Kickstarter--Supporting the Arts

One of the hottest new fund raising sites is Kickstarter, a website created to fund the arts.  The site boasts a 44% success rate at funding individual projects in: comics, dance, design, fashion, film, food, games, music, photography, publishing, technology and theater.  Anyone can create a login in a few short simple steps.  Once you have an idea, the site takes you through a six phase proposal process.  In 30-60 days (you choose) you will know whether or not your project has been funded.  

There are a number of websites out there to help teachers raise funds.  But to my knowledge, this is the one with the most buzz when it comes to raising money for the arts.  With one of the documentary projects from last year receiving an Oscar nomination, the attention and potential funders visiting the site will continue to grow.  Even if you are not an art teacher, there are so many ways to bring the many site-supported art forms into the classroom.  It is definitely worth looking into.  Check out the website. Get inspired.  Get funded.  Get going!

Three Fun Games to Celebrate Black History Month in Your Classroom!

If you plan on celebrating African American History Month in your classroom, you might want to use one of these games. I have a small group game and two larger group games that work perfect to teach African American history.

For small groups or as a center, check out my Black History Memory Game. This game contains 24 pairs of cards that helps your students learn about important African-American people, events, and terms.

Another fun game that is always a hit in my classroom is Bingo! I also love that my students can all play this game at one time and since they have to listen to the clues you read, your class is easily quieted throughout the game. It's easy to play one round of the game if you just have a few minutes available. I usually keep squares of scrap paper in a bowl and pass it around the room and have everyone take a few pieces to cover their board.

The last game for Black History Month available at my store is this PowerPoint Black History Game in the style of Jeopardy. If you have access to a projector or can huddle students around a computer monitor, this game is a blast! Students click on each category and answer important questions.


All three games have been rated 4/4 stars by TPT users!

Fabulous Freebies: Celebrating African American History Month

With Martin Luther King Jr. Day coming up in two days and African American History month following in a couple weeks, it seemed like it was about time to share some of my favorite timely freebies with you.  Comb through the links below and you can come up with material for every day of the month.  

Math

1. Scholastic has a Math Hunt game that teaches students a bit about African American history and requires them to use math to answer the questions.  The skills tested are not super advanced (reading graphs, estimating, adding, etc), but it is worth checking out.  It covers a range of topics and is interdisciplinary.
2. Beatrice Lumpkin has created an excellent pdf complete with some of the history of math in Africa.  There are games and drawing activities you can have your students do to practice proportions and logic.   

Language Arts 

1. Check out 10 African American authors everyone should read. 
2. The first is a template for making an "I Have a Dream" speech booklet.  It is designed for the middle elementary grades.  Students are asked to color the pages, glue on tabs, and reflect on their own dreams.  As they work they will read about MLK's life and work.  It teaches children about his desire that all people be treated with respect and equality.
3. The Harlem Renaissance was a time when African American arts and literature thrived.  PBS has an online lesson plan to teach your students more about it.

History

1. Check out these biographies of 10 great African Americans who fought justice.  The lesson packet includes a couple activities.
2. One of the coolest resources I've found this year is an oral history archive devoted to famous African American leaders.  There is a wealth of primary sources here.  Your students can listen to   Maya Angelou and 100's of others tell their stories.
3. Have students complete a web quest on the Buffalo Soldiers.  This handout comes with clear instructions, a printable handout and answer key.
4. Give your students a virtual tour of the national Martin Luther King Jr. memorial.  Student can read the quotes inscribed on the walls at the site and see pictures of the memorial.  Teachers can also find lesson plans at this site.

Science

1. Check out the online article Black Inventors A-Z.
2. Want to turn a lesson on African American inventors into a project?  Check it out.
3. Have students complete a tic-tac-toe project on an African American inventor.

General (other websites with useful collections)

1. http://www.africanamericanhistorymonth.gov/
2. http://www.educationworld.com/a_special/black_history.shtml
3. http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/educators/resource_library/african_american_resources.html
4. http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Browse/Search:african+american+history/Price-Range/Free
5. http://www.pinterest.com/etclessons/african-american-history-literature-education/

Five Ways to Celebrate Chinese New Year in Your Classroom

One of my favorite activities in my classroom is to do activities and projects that study another area of the world. Even though those are my favorite kind of lesson, my students have always seemed to love them as well.

Since Chinese New Year is coming up, I thought I would come up with some activities that you can do in your classroom to celebrate Chinese New Year.

1. Try some Chinese calligraphy! 

Print out some basic Chinese characters and let students try their hand at writing Chinese characters. You don't need special supplies - markers or watercolor paint and brushes work fine. Check out some of the Chinese characters at this website to get started.

For a language arts link, you could have students translate spelling words, write poems and write some words in Chinese characters or have them write characters that represent themselves.

2. Create Chinese lanterns.

Create beautiful Chinese lanterns. I have a watercolor lesson plan that can help you create beautiful Chinese lanterns in my TPT store. It includes everything you need such as informational sheets about Chinese New Year, step by step directions, a rubric, template and more!

3. Learn about the Chinese zodiac.

One thing that was always a hit in every classroom I've taught was when my students got to read information about their zodiac sign. It's fun to read things about yourself, even if you don't believe it. There are many writing prompts that would be fun for students that they could write about after reading about the Chinese zodiac. For a math tie in, you could have students calculate when each zodiac sign will come around again in the future. Check out some information on the Chinese zodiac here.

4. Check out some Chinese proverbs.

Proverbs can be used as discussion or journaling starting points. Check out some Chinese proverbs with your students. If you are reading a book in class or discussing a time in history, try to find a proverb that relates. Students could also take their turn at writing bits of wisdom.

5. Play a Chinese game!

I love playing games in class and tangrams is a great game that combines both math and art. You can have students easily make their own tangrams set. (I have done this before in class and it is quite easy - just be sure to use thicker paper for stability.) Then, either print out or post different puzzles to try. I would start with an easy puzzle to encourage students and try more difficult puzzles later.


I hope this gives you some ideas on how to celebrate Chinese New Year in your classroom. Remember, the official day is on 1/31/2014 and this year is the year of the horse!

Eyes on the Prize Viewing Guide on Sale!

Eyes on the Prize is a seminal documentary on the Civil Rights Movement. It is broken into 14 parts, each approximately one hour in length. So often today students feel so out of touch with that era, and have a difficult time conceptualizing what went on then, how it must have felt, etc. This documentary does an excellent job of bringing that piece of important history back to life.

I've watched the first six movies of the series and bundled the six guides.  For this month only--in preparation for African American history month in February--I am selling the bundle at an all time low cost of $4.  Normally I sell it for the discounted price of $5 if the buyer purchases all six at once instead of purchasing them individually (they are $1 each, if purchased separately). It includes:

AWAKENING about Emmett Till and the Montgomery Bus Boycott
FIGHTING BACK about integrating the schools
AIN'T SCARED OF YOUR JAILS about the sit-ins & Freedom Riders
NO EASY WALK about organizing & the March on Washington
IS THIS AMERICA? about Mississippi and the Freedom Summer
BRIDGE TO FREEDOM about the march from Selma to Montgomery

Each viewing guide is between 10 and 16 questions and includes an answer key.

Again, each of these is also sold separately for $1. If you interested in certain ones instead of the bundle, visit my store. 

Top 5 Blog Posts of 2013!

To recap 2013, here are the most popular articles from this year in no particular order.

This post has tons of freebies that you can order and relax as they come to your mailbox! Love freebies in my mail.

This list of free ice breakers is fun for students throughout the year! You can also use them as a team building activity for times when students need to get along better.

Find fun ways to grow plants in your classroom with this fun article! With spring just around the corner it might be a good time to try one of these ideas.

Spending money on rewards for students can be a costly undertaking! Try the free reward and incentive ideas listed on this post.

Last but not least, this article about dressing in costume in your classroom had a lot of hits. This must mean that there are a lot of teachers out there who like to dress up for Halloween!


If you've already checked out all these articles, thank you so much for being a dedicated follower and reader! We appreciate you so much.

Fabulous Freebies for the New Year!

 

Do you celebrate the New Year with your students in your classroom? It is not something I have ever done but after seeing these fun lesson plans, I wish I did! Here are some fun free lessons to help celebrate the New Year at school. If you missed last year's post, check it out for more fun free New Years lessons.

Find fun lesson plans about New Years around the world at this site. It has a variety of lessons and links to printable pages and step by step lesson plans.

Busy Teacher has fun lessons for New Years. It is geared towards ESL classrooms but the ideas and lessons I saw could be used for a variety of age levels and subject areas. My favorite was the idea of having students make a classroom calendar.

Find a variety of printable worksheets and literacy activities at Lantern Fish. It has printable literacy activities both for older and younger students focused on editing, tense and resolution writing.

I loved the printable worksheets and cute New Years stationary at Activity Village. There are blank pages for students to do journaling or New Years prompt writing, literacy activities and math printables. Very cute font and graphics are used!


Best wishes to you in 2014 and I hope everyone has a great start to their year!