From "Magic Number" to "UFO Experts", this fun collection of activities, chants, and greetings helps teachers build a positive climate for learning while giving students practice in reading, math, problem-solving, and more. Each activity includes: Suggested grade levelAcademic and social skills practicedMaterials neededConcise, easy-to-follow directions

This book is a compilation of approximately 40 strategies that serve as blueprints for instructional design. The first chapter describes in depth the research and foundations that support these strategies. Chapter Two provides information for the reader in terms of how to use this book, and how to choose and use strategies to fit both the content and the needs of the learners. Chapter Three presents and describes several strategies. The book is designed as a user-friendly resource that is directly applicable to practice. All of the book's strategies support teachers in their efforts to engage and motivate diverse learners as they meet academic and social objectives. Each strategy is presented with an explanation, directions for use, sample applications and classroom vignettes. Applications for different ages, abilities, and learning needs of the students, and for a variety of content areas, are suggested. The book is focused on the elementary school age level.

The benefits of positive student and parent engagement are widely known, but the path to this kind of engagement is rarely a smooth one. In this excerpt from her book Everyday Engagement, author Katy Ridnouer provides classroom-tested strategies to help K–12 teachers anticipate and handle common setbacks in both teacher–student and teacher–parent relationships. The immediately implementable ideas here will help you build student work ethic, harness parent expertise and influence, counteract negative feelings toward school, and reorient resistant students toward academic achievement.

You're teaching third grade this year. What do you need to know? Mike Anderson gives you practical information about daily routines, furniture, and much more. After a concise review of third graders' common developmental characteristics, Mike explains how to adjust your classroom and your teaching to fit these common characteristics. The result: Students can learn, and you can teach, with minimum frustration and maximum ease and joy. In clear, plain writing peppered with classroom stories and examples, Mike shares practical know-how on topics like this: Arranging a circle, desks, and tables Choosing and storing supplies Scheduling a child-centered day and teaching daily routines Planning special projects and field trips that maximize learning and build community Understanding the special concerns of third graders' parents and finding the best ways to communicate with them

Stop bullying before it starts. Use the practical strategies described in this book to prevent bullying and create a safe, inclusive elementary classroom where kindness and learning flourish. Veteran educator Caltha Crowe offers a proactive approach to bullying prevention that shows you how to create a positive classroom environment and how to respond to mean behavior before it escalates into bullying. Learn to: Recognize and stop gateway behaviors as soon as they start Build a caring classroom community Create rules with children that help prevent bullying Talk candidly with children about bullying Work with parents in your anti-bullying efforts

Outlines and explains the rationale for using music therapy in child and family psychiatry. This book is useful for music therapists, psychiatrists, nurses and occupational therapists working with children and families, as well as music therapy trainers, their students and academics interested in music therapy.

"I don't know what to write about!" is the common response when kids are asked to indulge in creative writing. This lively collection of unique writing activities will quiet that complaint forever! The 101 fun and functional creative writing activities in this book were designed to stimulate the interest and creativity of children. The author's philosophy, "if it's fun, kids will do it," is obvious in such whimsical ideas as having students write 10 ways to complete the sentence: "If I were a ___, I would ___" or challenging them to write home remedies for the common cold, a headache, sibling rivalry, homework overload, etc. These writing activities encourage kids to write about what they know best - themselves - and turn writing practice into a time of self-expression. Students will find pleasure in the writing process using these ideas.

Enrich students' social studies learning in Morning Meeting! This book is ideal for getting K-6 students excited about - and deepening their understanding of - the world around them. The activities cover a wide range of topics, concepts, and skills, in geography, civics, economics, and more - all without adding to your already packed schedule. · Features clear, step-by-step directions · Can be used with any curriculum · Includes key vocabulary words · Provides variations and extensions for further learning · Activities are sorted by grade, but can be adapted for any grade

In this book, author and teacher Katy Ridnouer focuses on the potentially overwhelming, sometimes puzzling, often delicate work of engaging both students and parents in the pursuit of learning and achievement. Structured around the questions teachers ask themselves about engagement goals and challenges, Everyday Engagement offers specific strategies to try — in your classroom, with your students, and with their parents—that will help you * Connect with students and parents as individuals. * Communicate invitations to engagement (and regroup and respond if your initial invitations are rejected). * Provide appropriate, ongoing support and encouragement that will keep students in class, behavior in check, and learning on track. * Anticipate and handle setbacks and complications in teacher-student and teacher-parent relationships. * Tap outside resources to extend learning beyond the walls of the classroom. Ridnouer believes that every teacher has the power to make students and parents partners in learning. When a teacher embeds pro-engagement action and attitudes into everyday practice, the question is not if students and parents will be engaged in classroom learning, but how they will choose to engage and how far that engagement will take them.