that doesn’t feel like practice! Bonus, it is fun for students to show their classmates what they accomplished. They can bring 120 paperclips, beads, Legos, etc.
Draw yourself as a 120-year-old. This one is such a fun activity for students. Have them create a picture of themselves as a 120-year-old and write about it.
Create a frame with 120 boxes for students to put small snacks into (think cheerios, m&ms, or goldfish)

If you are teaching virtually or just looking for some activities that can be done easily online with your students (no cleanup!), I have you covered!

These virtual 120th day of school activities give you several engaging activities to choose from to celebrate this exciting milestone.

Some activities included are:

120-second scavenger hunt
Make yourself or your teacher look 120 years old
120th-day fitness checklist
120th-day dot-art
Narrative and opinion writing prompts
Add 120 buttons to a sweater
Make a clown
And so much more!

This resource is available on Google Slides so you can send it to your class virtually or use them in your classroom. Movable parts make this an interactive and hands-on activity that students will love.

Want to learn more about how it works? Check out the video tutorial!

There are so many ways to make this day special, even if you are teaching online.

I hope you and your students have lots of silly fun with these activities!

Black Friday Starts TODAY for Pre-K – 3rd Grade TEACHERS

November 24, 2021 teachersbrain education

Starting TODAY until November 29, 2021, you can make plans this winter easier and increase student engagement with these DEEPLY DISCOUNTED Black Friday Resources!
We listened to what you wanted to help you take your weekends back!

SAVE 50% and MORE on these LIMITED TIME Black Friday Special Bundles!

BLACK FRIDAY SPECIALS:

Escape Room Bundle for First Grade
According to our survey, a lot of you have never tried escape rooms in your class. I would love to see that change this year! The students get so excited while learning! I think you will love them if you give them a try. Once you do one, the others follow the same pattern and become easy for you to set up and students to participate. There are 9 escape rooms for in-person teaching in this bundle. All of them can be used in first grade.
Reg $47 ONLY $19.99

Winter Activities Bundle K-3rd Grade
This bundle was the most requested from you. It includes:
Winter Would You Rather
Winter Directed Drawing with Writing
Winter Sports Interactive Notebook
A Melted Snowman Craft and Bulletin Board Set
3 Weeks of Winter Creative Writing with Animation
Holidays Around the World In-Person Escape Room
Winter Snow Literacy Center Activities
PLUS a BONUS! Editable Thank You Cards, Bookmarks, and Writing Paper

Digital Escape Room Bundle K-2nd
If you like digital lessons because of the low prep and no printing, this bundle is great for you!
It includes 10 Digital Escapes created using Google Sites. You don’t have to have Google Classroom, but you will need to make sure your IT has your computer and your student computers cleared for each site. This is easy by practicing on my TEST SITE using the link provided in the description.

ALPHABET Centers Bundle for Pre-K & Kindergarten
Regularly $78 ONLY $19.99
It covers every letter of the alphabet with crafts and worksheets! Over 450 Pages!

Kindergarten Curriculum ALL YEAR, EVERY SUBJECT
(Guided Reading, Math Centers, Writing, Science and Social Studies) You will find lots of bonus material in this bundle.
This price is the lowest its ever been priced.
OVER 3000 PAGES You will never scramble for another resource. This gets updated often too.

Exciting Ways To Teach Community Helpers

August 13, 2021 teachersbrain education, kindergarten survival, Teacher's Pay Teachers, Teaching Tips

One of the important lessons we cover in kindergarten or first grade is on the topic of community helpers. We generally consider this to be police officers, firefighters, doctors, nurses, construction workers, mail carriers, etc. This is a great way to teach about the different kinds of people who help in our community. It helps students further understand how a community works and the important roles these people play.

There are tons of ways you can teach this lesson and make it super fun and engaging for your students!

Here are some of my favorite ways to teach about community helpers.

Bring in guest speakers. Reach out to some of the community helpers in your area and ask them to come in and speak to the class! This can be parents in that profession, or friends. The guest can share what they do, how they help the community, and what a typical day in their profession looks like.
Keep a journal. As students are learning about the different community helpers, have them keep a journal about the different people. They can draw pictures of them in uniform and get some writing practice by writing a couple of sentences about who they are and what they do.
Discuss the differences between long ago and today. How were the jobs different? Are they easier now? This is a great activity to encourage critical thinking.
List the different occupations. Use this list to get students thinking about what they want to be when they grow up. They can write it in their journal and you can go around the classroom sharing.
Read books about community helpers. Whenever possible, adding a story or two about your topic will enrich your lessons.
Watch videos about community helpers. There are lots of options available on Youtube. This video includes a fun song for students to sing or dance along to.

Looking for more activities to do during your community helpers lesson? Check out my Community Helpers resource!

This download is nine weeks of lessons designed to easily create a journal for students to use, interactive notebook pages, posters, and so much more! It covers three topics, Community Jobs, Tools and Equipment for Jobs, and Today vs. Long Ago.

This resource covers 9 full weeks of detailed lesson plans. You’ll get everything listed above and some extras including poems and songs, how to dial 911, cut and label activities for different community helpers, a volunteer art handprint gift, police officer hat/headband, police badges, and firefighter hats. Everything you need for this exciting social studies topic!

What are your favorite ways to teach about this topic? Let me know in the comments!

Looking for more social studies fun? Check out my year long social studies bundle for kindergarten and first grade!