The Joy of Teaching – Page 34 of 46

March 8, 2016
by Evan-Moor
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Math Activities for Pi Day

March 14 is known as Pi Day and it’s also the birthday of Albert Einstein. The Exploratorium in San Francisco, California, began Pi Day celebrations over 25 years ago that have now captured the attention of math enthusiasts, globally. The celebration of Pi Day brings opportunities to have some fun with pi-related math activities and perhaps eat a piece of pie!

The Greek letter “π”

Pi is the mathematical constant that has been described as a “complex way to describe the simplest shape.” Pi (or “π”) is the symbol for the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, which is a never-ending number and approximated at 3.14159.

Classroom Activities to Celebrate Pi

Free activity from Basic Math Skills

Free printable pi activity: Area and Circumference of Circles: These math activity pages for grade 6+ help students determine the area and circumference of circles in order to answer riddles, use the concept of “pi”, and solve other problems. From Evan-Moor’s Basic Math Skills

Education World Pi Day Activities: This article shares many ideas for how teachers can celebrate pi in the classroom, such as investigations of the value of pi, special pi projects, and parties with pizza or other kinds of “pi.”

The Exploratorium Activities and Links: This site offers ideas for pi-related activities and recommended links. In one activity, “Seeing π,” students measure a can of tennis balls and have to determine “Which do you think is greater, the height or the circumference of the can?” The answer may not be as obvious as it appears!

A Brief History of Pi

Pi has been known for almost 4000 years.
The ancient Babylonians calculated the area of a circle by taking 3 times the square of its radius, which gave a value of pi = 3.
The Egyptians calculated the area of a circle by a formula that gave the approximate value of 3.1605 for pi.
The first calculation of pi was done by Archimedes of Syracuse (287–212 BC) who approximated the area of a circle by using the Pythagorean Theorem to find the areas of two regular polygons. Archimedes showed that pi is between 3 1/7 and 3 10/71.
A similar approach was used by Zu Chongzhi (429–501), a brilliant Chinese mathematician and astronomer.
Mathematicians began using the Greek letter π in the 1700s.
An Eighteenth century French mathematician named Georges Buffon devised a way to calculate pi based on probability.

Source: The Exploratorium

Have a happy Pi Day!

Image of Theresa Wooler Theresa Wooler has more than 10 years’ experience in K–6 classrooms as a parent volunteer and homeschool educator, has taught high school English, and is currently involved in education through Evan-Moor’s marketing communications team.

Picture of flower image from Evan-Moor's Find the flower activity

February 25, 2016
by Evan-Moor
3 Comments

Hands-on Thinking Activities: Find the Flower

Free download: Find the Flower hands-on thinking activity

As soon as the first wildflowers start to bloom, there is one game that appears in our homeschool room each year. My kids really enjoy solving the logic puzzles (their exact quote was “This is SO fun! I really like these puzzles.”). I am thrilled that this game is great for improving their logic skills!

Using logic skills is essential for both kids and adults to thrive in life! However, actually teaching our kids to use logic is something that is easily forgotten.

To teach logic, I use one of my very favorite Evan-Moor resources, Hands-on Thinking Activities (available for Grades 1—3 and Grades 4—6). I make sure to use it throughout the year. The full-color printables, which are part of the game, make it even more eye-catching for the kids.

In the spring, we play the Find the Flower game. I simply cut out each numbered flower and space them out on a table. Then my kids use the printable sheet of clues to reason which flower matches each set of clues.

It is so simple, but the benefits are truly grand. The kids are so focused; their brains are thinking and their problem-solving skills are sharpening! My kids really do enjoy doing activities from Hands-on Thinking Activities. I aim for all of my activities to engage my kids this much.

If you haven’t tried Hands-on Thinking Activities, it is my favorite Evan-Moor resource. It is the first Evan-Moor book that caught my attention years ago, and it has been a hit with my kids every time I have used it.

Hands-on Thinking Activities is the perfect resource for workbox activities. I make sure I add it to my list of activities we do each month so that my kids are actively practicing logic in fun ways they enjoy.

Also, keep in mind that you can get instant access to both levels of Hands-on Thinking Activities by joining TeacherFileBox. You can try TeacherFileBox for free, too! Once you join, click on “Browse by Title” to search for Hands-on Thinking Activities. You will find all the activities inside the book listed for you to click and print.

What do you think? Do your kids like solving puzzle clues? Tell me in the comment section.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Amy Michaels is a certified teacher with 11 years of elementary classroom experience who is actively homeschooling her own children. Her mission is share the best teaching methods and resources with all homeschoolers. Amy supports parents through her podcasts, webinars, and online training for homeschoolers on her website http://www.thrivehomeschooling.com.

February 18, 2016
by Evan-Moor
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Fun Facts about Leap Year

Leap year 2 If you have tried explaining leap year to a young child, the answer may get complicated quickly (after the second “but why…?”). Here are a few fun facts about leap year to share with your children or students in celebration of February 29!

Fun Facts about Leap Year

A leap year has an extra day for a total of 366 days. The extra day is added onto the shortest month, February.
The Romans first designated February 29 as leap day.
The Julian calendar was formed in 45 B.C., named after Julius Caesar. The solar calendar year was determined to be 365 days and 6 hours. At the end of four years, these extra hours add up to 24, or one full day.
Leap years are divisible by four.
The Julian calendar was used until 1582, when Pope Gregory XIII further refined the system. This Gregorian calendar is the one in most common use today.
The odds are that 1 person in 1,461 will be born on February 29, which is less than one-tenth of one percent of the population.
If you were born in 1968, you would be 13 in leap years but actually 52 years old; if you were born in 2004, you would be 4 in leap years but actually 16 years old.

Sources: Astronomy Picture of the Day, NASA; Enchanted Learning, and Leap Year Day.

How Do You Really Know If It’s a Leap Year?

These two sites offer everything you need to know to calculate a leap year:

The Math Is Fun site provides this simple overview. Leap years are any year that can be evenly divided by 4 (such as 2012, 2016):

except if it can be evenly divided by 100, then it isn’t (such as 2100, 2200)
except if it can be evenly divided by 400, then it is (such as 2000, 2400)

This Science World article provides an in-depth explanation of the mathematical equations and astronomy behind the creation of leap year.

Leap Year Activities and Books for Children

The Leap Year Day site provides a book list for children (and adults) with a leap year theme.

February 9, 2016
by Evan-Moor
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Healthy-Heart Science Activities

February is American Heart Month! As a parent or teacher, how do you help children learn about a heart-healthy lifestyle? Begin with activities that help children understand how their heart works and share healthful habits. Here are a few ideas:

Healthy Heart Classroom Activities

Grades PreK–K: Taking Care of My Body
This reproducible book is for children to color, cut out, and take home, and includes an activity to determine whether an action is healthy or not. From Early Childhood Thematic Series

Grades K–1: Heart and Lungs
This science unit provides activities on the body’s heart and lungs, plus an experiment about how much air is in our lungs. From Science Works for Kids: Learning About My Body

Grades 1–3: The Heart Pumps Blood
This unit includes information on the circulation system, directions for conducting experiments and activities, and a minibook. From Science Works for Kids: How Your Body Works

Grades 4–6: The Heart and Lungs Work Together
This unit about the human body encourages students to conduct three experiments on how the heart and lungs work together. From Science Works for Kids: The Human Body

Healthy Cooking with Kids

The American Heart Association has a plethora of helpful information on their site, including the Cooking with Heart for Kids demonstration. Download the free guide for instructions and talking points to hold a hands-on cooking demonstration (in the classroom or at home). Plus, the guide includes healthy eating recommendations and two simple recipes to make with kids, such as the Green Monster Smoothie.

Healthy Reading for Kids

This PBS Parents’ site provides a great book list for Healthy Reading for Kids. The books are suitable for toddlers up to 3rd graders.

February 2, 2016
by Evan-Moor
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Fixing the Most Common Grammar Errors

How do you help students master language skills that will stick with them into adulthood? How do you fix common grammar errors for good? Keep practicing the fundamentals!

Helpful Resources

This We Are Teachers blog lists 10 top grammar mistakes that students make and clever lessons to fix them.
Evan-Moor’s Language Fundamentals series, grades 1–6, provides more than 200 practice pages with rules, examples, and exercises that help students learn grammar, mechanics, usage, punctuation skills, and vocabulary. The skill-specific lessons help teachers target and teach must-know language skills.

These sample activities from Evan-Moor’s Language Fundamentals focus on common grammar mistakes such as the use of apostrophes and frequently confused words.

Click for your free grammar printables for Grades 1, 2 and 3:

Click for your free grammar printables for Grades 4, 5 and 6:

Image of Theresa Wooler

Theresa Wooler has more than 10 years’ experience in K–6 classrooms as a parent volunteer and homeschool educator, has taught high school English, and is currently involved in education through Evan-Moor’s marketing communications team.

January 26, 2016
by Evan-Moor
1 Comment

Valentine’s Day Classroom Activities

While the origins of Valentine’s Day are murky, historians trace the exchange of Valentine cards and other greetings to the Middle Ages. Keep the tradition alive with these free Evan-Moor templates for Valentine cards, plus heart-themed activities for your students to complete on February 14. Happy Valentine’s Day!

A Brief History of Valentine’s Day
History.com provides interesting facts and information to share with students, including the legend of St. Valentine and the origins of Valentine’s Day.

Handmade Valentines
These heart-themed art projects make cute Valentine cards to exchange with classmates or to take home, and include a woven heart, a heart basket, a chain of hearts, and a bookmark. From Evan-Moor’s Art for All Seasons, grades 1–4

Classroom Activities
From Evan-Moor’s Seasonal Activities series, these pages provide basic skill practice to keep your students focused—with a festive Valentine’s Day theme:

PreK–K activities: Include coloring and counting hearts, cutting and gluing words in order, and making a Valentine card.

Grades 1–2 activities: Include matching the two sides of Valentines, finding hidden hearts in a picture, and working through a maze.

Grades 3–5 activities: Include a Valentine message to decode and a fun word search.

More Valentine’s Day Ideas

Find more Valentine’s Day activities at TeacherFileBox.com, Evan-Moor’s Theme Pockets: Valentine’s Day e-book, and the Pinterest board: Valentine’s Day: Our favorite pins!

For a simple and fun Valentine’s Day science activity, check out: Crystal Hearts Valentine Science Experiment.

January 22, 2016
by Evan-Moor
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7 Fabulous Ways That TeacherFileBox Can Elevate Your Homeschooling

Quality Lessons and Activities – Nothing beats quality, and Evan-Moor’s standard for quality lessons is like no one else. To me, a quality activity gets kids interested in meaningful learning, rather than boring worksheets that squash kids’ natural curiosity. Evan-Moor provides activities to keep kids focused and learning. Win for kids. Win for parents, too!
Saving Time – Most people I know love to save time. TeacherFileBox saves TONS of time. How? You simply type in the skill and grade level, and TA-DA! Ready-to-use lesson plans and printables are at your fingertips. Goodbye hours of lesson planning!
Saving Money – Everyone likes to save money. Curriculum can be pricey, especially if you have more than one child. By using TeacherFileBox, you can access literally thousands of lesson plans across grades PreK through 8 for one price!
Saving Space – Instead of buying tons of materials that you (ahem) may or may not use, TeacherFileBox is all digital. You don’t have to drag out a tub of materials. You don’t have to thumb through books to choose lessons or printables. You just need an internet connection and screen. You can go green and just have your kids do the activities from the computer screen and save paper, too! If you want to print out activities, it can be done with one click.
Customized for YOUR Child – Most kids’ abilities are not exactly on their grade level in every subject. Is your child advanced in math? Access the next grade level at no extra cost. Does your child need extra practice or review in last year’s grammar? No problem! It is all there.
Choose activities based on your child’s interest – When you search activities in TeacherFileBox, there will almost always be more than one option. You can quickly scan each of the activities to choose the one that will interest your child the most.
Search by each Evan-Moor publication – This is a newer feature called Browse by Title that is saving me tons of time and improving efficiency (Hoorah!). I have some Evan-Moor books that I have used for years, and I can quickly search those books digitally and print out only what I need. I can also save them to my account “file box,” so I can quickly locate them when it is time to share them with the kids.

The BIG BONUS here is that there is a variety of types of activities in TeacherFileBox. Why? Evan-Moor knows that curriculum needs to serve 3 purposes:

Introduce and teach the skill or knowledge, such as Reading Paired Text (comparing two new stories).
Practice how well you do the skill or apply the knowledge, such as Daily Math Practice.
Use the skill or knowledge to apply to real-life situations. (Be sure to check out Thinking Skills. I think it is my favorite, and my kids love it!)

Does your curriculum do all of that? Probably not. You would likely need to buy 3 different curriculum books for each subject, which can get expensive quickly. However, TeacherFileBox has over 16,000 lessons from over 400 Evan-Moor publications ready for you to access for $12.99 per month or $99.99 per year.

In TeacherFileBox, all of the activities are available for one monthly price, and it is less than dinner out! Better yet, you can try it for 30 days for free! Be sure to check out the tips on www.TeacherFileBox.com to help you get started.

If you still aren’t convinced, I encourage you to connect with me on Periscope, where I will be sharing live video of how I use TeacherFileBox to create custom lesson plans for my kids this semester. My Periscope handle is @teachingwithamy. I look forward to connecting with you.

If you have any questions or feedback about TeacherFileBox, please post them in the comments.

January 13, 2016
by Evan-Moor
4 Comments

Hundreds of Ways to Celebrate the 100 Days of School: Ideas for Kindergarten and 1st Grade

Reaching the 100th day of school is a reason to celebrate and provides a springboard for learning! This blog features more than 100 ideas through printable lessons, blog links, and favorite Pinterest boards.

Evan-Moor printable activities for the 100 days of school:

Grade K: The 100th Day of School activities
This unit’s theme is “celebrating 100 days of school” and includes a read-aloud story, vocabulary, listening/speaking skills, comprehension (finish a picture), listen for short vowel sounds, and more.
From Everyday Literacy: Listening & Speaking

Grades K–1: Count by 5s to 100
Celebrate 100 days of school with counting fun! This math unit presents five activities in which students count by 5s to 100 (by connecting dots, following a path, filling in numbers on a grid, and others).
From Basic Math Skills

Grade 1: 100 Days of School thinking skills
This unit includes a variety of activities, such as filling in missing numbers, making 100 into a face, answering questions about cost, identifying vowels and consonants, and more.
From Critical and Creative Thinking Activities

$Brown bag math book, counting by 100s$ Grade 1+: Brown Bag Math Book
This project can be adapted for many grade levels and includes a writing template, picture patterns, and directions for how a class could make a math book by creating sets of 10 or 100.
From How to Make Books with Children

Other resources and ideas:

From Howywood Kindergarten blog

“When I’m 100 years old” activities: Here’s an adorable idea using brown paper bags and construction paper from the Howywood Kindergarten blog. Students can create self-portraits of what they would look like at 100 years old or dress up as if they were 100 years old.
Counting fun: This blog is chockfull of ideas for incorporating math into 100th-day-of-school celebrations. Be sure to see the links for creative ideas for classrooms and schools to bring math into 100 days celebrations.
Arts and crafts: This post provides a collection of 75 clever ideas to celebrate 100 days of school, including a 100 days of school crown, photo ideas, and other crafts.
Read-alouds: Here are suggested books for 100 days of school by Apples 4 the Teacher and 10 picture books about 100 to help young children count from one to 100. Suggested books include I’ll Teach My Dog 100 Words, From One to One Hundred, and One Watermelon Seed.
Get active: As individuals or teams, students can complete 100 jumping jacks or other exercise, bounce a ball 100 times, or run 100 laps (in a relay).
Build something: Students count 100 items and build a structure out of Legos, cups, blocks, or popsicle sticks. The possibilities are endless!

Evan-Moor’s Pinterest board includes dice games, crafts, and favorite read-alouds for 100 days of school: 100th Day Activities—Our Favorite Pins.

Please share your favorite ideas in the comments section or connect with us on Facebook and Twitter. Look for #100DaysofSchool.

January 7, 2016
by Evan-Moor
1 Comment

He Changed America by Talking: Classroom Activities to Celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr.

As we celebrate a national holiday in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr., how do you help your students or children appreciate his life’s work and legacy? These Evan-Moor lesson ideas provide some insight into Dr. King’s poignant teachings, which are still relevant to our world today.

Save these ideas and PIN IT!

Evan-Moor printable activities:

Grades PreK–K: Martin Luther King, Jr., Activities
(From Seasonal Activities)

Grades K–2: Dr. King Writing Form
(From Writing Forms: Tops & Bottoms)

Grades 1–2: He Changed America by Talking
(From Read and Understand: Celebrating Diversity)

Grades 3–4: Biographical Article and Activities
(From Read and Understand: Celebrating Diversity)

Grades 4–8: Spanish/English Biography and Activities
(From Spanish/English Read and Understand)

Grades 1–6: The Handshake Book
(From How to Make Books with Children)

Grades 1-6: Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Additional resources

This Martin Luther King, Jr., Pinterest Board provides Evan-Moor lesson ideas and resources.
13 Civil Rights Picture Books for Kids

Hand-in-Hand for a Better Land bulletin board template and writing prompts (from Evan-Moor’s Seasonal Bulletin Boards):

What does it mean to stand “hand-in-hand”? Have your students tell about a time when they stood together for a common belief or cause. How did standing hand-in-hand make a difference?
Martin Luther King, Jr. had a dream that all people would be judged by the content of their character and not the color of their skin. Have students write about what makes up a person’s character.

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”

— Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (August 28, 1963)

December 2, 2015
by Evan-Moor
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How to Teach Inference with Picture Prompts

Making inferences is a higher-order thinking skill used across the curriculum, but it may seem like an abstract skill to teach. Fortunately, there is a method for teaching inference with pictures that makes inference more approachable for any teacher. Here’s a simple strategy to help students learn to make logical inferences based on clues that they infer from looking at a picture. This strategy works well because it engages students’ natural curiosity. You can also apply this same method for reading activities.

1. Show students an intriguing photograph or picture.

2. Ask students what they see in the picture and what they think is happening in the picture.

Depending on the picture, you can present this strategy as a mystery. Students solve the mystery for each group of inference pictures by examining clues to help them explain it. For example, ask students “How did the puddle get there?” and work together to provide clues.

A simple statement may help students focus their answer, such as:

“I see…” (describe what is happening in the picture)
“I think…or I infer” (describe what is happening based on clues in the picture)

For example: “I see a boy walking his dog. I infer that it rained because he is wearing rain boots and wants to splash in the puddle.”

3. Read a passage or short story and ask students to apply the same statement to what they’ve read. First, ask students to describe what is happening (“I see…”) and then provide clues to what they think is happening (“I infer..”)

For example: The short passages from this grade 4 Daily Reading Comprehension unit provide strategy practice. As students read the story, they are looking for clues to explain what happened. (See the reading passages for days 3, 4, and 5.)

Ideas for picture prompts:

Picture books are helpful for finding intriguing inference pictures or illustrations. This teacher blogger shares her favorites in 10 + 1 Picture Books to Teach Inference. Here are a few more suggestions from teachers:

In the Woods: Who’s Been Here? by Lindsay Barrett George
Looking Down by Steve Jenkins
Suddenly by Colin McNaughton
Zathura and The Mysteries of Harris Burdick by Chris Van Allsburg

Here’s another idea for collecting a variety of inference pictures. Ask students to clip funny pictures from magazines or bring in an interesting photo from home. You can fill a shoebox with potential picture prompts!

Other resources:

This thorough ASCD article outlines four strategies for teaching inference.

This Reading Rockets article provides additional lesson ideas to help teach inference across subject areas.

Daily Reading Comprehension, grades 1–8, teaches students reading skills and strategies, including making inferences. The short daily lessons are easy to integrate, and the comprehensive skills list helps you target instruction.