By now, we hope you’ve had time to look around at the redesigned LessonPlansPage.com. If not, please take a moment to check our fresh, new features! You can share, save, rate, comment, upload, print and even email your favorite lesson plans.

To celebrate our relaunch, we’re giving away ten Amazon Kindles and a wifi-enabled Apple iPad 2! You’ll find all the details below.

We’re all so excited to support the educational community.  Here’s to a great new school year!

  
Barbara Atkinson
Senior Editor

Check Out The NEW LessonPlansPage.com!

We’ve reconfigured, reorganized and relaunched our site!  At LessonPlansPage.com, you can  search for lesson plans, filtering by subject and grade. Check out Classroom for the most recent additions, free math worksheet templates, science project ideas and more! In Community, you’ll find teacher blogs, inspirational stories and links to additional educational resources. My Lesson Plans is your place to keep track of your favorites, and where you can see the lesson plans you’ve shared with the educational community.

There’s a “dynamic search” which updates in real time as you type, and as you select and de-select filters for grade and subject. You also can upload files and have viewing capability for your most popular file types, including Office files, Adobe Acrobat and many more.

We invite you to use LessonPlansPage.com — rate the lesson plans, leave comments for authors, and submit plans of your own.  Be part of the LessonPlansPage.com community!

You Can Win an Amazon Kindle or An iPad!

To celebrate the relaunch of LessonPlansPage.com, we invite you to submit your best lesson plans. Each lesson plan submission gives you one entry in a contest to win one of 10 Amazon Kindles!

And, if that’s not enough, we also have an Apple iPad 2 to give away. Join the HotChalk community of educators, parents and students to get the latest updates in education — just “Like” HotChalk on Facebook and you’ll be entered in a contest to win a wifi-enabled 16GB Apple iPad 2! Hurry, the contest ends September 30, 2011.

Featured Lesson Plans

The days are already getting shorter. Ready for some seasonal lesson plans?

• Exploring butterfly migration
• Trying apple pie tag
• Running a scavenger hunt
  You can find the collection for Autumn here.

Also, the recent destruction left by Hurricane Irene has a lot of students concerned about hurricanes and other destructive storms, and eager to know more.

• For grade 1:Weather. Where does it come from?
• For grades 2 -3: The Water Cycle
• For grades 4-5:  Florida hurricanes

Here’s just a selection of the many new plans on LessonPlansPage.com:

• For grades pre-k – 1: The Hokey Pokey with Shapes
• For grades 1 -5:Scooter Shopping Spree
• For grades 6 -7: Empowered Decision Making
• For grades 6 – 12: Constructing Basic PVC Wind Turbine – Blades

It’s National Hispanic Heritage Month

Feliz Mes de la Herencia Hispana! LessonPlansPage.com salutes the accomplishments and heritage of Hispanic-Americans during National Hispanic Heritage Month (though not technically covering an entire month, it does run for 30 days, from September 15 – October 15).

Check out our Hispanic Heritage Month Resource Guide, with 40 lessons on Hispanic culture and history, 30 Spanish language lessons, and 30 general culture, diversity and world geography lessons. You’ll also find an extensive list of recommended sources for videos, printables, PowerPoints, K-12 reading lists, mini-units, discussion activities, crafts, posters, games, interactive online activities and international e-pal programs.

Check This Out

Sodaconstructor is a construction kit for interactive creations using masses and springs. By altering physical properties like gravity, friction, and speed, curiously anthropomorphic models can be made to walk, climb, wriggle, jiggle, or collapse into a writhing heap.

Join The Conversations at HotChalk

What Have We Learned?

We never considered the possibility of an attack on American soil, we never fathomed the loss of so many civilian lives.  Terrorism was something that happened in other countries, not here in the United States.  But it did.  And the threat remains with us ever since. It has changed the way we travel, how we gather in public places and how we communicate. Our behavior has been altered, but what have we really learned? In the last ten years we have become a nation that is more bitterly divided, more corrupt, less grateful and less hopeful.

First Week of School

The first week of school is almost over. New faces, new schedules, new kids; same room, same budget, same constraints. I’m already exhausted and the kids looked tired on day one.  Part of it lies in the fact that one day we are enjoying a relaxing, laid back summer lifestyle and then wham- the next day, we are thrown into a regimented, scheduled, work filled day complete with meetings, homework, rules, obligations, grades, assignments and lesson plans. Neither students nor teachers have any time during the day for self reflection, a place to pause and just “be.” Except in an arts classroom.

Are You Already Back In Class?

Even if you’re already in the thick of the school year, you’ll find some great tips to use in our Back-To-School resource guide. Full of tips written by experienced educators, from how to prevent cyberbullying to tips you can share with parents about how to help you.

Are you checking out the latest on HotChalk’s blogs? Come join in on the conversations!

Coming Attractions

Look for new features on LessonPlansPage.com, and all the new lesson plans submitted by experienced educators. And, if you have a lesson plan or inspirational story, we hope you’ll share!