Category: Review Strategies

For Students, New Nation, Review Strategies, Test Prep

Branches of Government & Checks and Balances Drag and Drop Activities

I’ve been trying out some new software to add interactive student activities to the website. Try the two drag and drop activities that I added below! One is the basics of the 3 branches of government and the other is a review of the basic checks and balances of each branch.

How You Can Use This In the Classroom
  • Use it during a unit on the Constitution as a review at the end of class. (Students can do it individually on their devices or you can project it and complete it as a class. See the QR code at the bottom. Students can scan it with their devices!)
  • Use it at the beginning of class the day after you have taught the information as a review.
  • Assign it as an exercise for students who finish their work early.
  • Use it at the end of the semester to review for an end of course test.

 

Have your students scan this QR code to quickly access these activities! (You can also access them under the “For Students” page.

Do you want to see more drag and drop review activities? Use my contact form to let me know!

Assignment Ideas, Classroom Management, Help for New Teacher, Holidays, Miscellaneous, Review Strategies, Teaching Tips

Assignment Ideas for the Week Before Christmas Break

You know it’s coming. That dreaded “week before Christmas break.” It’s a time when it’s every teacher for himself, and most educators believe that just for a few days, entire schools should be crop-dusted with ADHD meds.

What do you do? Half of your class has checked-out mentally and the other half have checked-out physically. If you are on a block schedule, then odds are that you have a few days sandwiched between end-of-course tests and Christmas break. If you only have a day or two, by all means, give your kids a break and watch a movie. You all deserve it. But don’t check out and just show something with zero educational value like Elf. Make sure it is a movie with historical content, and write a few class discussion questions on the board while you’re at it.

Sidenote: I recently was somewhat horrified to hear that some teachers the local area had students watch movies for the last TWO WEEKS of the semester because testing was over. I know that it’s hard to keep kids focused after testing, but if you automatically show movies to kill time you are telling your students several things:

  • School is about testing, not learning
  • Learning for learning’s sake is not valuable
  • It’s ok to take the easy way out

Movies in the classroom are ok as an occasional reward (be careful with this one) or to reinforce content, but they should NEVER take the place of instruction just because you don’t feel like teaching. Rant over.

What if your administrators won’t allow movies or you have more than just a day or two to kill? What then? Well, the thing to keep in mind is that you want assignments that meet the following criteria:

  • Creative (Kids are burned out from test or distracted by the coming break.)
  • Adaptable (Kids will be sporadically absent. Do something that can work with any subject matter and any amount of students.)

So just what can you do when things are crazy? Here are my assignment ideas to help get you through the pre-Christmas craziness. (Keep in mind that these can be used at the end of the year in May/June as well.)

  • Have students design a commemorative Christmas ornament about a historical figure. I just posted a very detailed version of this assignment on Teachers Pay Teachers. It will be free for a limited time. Get it while you can, and if you like it, please leave me a good review!
  • Put students in groups and have them act out historical events for the class to guess. (Each group must provide 3 clues within their skit and must give you a hard copy of the clues before they perform.)
  • Have students create a song in which they replace traditional Christmas lyrics with those about a historical event. Click here to download my stellar creation about Valley Forge called Deck the Tents…sure to be a blockbuster hit! 😉 If your students choose this option, take a picture of the lyrics and project them on the board. Have the class sing it together! Get into it and make it fun and silly.
  • Have student write poetry, create raps, or make acrostic poems about historical figures.
  • Have students plan a very brief presentation answering one of the following questions: What historical figure (that we have studied) would you like to meet and why? What historical event (that we have studied) would you like to have witnessed and why? Students should give 3-5 solid reasons for their feelings. Require students to make a bulleted list that they must eventually turn in to you, which will help them solidify/organize their thoughts. (You could make them write an essay, but the whole point of these activities is that they are low-stress for students. If you think your kids can handle it, go for it.) Then have students get in small groups and share their presentations.

The common thing about all of these activities is that they can be adapted to almost any subject, they allow kids to get creative, and they require very little planning on your part!

Good luck! You’re almost there!

*Image copyrighted and used in accordance with license agreement at Canstockphoto.com
Miscellaneous, Podcast, Review Strategies, Teaching Tips

LTH – 007 Using a Prop Box

In this episode, we’ll look at how to use a box full of fun props in your classroom.  I’ll also tell you which props are helpful to have and where to get props for little or no money.

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Show Notes and Resources:

Prop Box Basics

 

Intro music clip of “I Dunno” by Grapes CC BY-ND 3.0