May 2023 Products

Teaching your child about cultures and traditions is important to help them develop an understanding of others. Use resources about Cinco de Mayo, Mother’s Day and Memorial Day to teach kids acceptance of traditions. On May 5th, you can share the appreciation for Mexican culture and heritage with your kids.  Cinco de May is a colorful festival that commemorates the Mexicans' victory over the French at the Battle of Puebla on May 5th, 1862. When you are teaching kids about a holiday, you can make a decision to focus either on culture or traditions, or both. Make sure that your lesson plan and resources meet the objectives. 

On the second Sunday of May, kids have a chance to celebrate important women in our lives. This idea began in America when Anna Jarvis held a memorial service for her mother on May 12th 1907. Your kids can make the day meaningful by creating thoughtful crafts for loved women in their lives. Start the week before the celebrations to give your kids time to learn about the celebrations and the resource Mother’s Day How to Draw is a great addition to complete the Fact Booklet about the celebrations. 

Have you got time to include another tradition in the May classroom? Memorial Day is an American holiday honoring men and women who died while serving in the US military. It was originally known as Decoration Day. Late May was chosen to honor people who died as the flowers used to decorate graves would be in full bloom.  Many families are visiting cemeteries or memorials, and taking part in parades. Memorial Day is observed on the last Monday of May. Use my Fact Booklet Memorial Day to support kids’ learning about this special day.

 

What Next? Check out the June blog posts for ideas for Summer activities next month!  All products are found in my store:  

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Thebeezyteacher

Reptiles and Amphibians

Discovering the richness of the animal world is one of the most rewarding and pleasing experiences that you can introduce to kids. Animal classification is a great way to explore different animal groups and their unique behaviors. Learning to distinguish between different types of animals is not only great for science lessons but also a great way to introduce geography lessons into the classroom. Kids can explore habitats as well as different areas where animals live. 

Reptiles and amphibians may at first glance appear very similar to each other. Explicitly pointing out the differences between the two groups of animals is vital and it will lead to a deeper understanding rather than simply memorizing which animals belong to which class of animals. 

Providing your kids with the chance to draw amphibians and reptiles will help them to discover some differences and similarities between the two classes of animals. Amphibians such as frogs and toads can live both on land and in the water while reptiles such as snakes and alligators have lungs and an outer covering of horny scales or plates. They often lay their eggs on dry land while amphibians such as frogs and toads lay their eggs in the water. Amphibians are born with gills so that they can breathe underwater. Frogs and other amphibians such as newts and salamanders and the charming axolotls develop lungs and legs later in life. 

Learning about the origin of words can also help kids to classify animals. Amphibian comes from the Greek amphi which means both and bios. The perfect way to describe amphibians since they can live both on land and in the water. The word reptile comes from Latin reptilis which means creeping. If you spend time watching snakes and lizards you can understand why this is a suitable name for these creeping scaly animals.

If you have the opportunity to watch some reptiles and amphibians in their natural environment that is fantastic. Otherwise, a great exercise is to describe the skin of a reptile and an amphibian. How does it feel to touch a snake? Snakes are often described as slimy but their skin feels dry and scaly. Amphibians have thin and smooth skin. Their skin helps them with breathing. 

Read and discover the remarkable lives of these animals while you enjoy the weather warming up there are signs of spring starting to appear all around such as frogspawn in your local ponds! 

All resources are found in my store: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Thebeezyteacher

April 2023 Products

April is such an inspiring month and many great things are happening both in the classroom and outside. Take time to explore how nature changes from blossoms and new leaves to warmer temperatures. There is a new energy in the classroom so make sure to take this energy and use it to explore our Earth, Climate Change, Easter and the remarkable world of Oviparous animals.

Taking place on the 22nd of April each year, Earth Day offers a wonderful opportunity to support kids thinking about their environmental footprint.  This year, the theme is “invest in our planet”.  You can talk with your kids about ways to encourage people to care and take responsibility for making our Earth a place that protects all species. How can we encourage businesses and governments to provide opportunities for everyone? How can you help? Big questions! Yet, sometimes little kids can come up with Big Ideas. The overall aim of Earth Day is to spread the message that it is important to take action and that everyone can do something. Use a fact booklet about Earth Day and Climate Change to encourage kids to learn and explore environmental issues. Make a display with poems about our Earth and writing samples. Art and craft activities are an important part of making the celebrations of our Earth extra special.

Easter falls in April this year. This a perfect opportunity to plan a project about oviparous animals. There are several ways that you can introduce oviparous animals to your kids. You can use fiction and/or fact books with easy-to-understand and clear explanations of oviparous animals. After a short introduction, kids can continue to learn more about oviparous animals using a fact booklet. 

Filling in a fact booklet with your own findings is exciting. A fact booklet is a perfect way to practice reading and if you have a child who is reluctant to write, they can draw oviparous animals and practice their drawing skills instead. How to draw Easter and How to Draw Oviparous animals are great ways to further enhance kids’ skills and confidence. Hope you have a wonderful April full of sunshine-y days. 

All products are found in my store!

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Thebeezyteacher

Farming in March

Spring is full of opportunities to teach fascinating facts about nature! Exploring farm animals is a popular topic and many young children are familiar with some animals. Even if you live miles from grazing cows and quaking ducks, young children have probably seen or heard about farm animals. Many books as well as songs for toddlers feature animals living on farms. Learning the names and vocabulary at a young age helps kids to develop important skills such as categorizing things in the world. A young child might begin sorting animals by putting brown cows and black-and-white cows in the same category. 

Learning about farm animals is fun! Using fact booklets help children to build their vocabulary and knowledge about animals living on farms, for example, sheep, goats, horses, cows, chickens, ducks and pigs. Talk about the baby names for farm animals and discover the fun of using onomatopoeia to describe different sounds that farm animals make such as the clip-clop of horses’ hooves. Let kids explore the range of products we get from farm animals. You can make a display in the classroom with empty packaging and photos of products. 

You can start the project by letting your kids tell you what animals they already know. Ask your kids to identify which animals can be found on a farm. Ask them if they know of any other animals that might live on a farm. Show your kids real photos or videos of the animals that they are interested in learning more about. Encourage creative thinking by using open-ended questions and use story-writing prompts about farm animals. 

With a combination of independent learning and reading and hands-on activities such as craftivities and visits from local farmers young learners can develop various skills. Small-world sensory play is an amazing way to explore the farm animal theme deeper and to solidify learning as well as further develop their imagination and creative thinking.  

All products are found in my store:  

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Thebeezyteacher

March 2023 Products

Every year on the 17th of March people around the world celebrate St Patrick’s Day with joy, enthusiasm and everything green. St Patrick’s Day is a much-celebrated holiday in not only Ireland but in the US as well as around the globe. Saint Patrick was the patron saint of Ireland and he introduced Christianity to Ireland. According to legend, he used the three-leaf clover, Shamrock,  to explain the holy trinity. Kids love to learn to draw shamrocks, which have three leaves – not four, like the clover. This symbol can be found on rugby shirts but also on the flags of Montreal and the Boston Celtics - the professional basketball team from Boston. Use the resource How to Draw St Patrick’s to inspire your kids to learn to draw clovers, leprechauns, pots of gold and other important items.

The mischievous Leprechaun is the reason why many wear green on St Patrick’s Day. Kids love to learn about this mythical creature who according to Irish folklore hides pots of gold at the end of the rainbow. Use a fact booklet about St Patrick’s Day to help your kids develop reading and writing skills. Print out the booklet and let your kids take notes about Leprechauns and illustrate their stories and research with stunning drawings. Leprechaun cannot see people dressed in green on St Patrick’s day so wearing green is one trick to catch a Leprechaun. Designing and building a trap is a great activity that challenges kids' creative thinking.

You can plan a themed day filled with St Patrick’s inspired activities ranging from color-by-code math and sight words. You can also use BOOM cards where your kids can practice reading short words and also color-by-code.

Want to extend the learning? 

The fact booklet about Ireland is perfect for learning more about Irish people's love for singing, dancing and storytelling! Combining the research with reading books about Irish Myths and Folklore is a great way to welcome March!

 All products are found in my store!

 https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Thebeezyteacher