"The Thankful Turkey" Joey Scissions, Grade 5 Teacher

"Find a large outline of a turkey. You can find tons of outlines of turkeys on the Internet. I then photocopy the outline. I make sure to have one copy for each of my students and ten copies as backup, in case a student has trouble.

Have students cut out the outline. Give your students construction paper. Ask students to trace the outline on to the construction paper. Students then cut out the construction paper turkey.

Have students brainstorm and write ten things/people/reasons they are thankful for. I usually explain to students the ten reasons I am thankful. I also share thankful turkeys from my past year's class. This really helps students understand the thought of mine they need to achieve.

Students then add their ten things/people/reasons to their thankful turkey. At the end of the activity, I collect all of the thankful turkeys and then pass out the turkeys to random students. Students then read the turkeys and try to guess which student's turkey they have. This is a great activity. I look forward to it every year."

"Classroom Timeline" Geri, Elementary Teacher

"Friday's a tough at the end of the day. This year I put together a year long activity that really keeps them with me. For the last fifteen minutes of every Friday, my class reflects on the week. I have students decide as a class to answer the following questions:

1. What did we learn this week.
2. What did we do that was fun.
3. What was the funniest thing that happened this week.
4. What are we doing next week.

A different student records this each week. At the end of every marking period, we reflect on this by making a class timeline. We also use the timelines as data for other activities such as graphing."

"Going to the store" Tanya J., Grade 4 Teacher

"Looking for a simple and innovative field trip? Try breaking your students into groups of four. Each group should be assigned a cooking recipes. I like to give my groups a series of recipes to choose from.

Once a group receives their recipe. They must prepare to purchase the ingredients. We have students comparison shop using the local newspaper flyers. If you do this activity around the holidays, most baking ingredients are listed as being on sale. Students will list the top two stores in the area that have all of their ingredients for the lowest price. We then as a class choose one store to purchase the items from and we take a trip their to purchase the ingredients.

If you call ahead, most store managers will arrange a tour of the departments for your students. Students get to see how bakery, meat, produce, and seafood products are prepared for customers. The seafood department is always a big hit with the kids!

When we return, each group prepares their dish for our holiday celebration. We also finish the activity with several writing activities."

"Kite Week" Macy Henderson, Middle Level Teacher

This year all of the grade 7 teachers, at my school, completed an interdisciplinary thematic unit on kites. I have to report it was a huge success, so I thought I would share it with you.

Each content teacher devoted about fifteen minutes of each class period for the first four days of the unit. The first two days were devoted to mostly background knowledge and general administrative procedures to prepare for Friday. Wednesday and Thursday were set aside for preparation for Friday's task. On Friday, students actually built, sold, and flew kites.

Content Area Breakdown

Language Arts: Students composed advertisements and brochures to sell the kites they made. The proceeds were donated to charity.

Math: Students learned how to calculate the height of the kite from the ground with a protractor tool they built into their kites. We had a contest to see who could maintain the greater distance average for ten minutes. The top three students received trophies.

Science: Students learned about wind sheer and drag. Students built kites in Science to combat these variables.

Social Studies: Students organized an auction and demonstration of the kites they built to parents and faculty. Students also organized the donation of all proceeds to a local charity.

The Latest Teaching Idea That Worked! Student Performance Graphs Mike Dodgers, Middle Level Teacher

I have a very good way to reinforce graphing skills and motivate kids to do better all in one! I usually give out four criteria for grades: Homework, Quizzes, Projects, and Tests. Every month, I take 20 minutes with my class to create a line graphs of these four variables. They graph their score and compare all of the previous graphs.

Students also make a journal entry at the conclusion. If their journal entry interpretation is supported by their data, I give them a few points on a test. It's a good review, but most of all kids get motivated when they analyze their own personal data.