FREE Classroom Ideas for Christmas

Whether your students celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or just the Winter Holiday off from school, as the break for the holidays approaches student attention diminishes!  

Here are a few quick ideas to use with elementary or middle school students as a warm up at the beginning of class or for that last 5-10 minutes of class to give them something to look forward to.  These require access to a computer (ideally 1:1) but can also be done with partners or on a smartphone.

Try these that final few days (or week) before the holiday break:

• Snow Days - Create a snowflake.
• Reindeer Orchestra - Online music creation site
• Design a Gingerbread House
• Christmas Tree Light Up (game)
• Christmas Trivia Quiz
• Present Stacker (strategy game)
• Decorate the Gingerbread Man
• Virtual Gingerbread Cookie
• 
  

FREE Thanksgiving Ideas for the Classroom

Thanksgiving is just around the corner and whether students have a full week off like my district or just the two days of the holiday, they're ready for something extra fun to keep their interest.

In my classroom, students have a daily warm up that generally takes then about five minutes to complete at the start of class.  This is usually a writing prompt of some kind or a quick review question about a previous lesson.  During the holiday season though, I like to give them something fun to do on the computer instead.  If you are 1:1 computers in your classroom, of course this works great, but you can also do it with partners/teams on computers or even let students do it on their smartphones.

Here are a few fun ideas for Thanksgiving:

• Silly Turkey - dress the turkey
• Catch a Thanksgiving Turkey (game)
• Turkey Survival Mission (game)
• What's Your Thanksgiving IQ (trivia)
• Turkey Shoot (game)
• Turkey Swap (puzzle)

I hope your students enjoy these!

212 Degree Attitude

It's that time of year again - back to school.  Some teachers have already started back; others will be starting over the next few weeks.  Regardless of what grade you teach, every teacher wants their students to do their best and be successful.  They want them to push through the challenges and come out on the other side with that "light bulb" moment where their learning makes sense and they feel that sense of achievement.


A few years ago, my principal shared a video clip with us during our professional development before school started call 212:  The Extra Degree.  I teach middle school and many of my students each year just want their work DONE - they don't care about the quality or even if they learned anything.  I started showing this video clip to them and found that a few of these "It's good enough; I'm done" students started to take another look at their work . . . and some other things too.  You might want to use it in your classroom too.  It's a great discussion starter and something you can refer back to as you have those "moments" where students aren't wanting to make an effort.

Back to School: Using Google Forms for Digital Signatures on School Forms

It's back to school time and along with that comes all the paperwork that needs to be sent home for parent signatures.  Then, you have to collect it, determine who has brought back their signed form (and who HASN'T), send reminders, send the papers home again . . . sound familiar???  These quick steps will let you automate all that with Google Forms!

The basic concept:  You will be sending an email to parents with a link to the Google Form you create and attaching any paperwork you want them to read and sign.  Once they complete the form, Google Forms "magically" combines all the information into a spreadsheet format so you can easily see who has signed the forms and send reminder emails to those who haven't.  Easy.  Quick.  Paperless.

How to create the Google Form:

1.  Click on the Google Apps button at the top right of your screen and choose Google Forms.

2.  An untitled form will appear.  You will be using the menu bar on the right to make most of your changes.

3.  First, title your form by click on the words "Untitled Form" at the top left of your screen and typing whatever you'd like for a title (for example:  Back to School Forms for Signature).

4.  Add the information you want to include (you can see my sample at the bottom of this post).  You can include paragraphs, questions, pictures, etc. using the tool bar on the right.  Be sure to choose "required" (bottom right) if you want the parent to not be able to submit the form to you without completing that question.  You can view what your form will look like as you go along by clicking the eye icon at the upper right of the screen.

5.  Change the template to make your form attractive.  You can use one of the templates offered by Google Forms, change the colors, or a picture of your own.  Click on the palette at the top right to see your choices.

6.  Google Forms offers a variety of colors and themes.  Add your own picture if you prefer at the bottom left.

7.  Your changes are automatically saved in your Google Drive (to access it, click on the arrow at the top left of the screen).  When you are finished, send your form by clicking on the SEND button at the top right.  I used the link option and copy/pasted the link provided into an email.  I then attached the forms I needed the parents to review and digitally sign to that email.

These are the samples of what I used.  The first one shows the form in editing mode and the second picture shows what the recipient sees.

I hope you find these helpful as you start the new school year!

What Worked for YOU This Year?

It's that time of year again when we are wrapping up lessons, cleaning up our rooms and preparing to say goodbye to this year's students.  Along with that, most of us are thinking about what lessons and strategies went well this year and which didn't.  The ones we'll use again next year, the ones will modify, and the ones we'll just discard and try something new.

This year, one of the units that was best received by my 8th grade Information Technology students was our unit on Adobe Photoshop.  Not all districts are as lucky as mine - we have access to the entire Adobe Suite of products for our students.  Teenagers LOVE to take pictures and the ability to edit them in different ways is naturally engaging.  Although we did have to cover appropriate use of images of others and discuss the true meaning of "school appropriate", students had a lot of fun with these lessons and learning some valuable skills they can use in high school and throughout life.

This isn't the first year I've taught Adobe Photoshop, but I did approach it a little differently this year.  We started with a basics lesson that included a step-by-step tutorial of mini lessons on the most used features of the program.  Then, they demonstrated their learning of these features in a creative project of their own.  

Feeling comfortable with the menus and features of the program, we moved forward into a short lesson about the most popular photo editing features.  Students learning how to remove red-eye, remove blemishes, etc.  Up next was a challenge where they chose from a variety of tutorials and learned how to do "something cool" like create a new animal from two different pictures.  By now they were pretty comfortable with the program and were really enjoying helping each other create the most amazing pictures.

We spent more time on Adobe Photoshop this year than we have in the past, but students really enjoyed feeling a real sense of mastery with the program!  I'll be adding a couple new "choices" to these lessons for upcoming years, but I'm glad to have invested the time in this.  Students having fun and doing something authentic keeps them engaged and learning and also gave them confidence that they could master a difficult program!

You might also enjoy:

"I Am" Silhouette Project in Adobe Photoshop

Animated GIF in Adobe Photoshop

How to Get a Jump on Next Year . . . Before Summer Even Starts!

It's the last few weeks of the year, and even though there's always lots to do, taking the time to do a few things in preparation for the first days of NEXT year will help make your summer more relaxing!  Here's a few things you can do now and can even have your current students help you with.  My students love helping get the classroom ready for next year's students and think this is fun, not work.

1.  Make copies for the first day of school.  I don't know about your school, but our copiers are always busy or broken at the beginning of the year.  If you have syllabi, parent information/permission forms, student classroom procedures, etc. that you'll be handing out the first day or two of school, consider printing those now and letting your student helpers staple and organize them.  Put them together on a shelf, in a basket or on a cart and that will be one less thing you need to do when you start getting your classroom ready in the fall.

2.  Take down posters, border, bulletin boards, etc. that you are going to change for next year.  Again, I use my student helpers for this.  If you want to get super ambitious, you can start (or even complete!) putting up decorations for next year.  Make a list of things you want for the upcoming list (new border, new letters, etc.) and add these things to your "to do" list so you can obtain these during the summer when you're shopping.  If you need a fun, colorful "to-do" list to motivate you, download this free one.

3.  Start purging things that are out of date, aren't going to be used, or are records that you'll be shredding.  Even if you need to hold on to them until the end, find an empty file cabinet drawer to tuck them into so you can just open the drawer and empty it into the trash or shredder on the last day.

4.  Reflect on what worked this year and what didn't.  You've probably done some of that throughout the year, but it's a great time to consider some of the things you wish you'd done (or wish you'd done differently!).  Add them to the list so you remember them as you're modifying lessons over the summer.

What are some of your tips for getting ahead BEFORE the new school year starts?

Graphic Credits:  Six Picks & Ashley Hughes



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Classroom Expectations Template

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Middle School Memories - Three End of the Year Activities

Middle School Memories

My 8th graders are entering their last three weeks in Middle School and even though most of them don't really want to admit it, they're having some conflicting emotions right now.  They're anxious (and apprehensive) about going to high school next year - leaving a school they've been at for 3 years and a place where they're now the "Big Men (or Women) on Campus" to go to a new school with new teachers and new classes.  For most, it means leaving behind some of their friends who are going to a different high school (our district has three high schools).  

Right now, it is difficult to get them to focus on school, no matter how entertaining the lesson.  They want to think back over their memories of friends and fun, and look ahead to the fall when they'll be enjoying new experiences.  So, I came up with a few lessons that let them learn some new skills AND get a chance to reflect back or look ahead.



Idea #1: “I’ll Always Remember” project in PowerPoint. Students combine pictures with a short paragraph about a specific memory they will “always remember” from each of their classes in a PowerPoint presentation and then share these.  Get the full lesson.

Idea #2: Memories from the Year video project gives students an opportunity to share their memories from the school year as a culminating activity to the year. It uses the Web 2.0 tool, WeVideo, which is convenient for teachers and students since it does not require download. Students use existing pictures and videos or shoot additional ones and then combine those with WeVideo’s built in music to create a video retrospective of the year. Get the full lesson.

Idea #3: Showcasing the Year’s Best Work in an Online Weebly Portfolio utilizes the free Web 2.0 tool www.weebly.com to create an online portfolio/web site. No download is required to use the product, making it easy for teachers who are not able to download software on classroom computers to still give their students a choice in learning.  Students enjoy looking back at all their accomplishments for the year and seeing how their work has improved too! Get the full lesson.