It's About Time, Teachers, for the Election!

Have you gathered your resources for teaching about the election?  You may be interested in these:

Election Hink Pinks, et al. task cards are perfect for working on vocabulary associated with elections, presidents, and civics.  The terms can be sophisitcated, suggesting that upper elementary and middle school students are the prime audience.  

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Encourage research with these Presidential Trivia Task Cards.  Your upper elementary students will uncover interesting and fun facts about presidents and the presidency.

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Patriotic Squares are differentiated, critical thinking activities that can be employed in any elementary classroom.  While not specifically related to elections, they are patriotic.  Oh, and they are such a fun way to build up to Sudoku!

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SCRATTLE is a FREE differentiated, math & literacy, learning center activity. As in Scrabble™, students use a set of letters to create words. They then calculate each word’s score using the letter values. Finally, they engage a friend in a battle wherein they compare their scores using >, <, and =.  Like Patriotic Squares, this fun product is patriotic; not specifically related to the election.  Math skills required range from simple addition  to mixed operations. Thus, SCRATTLE can be used in 1st to 6th grades.

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RED, WHITE, & BLUE COMPOUND WORDS literacy center is not election related.  It is patriotic in nature and thus, may be appropriate to primary classrooms during the election season.

All of these resources, except the Election Hink Pinks, et al., are appropriate for any patriotic holiday (Veterans Day, Presidents Day, Memorial Day, Indepence Day) and thus can be used throughout the year(s).

Enjoy the resources and remember to vote!

It's About Time for Memorial Day!

It's about time, teachers, for Memorial Day!

As the school year winds down, you probably are not interested in deep, intricate lessons, but still want to pay homage to this solemn holiday. So, here's a quick and easy poetry lesson, along with some teaching possibilities that you may wish to share with your students:

And, here are some possibilities for teaching with it:

[This poem and its possibilities are part of Poetry Possibilities - Spring Edition. It is now available in my TPT store for 50% off.]  

Here's a quick, albeit somewhat messy, craftivity for Memorial Day:

Patriotic Chalk Art:

This is one of my all time favorite crafts and is a hit with the kiddos. The piece above actually reflects 2 methods of making the chalk rubbings. One uses the shape pattern and rubs out from the edges; the other uses the scrap or negative of the shape with rubbings going in toward the center.

For the bell images above, provide cardboard patterns for the shapes. Ask your students to trace the pattern on construction paper (color doesn't matter). Insist that they trace the pattern onto another piece of paper because if they all try to rub chalk on the pattern, you will endure many complaints about purple symbols. Each child should use his/her own shape.  

After cutting the shape out, students should generously rub blue or red chalk around the edges of the shape. They MUST do this on what I call a "dirty" sheet, which is actually paper reclaimed from the recycling box. It is essential that they rub the chalk on while on the dirty sheet, then move to the chosen construction paper background. Demonstrate holding the shape securely with one hand while pushing the chalk out onto the background paper with 1 finger (hence the messy part). You can make this project as easy or challenging as you like by making a single shape on the background or using multiple shapes and colors all on the same background, perhaps creating complex patterns.

The negative version of this craft works much the same way. After cutting out the shape, the student should tape the scraps together (see lower left corner) and then rub the chalk around the edges of the missing shape. Again, this step must be done on a dirty sheet. Then, holding the negative steady with one hand, have the children rub the chalk toward the center on their background paper.  

Clean up absolutely requires lots of soapy hand washing in order to prevent chalk smudges everywhere, and especially on their clothes.  

These patterns can be cut out of cardstock or heavier cardboard. You should insist that the students not put chalk on your templates. Who wants to have to remake the patterns year after year????

You may also like these patriotic products: