Who says you can’t make money teaching? Each year I use a token economy as a system to encourage students to help in the classroom with attitude and work, and in the first day of school we make coins out of homemade dough with ¾” PVC to roll stamp them out with. It’s nice to have some textures to press in the dough, too. That’s what I call rolling in the dough! Or, at least, rolling it out.
In preparation you can read “The Story of Money” by Betsy Maestro, which actually can take a couple of hours to get through orally, or you can give a brief history of money from Wikipedia or this nice concise version from PBS. Any of these can also be read or introduced during the making of the money. The idea, though, of working together on a physical task, is that it allows conversation to happen, and we are the people who also teach how to be a person.
Writing-Shared Pen
Be playful in your approach. This lesson is at its best when the students are engaged and involved in writing together.
Book Bingo
At the beginning of the year, I introduce Book Bingo to my students. At that time, I send home the instructions, a sample Book Bingo Review and the Book Bingo Grid. I make mass copies of the Book Bingo Review to keep in a drawer in my classroom that students can easily access as they finish books. I also post the Book Bingo Review, Grid, and Instructions in my classroom and on my website for access at home. To keep organized and to make sure students are reading on their grade level or slightly above, I created an Approval Sheet for each student where I record each title, the date and the category. I can then tick off each book as they turn in the summary as an easy reference for keeping track of progress. I keep these sheets in a binder.
Health
Lesson Instructions Student will use inhaler properly Materials Vocabulary Pictures Inhaler Lesson Duration 15 minutes Placement Beginning Categories Health Standards Common Core ELA Common Core ELA Language Other/Alternative Standard(s)
Big Words; Big Ideas
Essential Question- How do the things that Martin Luther King Jr. said in the 1960’s, during the Civil Rights Movement, relate to our lives today?
Lesson Summary- Students will review what they already know about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. based on previous classroom activities and discussions. The instructor will read the book “Martin’s Big Words”, asking students to think about how the things Dr. King said relate to their own lives. Students will then choose from a sampling of preselected quotes by Dr. King and draw a picture showing what that quote means to them. The lesson will conclude with reviewing the song “We Shall Overcome” and thinking about the lyrics in light of what we have learned.
Fruit Salad Fractions
Essential Question- How are fractions used?
Lesson Summary
Students will each receive a quantity of fruit that will be used to create a fruit salad. Students will be given specific directions on how to divide their fruit in to 2, 3, or 4 equal pieces, depending on what type of fruit it is. Once students successfully assemble their fruit salad, they will be able to eat it!
Harry Potter and the Recessive Allele
This is a lesson I’ve used for years to introduce my students to punnett squares and terminology used when studying genetics. The power point is interactive Before I begin the power point I go over the vocabulary on the student sheet…
Space Wars
of the ruler, starting from the first mark on the ruler and not the edge of the ruler, unless the zero is at the edge.
Tangram Areas
I have used this lesson successfully with first, second, and third grade gifted students and a third grade regular education class.
Everything Filled
It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for ‘lorem ipsum’ will uncover many web sites still in their infancy. Various versions have evolved over the years, sometimes by accident, sometimes on purpose (injected humour and the like).