What’s New? Our New Look, That’s What!

It’s time to head back to school — and time for a brand new LessonPlansPage.com! We are so excited to share with you our newest updates to the number one resource for lesson plans on the internet! LessonPlansPage.com has thousands of free lesson plans, and we’ve added new features: you can add your own comments, rate your favorite lesson plans, share plans using your social media, export lesson plans as PDFs  – and print them with inline editing.

In addition to our fresh new look and features, we have put together a Back To School Resource Guide for you and your students’ parents to help you set your ground rules, motivate your classroom community, and support you as you inspire excitement in your students for the year ahead.

From all of us at HotChalk’s LessonPlansPage.com, welcome back to school!
  
Barbara Atkinson
Senior Editor

Back To School Lesson Plans – NEW!

General: engaging activities for the start of school – getting acquainted, getting excited and getting around; learning expectations, learning names, and learning cooperation; setting goals and exploring, “What are we going to be studying this year?”

Art: students get acquainted by drawing a classmate’s portrait in chalk; weaving with self-descriptive words; a helpful clean-up song; a middle school questionnaire; a “Note to Art Teaching Assistants”

Computers & Internet: use PowerPoint to introduce yourself to the class and vice versa; create a “Special Me” class book with Kid Pix; begin a “My, how we’ve grown” presentation for parents

Language Arts: various “All About Me;” “Interview your Classmate;” memory book; self-descriptive adjective activities; goals and expectations lessons using “The Giving Tree,” “Miss Nelson is Missing,” and letters written to oneself; reviews on essay structure, writing paragraphs and evaluating poetry

Math: a numerical introduction idea and graphing shared self-descriptive adjectives, birth months, or letters in classmate’s names

PE & Health: a lesson to introduce students and freeze-melt-go protocols; a name-learning activity involving feet

Science: school chemistry writing prompts and making birthday bar graphs

Social Studies: a classroom map hunt; a diversity ice breaker; a class census activity; school citizenship with “Stellaluna” and “Gremlins go to School;” creating a family or personal crest; a German “Schultuete” Me Bag idea; community building activities

Other: 10 rules for back to school success; 10 educational ownership discussion topics; numerous recommended links to additional back-to-school resources

Get Ready!

Get your students ready for the first day of school with our Back To School Resource Guide. You’ll find tips and ideas you can share with parents, as well as more than 100 innovative “first-day” lesson plans for you. Also, we have strategies for conquering school anxiety, tips for the new kid in class, and advice on lining up homework help in advance, as well as some suggestions for getting you the biggest bang with fewer school bucks.

Labor Day Lessons

Labor Day is a great time to assign “What I want to be . . .” art projects, poems, career webs, photo stories and mentor interviews. Find career exploration activities plus lessons on occupations in the community, jobs in the classroom, how a teen can get a job, child labor laws, and the history of the holiday — all this and more on our Labor Day Lesson Plans page.

Check This Out

Have you or your students ever wondered which part of the other side of the earth is directly below you, and where you’d come out if you tunneled?  Now you can find out, with this interactive map tunneling tool!

Join The Conversations at HotChalk

Omaha’s “Radical Experiment” for School Integration

The American Prospect recently featured an article by Sharon Lerner that details an exemplary pioneering effort to combat racial segregation in schools in Omaha, Nebraska, called the Learning Community. It pools resources and allows student movement to help make schools more socioeconomically diverse. But while Lerner argues that this “radical experiment” could serve to be a national model, local resistance may be indicative of potential animosity to similar efforts in other places.

Oceans of Science

The school year is starting for some of my colleagues and they are barely ready. I think I will take a lesson from that and get my introductory unit ready to go so I can relax a bit before the kids arrive. I think it may be because it has been so hot that I have selected oceans.

My Line

We worked without a raise in pay or increase in benefits for seven years – because we were told that it would prevent massive layoffs. And still teachers lost their jobs. Then we accepted larger class sizes – because we were assured that doing so would prevent further staff reductions. And again, positions were cut, staff was eliminated. Then came the furlough days with a salary reduction – to help meet budget deficits and prevent additional cuts. And once again, despite our sacrifices, teachers, other educators and clerical workers continued to lose their jobs or find their positions in jeopardy. 

Top Ten Things You Should Know About Geocaching Before You Get Started

I recently had a friend ask me what advice I would give someone who was just starting out in geocaching, a high-tech treasure hunt game I have referred to in past blogs and articles.  I thought for a while, and also asked other geocachers I know, and I came up with this Top Ten List.  I thought I’d share it here as well.

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

Add Your Voice

What about you? What inspired you to become a teacher? What motivates you to continue in an increasingly challenging field? We hope you enjoy the newest features at LessonPlansPage and participate in this amazing community. If you have a lesson plan or inspirational story, we hope you’ll share! Your colleagues would love to hear your story — just use our simple online submission form!

Coming Attractions

As always, we’ll keep adding new lesson plans, tips and ideas for you! And, be sure to stay tuned for additional messages in coming weeks — including a competition for The Best New Lesson Plan!