Remembering Nelson Mandela in Your Classroom

As great man has left this world but we still have his wisdom. I'd just like to share a few of my favorite quotes from the late Nelson Mandela. 

        

We can also appreciate his legacy through his books... 

           

Long Walk to Freedom:                                      Long Walk to Freedom (Official Picture Book Version)

The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela 

And through education - educating others of the values that he stood for. If you would like to do something with your class, these free Nelson Mandela - Historical Hero Reading Comprehension Activities are available as a free download from Rick's Resources (free for a limited time). Lets keep his legacy alive in whatever way we can.

Make your own 2D and 3D Shape making Center

Get a load of this: pipe cleaners and straws. That's all you need to make triangles, quadrilaterals and polygons. I did this back when I had my fifth grade class. There are so many rules in geometry that we can take for granted. For instance, I asked them to define a triangle for me (after they joined three straws together). They said 'a plane shape with 3 straight sides'. So using that definition, I gave them a non-example:

An open plane shape with three straight sides. Is it a triangle? No. So this means that the three angles must be important to mention. In fact they were important enough to give the triangle its name.

We explored every plane shape we could make. And it challenged the students to pay attention to detail when generating their own definitions. It was a fun experience. Of course, you can try it with your class but you do not have to stick to straws only. Craft shops sell the sticks that you use to make mini flags, not the dowel sticks but hollow plastic ones. There's also the sticks to which we attach balloons. They are more durable than straws, just use shears or knife to cut it into shorter lengths and use eve shorter lengths of pipe cleaners (chenille stems) to make the corners. By the way, they also interlock so that you can make cubes, cuboids, pyramids and prisms with them too.

Free Christmas Cookbook for Kids

I just downloaded this and had to share it with you. It's a free holiday cookbook (for kids) put together by other teacher bloggers with easy recipes for the whole Thanksgiving / Christmas / New Year season! As a teacher, I like that it's more than just a cookbook, it even specifies the cognitive and social benefits of trying these recipes or any recipe with children. So highly recommend it for your and for your own kids at home also. Season's Greetings!

Easy Nativity Craft for Kids

This is a Nativity paper craft I did with my students on Friday.  I first read the story This Is the Stable by Cynthia Cotten to them, then we got into the craft. I cut up a large folded sheet of brown paper using a guillotine (it was super fast) to make the hay bedding for Baby Jesus. I also punched out in advance the big five-point stars with a star puncher, and the circle stars with a regular hole punch. This one above was my demo one that I did in front of them as we began. They had some difficulty tying the stings at the top but for the rest of it, they did theirs quite well. What do you think?

Access Granted: Cyber Monday Sale in a Rhyme!

It's big - Increased to a large scale. And the countdown is on! Are you ready for the TpT Cyber Monday Sale?! Get your lists ready and check it twice, use the secret code CYBER to get the best price - of up to 28% off! That's nice! My little store will be participating in this sale for sure so I'd love for you to stop by my door! 

Here are some best sellers for you:

And if you miss out on Monday's sale, don't be blue - You can get the same deals on Tuesday too!

Dr. Seuss Character Crafts for a Seuss themed Classroom

I always knew that my hoarding habits would never go to waste... I was inspired to make a Dr. Seuss character and was torn between The Cat in the Hat and the Thing 1 and 2 guys. They are all so cute! I decided to do both but I'm still working on the cat. 

For Thing 1, I used a red pencil for the body, a Styrofoam ball for the head (I speared it with the pencil then pushed the eraser end through), cotton for the hair, blue glitter, hair styling spray, white electrical tape for the neck, a marker, scissors, a red pipe cleaner, and red and white pieces of felt. I glued the cotton to the ball for the hair and sprayed it with hairspray to make the glitter that I sprinkled on it stick to the cotton. I love the blue hair. The pipe cleaner wraps around the fold of the red felt to hold it tight on the pencil and it creates the illusion of the red turtleneck sweaters that they always wear. I chose to draw the eyes closed because they're usually closed in the Dr. Seuss books and it gives it that classic silliness that makes it 'Seuss'. 

Have you got enough Seuss books?