Among Americans, the most misunderstood fact of Cinco de Mayo is that the holiday is NOT Mexico’s independence day, nor does it have anything to do with the country’s founding.  In reality, Cinco de Mayo (“Fifth of May” in Spanish) has become more of an American holiday than a Mexican one and, for many, just an excuse for revelry.   Most non-Mexican Americans have no idea about the day’s history, but for your students this holiday can be a strong anchor for learning about the U.S.A.’s southern neighbor.

You don’t have to be Mexican to celebrate Mexico’s heritage

What is Cinco de Mayo?

Cinco de Mayo commemorates the Mexican army’s unlikely victory over the forces of Napoleon III of France on May 5, 1862, at the Battle of Puebla.  In 1861, Mexico declared a temporary suspension of the repayment of foreign debts, so British, Spanish, and French troops invaded the country.  By the spring of 1862 the British and Spanish had withdrawn, but the French  remained.  Its goal was to establish a monarchy under Maximilian of Austria and to curb growing U.S. power in North America.

Mexican and French forces met in battle at Puebla, southeast of Mexico City.  In an unlikely turn of events, a poorly equipped Mexican army under the command of General Ignacio Zaragoza defeated the French troops.   The victory at Puebla became a symbol of Mexican resistance to foreign domination (although the fighting continued and the French were not driven out for another five years).  Although the holiday was only celebrated locally for about 100 years, by the mid twentieth century the celebration of Cinco de Mayo became among Mexican immigrants to the United States a way of encouraging pride in their Mexican heritage.

A Celebration of Mexican Heritage

From the 16th century onward, Mexico had been dominated by the Spanish empire until it revolted against Spain in 1810.  The Spanish influence can be felt even today in the language, culture, music, and food of the country.  However, the Spanish overlords could not erase the heritage of Mexico’s indigenous peoples, and this native heritage is also strongly felt among the people.

Oddly, Cinco de Mayo is celebrated more in the U.S. than in Mexico.  Except for in the state of Puebla, May 5 is like any other day.  It is not a federal holiday, so stores, banks, and government offices remain open.  Americans of Mexican descent, and Americans of all ethnic backgrounds in the U.S. observe the holiday informally to celebrate Mexican culture.

Mexican cuisine

Mexico has one of the world’s most historic cuisines, and this history is reflected in every dish.  The origins of Mexican cuisine go back 5,000 years, when Mexico had yet to be colonized by Europeans.  At that time, indigenous people, who eventually coalesced into cultures such as the Olmec, Maya, Toltec, Aztec, Zapotec, and Mixtec, roamed the area and survived by hunting and gathering.  One of the most common plants in the area was the wild chile pepper, which they ate frequently.

Corn

It is thought that corn first entered the diet of the first Mexicans around 1200 BCE.  Corn was domesticated through a process called Nixtamalization in which the corn is soaked and cooked in limewater (or another an alkaline solution), washed, and hulled.  This softens the corn for grinding.  This process led to the use of corn based breads such as tortillas.  Since meat was scarce in the area, the indigenous people used beans as a source of protein.  The beans would be served as a side of most meals with corn.

Enter the Europeans

If you are familiar with the term “the Columbian Exchange”, you will know this was the widespread transfer of plants, animals, culture, humans, technology, diseases, and ideas between the Old World and the New World 16th century.  In what would become Mexico, the Spanish brought many of their own dishes to the indigenous culture such as rice, olive oil, garlic, coriander, and cinnamon.  They also brought many domesticated animals like pigs, sheep, cows, and chickens.  Cows and goats were used for dairy as well as meat, so cheese became a main ingredient in many dishes.  Since colonization, many cultures have influenced Mexican Food, including the French who had a strong military presence in the country in the 19th century.  French food was enjoyed by the upper class even after they left.

Mexican Food Today

Today Mexican Cuisine is a blend of indigenous and Spanish cuisine.  Its foundation remains corn, beans, tortillas, and chile peppers, but these are now usually served with meat and cheese.  Most dishes have a side of rice and spices, reflecting European influence.  It should be noted there is a big difference between what is considered authentic Mexican cuisine and the more well-known Tex-Mex cuisine such as burritos, chili con carne, chimichangas, hardshell tacos, enchiladas, nachos, and fajitas.

The languages of Mexico

Spanish is spoken by the vast majority of Mexicans (110 million people), but another 2 million also speak Nahuatl which is derived from the ancient language spoken by the Aztecs.  English is the third most-spoken language, and languages related to the Maya are spoken by a million people in southern Mexico.  Interestingly, in 2003, a law defending the rights of indigenous tongues recognized 69 languages (including Spanish) as Mexico’s official languages.

Mexican music

Like most things in Mexico, the music of the country is a blend of Spanish and native influences.  The three major types of Mexican music are: Mariachi, Norteño, and Banda.  Mariachi is perhaps the best known outside of the country.

Long considered a uniquely Mexican sound, representing a grass roots tradition that includes both indigenous and foreign elements, Mariachi is a small Mexican ensemble of mostly stringed instruments.  The typical instruments of Mariachi include the vihuela (a five-string guitar related to a Spanish Renaissance instrument), the guitarrón (a large, fretless 6-string bass guitar), a standard six-string acoustic guitar, violins, and trumpets.  Mariachi are most memorably heard performing the popular song “La Cucaracha” (“the Cockroach”) on the street, at festivals, or in restaurants.

Norteño, is a style of folk music associated with northern Mexico and Texas.  This style typically features an accordion and uses polkas and other rhythms found in the music of German, Austrian, and Czech folk music.  Norteño was brought to Mexico from Europe by the Austrian archduke Maximillian who reigned as emperor of the Second Mexican Empire.

Banda is a Mexican band featuring brass instruments, the tambora (a two-headed drum), woodwinds, and singers.  Its energizing percussive power and commanding horns makes Banda unique.

Folk dancing is still common in Mexico.  Everyone knows the iconic “Mexican Hat Dance”, Jarabe Tapatio.  This dance, performed by one person or several people, involves tossing a sombrero to the center of the stage, dancing around it and ending the performance with a collective “Olé!” and a hand clap.

Classical music is also popular in Mexico.  Manuel María Ponce’s “Concierto del Sur” for guitar and orchestra is among the most famous classical works, and “Guatimotzin” is a well-known Mexican opera.

Mexican art

Mexican art is unique and distinct, representing Mexican culture’s rich heritage and colorful pride.  Perhaps the best-known painters are Frida Khalo and Diego Rivera.  Folk art plays a key role in Mexican culture with handcrafted clay pottery, multi-colored baskets and rugs, and garments with angular designs.  Mexican mythology themes are still used in designs, most commonly the gods Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoc.

Mexican literature

In 1990, Octavio Paz, certainly one of the greatest authors of the 20th century, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.  Agustín Yáñez and Carlos Fuentes rank among great Mexican writers, too.  Fuentes’ 1985 novel The Old Gringo, about the disappearance of the American writer Ambrose Bierce in Mexico during the revolution, is his best known novel in the United States.  Europe, South and East Asia have important writers from antiquity, and so do the Americas.  The Pre-Columbian writer Nezahualcoyotl left behind a legacy of poetry and written works in the Classical Nahuatl language.

Mexican holidays

Celebrations in Mexico are called “fiestas” and typically include parades, fireworks, and pageants.  Traditional masks are also present in fiestas, as is the traditional papier-mâché object, the piñata, made to look like an animal or person.  It is filled with candy and toys and suspended from the ceiling at a fiesta.  Blindfolded children take turns trying to hit it open with a bat.

Some fiestas are religious in nature, so prayers and the burning of candles also take place.  The most important religious holiday for Mexico is the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe on December 12th.   It commemorates the belief that a man encountered the Virgin Mary on this day in 1531.

November 2 is Día de los Muertos (“The Day of the Dead”), also known as All Souls’ Day.  On this holiday, Mexicans honor those that have passed on.  Items collected throughout the year are placed on an adorned altar as an offering to the dead person.

Celebrated as a national public holiday, Mexican Independence day is September 16 and includes massive street parades, plenty of traditional foods, and rodeos.

Resources for Learning about Mexico

Help Teaching offers these educational resources:

• Mexico
• Cradles of Civilization: Mesoamerica
• Cradles of Civilization: Mesoamerica, Part II
• Columbian Exchange: Diseases
• Spanish Colonies
• Olmec
• Zapotec and Mixtec
• Classic Maya Collapse
• Toltec
• The Aztecs
• Teotihuacan
• Aztecs, Incas & Mayas
• Mexican-American War
• Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead)
• Octavio Paz
• Mexican Cooking – Basic Ingredients
• Music of Mexico

KidsKonnect.com has 

• Cinco de Mayo Facts & Worksheets
• Mexico Facts & Worksheets
• The Mexican-American War Facts & Worksheets
• Texas Revolution Facts & Worksheets
• Selena Quintanilla Facts & Worksheets
• Mexican Cession Facts & Worksheets
• Mexico City Facts & Worksheets
• Rio Grande Facts & Worksheets
• Cancún Facts & Worksheets
• Carlos Santana Facts & Worksheets
• Frida Kahlo Facts & Worksheets
• Javier Hernández Facts & Worksheets
• Saul Alvarez Facts & Worksheets

BusyTeacher.org offers

• Make A Mexican Flag: Cinco De Mayo Project
• Weather in Mexico
• A Surgeon Again: Reading Worksheet (about a Mexican doctor)
• Sculptures under the Sea (Mexico’s Caribbean)

Why not use Cinco de Mayo as a jumping off point to introduce students to the history and culture of Mexico.

Feliz Cinco de Mayo!

Image source: Freepik.com

Kids love crafts (and many grown-ups do too). Sites like Pinterest are full of craft ideas for kids, but sometimes you don’t feel like wading through all of the pins. When you’re short on time or aren’t quite sure what you’re looking for, there are plenty of craft sites ready to help you out. Whether you want to celebrate National Craft Month in March, find a craft to go along with a lesson, or just do a craft with the kids, we’ve rounded up a collection of the best craft sites to help you find the perfect craft for kids. With over 50 kid-friendly resources, you’ll be getting crafty in no time!

See Our Ultimate Guide to Crafts for Kids

General Crafts

Many craft sites cover all subjects and seasons. These are some of our favorites both for the amount of craft ideas they offer and the quality of the ideas they provide.

Red Ted Art’s motto is “Bringing Color & Art to Children’s Hearts.” This site is full or really neat ideas to encourage children to develop their creative side. Crafts are organized by category and range from making gifts to designing your own board games.

Busy Bee Kids Crafts organizes its craft ideas by time of year, category, and material. For example, if you have a wealth of empty toilet paper tubes, you can see a list of crafts that will help you use them up.

Enchanted Learning’s crafts section includes craft ideas for nearly every holiday and category. The crafts include a mix of printables and simple paper-based crafts. Most are appropriate for preschool and early elementary school.

DLTK’s Crafts for Kids is another quintessential crafts site, with a large selection of crafts for preschool and early elementary school. One section of the site is entirely devoted to printable crafts, which are ideal for those who want simple crafts with little mess.

First Palette includes a large selection of crafts searchable by theme, occasion, and age. Crafts range from toddler to ages 9 and up. While the site does have some printable crafts, many are slightly more involved crafts that will require grown-up participation.

Crayola has a great selection of crafts that can be made with Crayola projects. You can filter by age (12 months-12+ years), category, and color.

Storybook Crafts and Favorite Characters

Younger kids love to create crafts related to their favorite stories and characters. These sites take some of the most popular picture books and cartoon characters and pair them with great crafts for kids.

Kids Activities Blog has gathered up 100 crafts inspired by children’s books. These include crafts from books such as The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Knuffle Bunny.

No Time for Flashcards features a list of 25 books with crafts to match. Find a book you want to read with young kids and a relevant craft beside it. It can’t get much easier than that.

The Picture Book Professor offers many holiday and seasonal booklists that are accompanied by relevant crafts for kids.

PBS Kids crafts for kids page features crafts for many of kids’ favorite PBS shows, such as Peg+Cat, Sesame Street, and Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood. Many of the crafts are involved and require grown-up participation.

Disney Family offers many different craft ideas featuring favorite Disney characters. Many of the crafts are designed to be completed by families, which means they have steps that will be difficult for little kids.

Bible Crafts

Bible crafts can help kids learn more about key events and lessons in the Bible. These sites are perfect for Christian homeschoolers, Sunday school teachers, and parents who want to bring Bible lessons into the home.

DLTK’s Bible Crafts features a large selection of craft ideas organized by animals, general Bible crafts, Old Testament crafts, and New Testament crafts. Their offerings include printable crafts and many crafts that use items found around your home.

Danielle’s Place offers a massive selection of Bible stories and crafts for kids. Crafts are organized alphabetically by story. Each story is also accompanied by fun games.

Christian Preschool Printables focuses on easy-to-use printable crafts for kids. Crafts are organized by Old Testament, New Testament, and Holidays.

Meaningful Mama created a list of 100 Best Bible Crafts for Kids. The crafts are organized by major stories in the Bible.

Edible Crafts

With these edible crafts, you can have your crafts and eat them too. These sites offer crafts for a range of ages, from young kids who like to play with their food to older kids who are starting experiments in the kitchen.

Edible Crafts includes a large assortment of edible crafts for kids and adults. Many of the crafts are focused on special occasions.

Kinder Art shares a solid collection of recipes and edible crafts for kids. Many are simple enough to made by younger kids, with some grown-up supervision.

Cute Food for Kids features many neat ideas to help parents make kids’ food playful and fun. While many of these ideas are designed for parents, kids can help with the process.

Imperial Sugar offers many edible art projects that incorporate sugar and also includes fun science experiments as well.

Fun Family Crafts has an extensive archive of edible crafts, including some inspired by kids’ favorite movies.

Science and Nature Crafts

Science and nature crafts are a great way to get kids to have fun while learning more about the world around them. These sites include crafts made from materials found in nature and science experiments to help kids learn more about the world of science.

Tinkerlab features a variety of crafts and other projects designed to get kids thinking. Its offerings include many crafts related to science and nature that are great for upper elementary school.

Science Kids offers many fun science experiments and crafts designed to help kids learn more about how the world works. Ideas range from making eggs float to building parachutes.

The Craft Crow features crafts designed to help kids learn about science while being creative as well. Many of the activities repurpose the same materials in multiple ways.

32 Awesome Things to Make with Nature from Buzzfeed is full of clever craft ideas. While many of the ideas are designed for adults, they can easily be adapted to be fun for kids too.

Activity Village offers a nice selection of crafts designed to be used with leaves, pine cones, and other easy-to-find objects from nature. Many crafts can be enjoyed by younger kids too.

National Geographic features a selection of crafts designed for kids in elementary and middle school. Many of the crafts are designed to go along with National Geographic articles or programming.

Recycled Crafts

Rather than wasting paper and other items, why not make crafts from items you can find around your home? Kids can have fun and help save the environment at the same time.

Education.com’s Recycled Crafts section includes tons of craft ideas, from using old Christmas lights to creating a classic tin can phone.

Fave Crafts shares its list of 1000+ Recycled Crafts. This extensive list features crafts for both kids and adults and all of them use recycled items.

Planetpals is all about saving the Earth and it continues its mission through its collection of recycled crafts for kids.

Math Crafts

Sometimes right-brained students have a hard time grasping math. Bringing craft projects into the math classroom can help students grasp difficult concepts in fun ways.

Lalymom offers a list of 20 different math activities activities that all use the same main material – craft sticks! These activities are designed for preschool and early elementary school and help kids learn a range of basic math skills.

Nurture Store created a list of 100 hands-on, creative math activities for kids. Many of the items on the lists are crafts kids can complete. Activities are organized by skill, such as addition and subtraction and learning symmetry.

Artsy Craftsy Mom shows 15 different mesmerizing crafts that also integrate Math. Ideas include tessellations and colorful Fibonacci sequences.

We Are Teachers shares a list of 9 math art projects designed to help students love math. Ideas include musical fractions and place value pictures.

Social Studies Crafts

Craft projects can help kids experience the time period or event they’re learning about. Many of these sites offer projects that allow kids to make replicas of toys and tools found in history.

The Crafty Cow is an arts and crafts website for kids and they feature a lot of easy to make crafts that will help you teach history at the same time.

A Book in Time includes many resources for teaching social studies, including pages of crafts and projects organized by periods in American and world history.

Quatr.us offers a “What Should I Do Today?” section with a variety of social studies crafts. The site also has tons of articles on many different social studies topics.

Gifts for Others

Rather than spending tons of money on holiday gifts, why not have kids make gifts for friends and family? These sites offer some great handmade gift ideas.

FreeKidsCrafts.com has over 10 pages of crafts that kids can make as gifts for others. Ideas range from candy towers to glittery acorn necklaces. Many ideas are great for upper elementary and middle school.

101 DIY Gifts for Kids from Kids Activities Blog includes a large selection of ideas for both kids and parents to make.

101 Crafty Gifts to Make from Instructables is a list designed for adults, but many of the ideas could easily be made by older kids and teens as well.

40 Useful Gifts Kids Can Make is full of great crafty gift ideas. It includes gift such as handprint aprons and handmade bowls. Many will require help from a grown-up.

101 Handmade Gift Ideas Kids and Families Can Make from the Artful Parent is a great collection of crafty ideas. The crafts are organized by gift type, such as art gift, gifts for play, and gifts for the home.

Coloring Pages and Cut-Outs

Sometimes instead of making fancy crafts, kids just like to color. Pick up cheap coloring books at the dollar store or print them out from these sites.

KidsKonnect has dozens of free printable coloring pages for kids.

Coloring.ws from DLTK is full of simple coloring pages organized by category and holiday. Print them out and let kids color away.

Crayola offers many free coloring pages, including pages featuring some of kids’ favorite characters, such as the Disney Princesses.

Educational Coloring Pages has thousands of coloring pages for kids featuring their favorite cartoon characters.

The Kidz Page has a large selection of printable and online coloring pages organized by category and holiday. They include many early elementary pages.

HelpTeaching.com’s Early Education printables feature coloring pages designed to help preschoolers learn their letters and numbers.

Craft Kits and Subscriptions

If even searching for craft ideas for kids is too much work, consider getting a subscription to a craft box or purchasing a craft kit.

Kiwi Crate is a monthly subscription box that includes a different craft or maker project each month. It is designed for children ages 5-8, but the company offers other boxes for kids from ages 3-16.

Green Kid Crafts features monthly subscription kits for kids ages 3-10. Each kit is focused around a different educational theme and comes with STEAM activities for kids.

Bramble Box is a pretend play and craft kit that is delivered to your door monthly. Kids will enjoy exploring and reading about a monthly theme, and then creating a craft related to it. Many themes relate to math, science, and social studies, so it’s educational too!

Science Buddies sells kits to help kids learn about science while making their own fun toys, such as vibrating robots and a magic bullet train.

Oriental Trading is known for its pre-made crafts for kits. Many of the kits come in multi-packs, which makes them great for play dates or classroom craft time.

Tips for Crafting with Kids

Before you start a craft project with kids, keep these tips in mind.

1. Gather all of your materials in advance

The kids will be ready to get started right away, so you want to make sure you have everything ready to go.

1. Be patient and flexible

It may take kids a long time to complete a step and they may not do it perfectly, but you need to step back and let them craft their own way and at their own pace. If their snowman comes out looking for like a snowball, who cares?

1. Prepare for the worst

Crafts are designed to be messy. Cover your dining room table, put newspaper or plastic on the floor, and let kids wear a large paint shirt so you’re not as worried about the mess.

1. Have fun

Why let your kids have all the fun? Summon your inner-child and have some fun getting messy and making the crafts with them.

Do you have a go-to craft site or a great craft idea with kids? How about tips for parents and teachers taking on a big craft project? We’d love if you shared it with us.

Let’s face it, learning can be overwhelming. With so much information coming in at once, sometimes students just need a break. That’s where brain breaks come in. Brain breaks are short, focused activities designed to help students recharge and refocus. Although typically used with preschool and elementary grades, brain breaks can be used with students of all ages. Keep reading to learn more about brain breaks to help students reset, refresh, and get moving.

Why Brain Breaks?

Brain breaks have found their way into thousands of classrooms around the world, and it’s not just because they’re fun. Research involving children’s brains shows that movement and exercise can improve behavior and academic performance in the classroom. That’s why you’ll often see preschoolers spinning in circles, climbing around, and touching things with their hands as part of their learning process. Other types of brain breaks, such as breathing exercises, also have benefits backed by research. For example, deep breathing exercises can help decrease the symptoms of ADHD and anxiety in children.

Types of Brain Breaks

The goal of brain breaks is to get students to step back, clear their heads, and give them a couple minutes to recharge. This can be done in multiple ways. Some common forms of brain breaks include:

• Physical movement
• Calming exercises
• Creative activities
• Engaging media
• Social interaction

While physical movement is the most common type of brain break used in the classroom, teachers can incorporate different types of brain breaks based on factors such as the time of day, the time of year, and their individual students’ needs.

Physical Movement
Research shows that students need to move throughout the day. Physical brain breaks get students out of their seats and give them a chance to get in a bit of exercise. Examples of physical brain breaks include:

• Singing a song with motions
• Reading a movement story
• Moving like animals
• Dancing to music
• Stretching
• Jogging in place
• Jumping jacks
• Play a game such as the Pirate Ship Game

Calming Exercises
Learning can be stressful, especially during testing season. Calming exercises help students release any anxiety and tension they have built up inside. They also teach students techniques for handling stressful scenarios in other settings. Examples of calming brain breaks include:

• Breathing exercises
• Guided imagery
• Listening to calming music
• Sitting in silence
• Yoga poses

Creative Activities
Creative activities give students the opportunity to exercise a different part of the brain. A lot of learning involves logic and reasoning. Bringing creative activities into the classroom can help students connect the two sides of their brain. Examples of creative brain breaks include:

• Drawing a picture
• Answering a creative prompt
• Completing a role play activity
• Playing with clay
• Making music

Engaging Media
Students love the Internet and one particular activity they enjoy is watching videos. Sites like YouTube are full of short, highly entertaining videos. Since brain breaks are all about getting students to relax and refocus, showing a funny video or playing a popular song can be an effective way to get students, particularly those at the secondary level, to recharge in the middle of a class.

Social Interaction
Similarly, giving students, particularly those at the secondary level, a chance to simply sit and talk to one another can be exactly the break they need. Give students 2-3 minutes where they can talk about whatever they want without the stress of having to have all the right answers. To keep conversations from getting out of hand, consider choosing a random question for students to discuss with one another. You can also play a game such as “Would You Rather?” or “Two Truths and Lie” to give students something to talk about.

Resources for Incorporating Breaks in the Classroom

Lots of teachers and educational organizations use brain breaks on a daily basis. Here are some resources you can use to find brain breaks to incorporate into your own classroom:

20 Three-Minute Brain Breaks from Minds in Bloom includes activities that range from physical to social. Our favorite is 5-4-3-2-1 which has students do five different movements in descending order. Example: Five jumping jacks, four arms up and down, etc.

20 Brain Break Clips  from Teach Train Love includes songs that teachers can play to get kids moving in the classroom. A favorite video that we think makes a good brain break? The Gummy Bear Song.

20 Brain Breaks from Beg, Borrow, and Teach are organized by time-limit. The site suggests writing the ideas on color-coded popsicle sticks and choosing one every time you need a brain break for the classroom.

12 of the Funniest YouTube Videos for Kids from Cool Mom Tech is a great list of videos to use as brain breaks. We think the Mr. Raisin Toast series is a great pick!

How to Do Yoga in Your Classroom is a nice how-to guide from Kids Yoga Stories and includes a list of other calming activities for kids.

20 Themed Brain Break Ideas from Pink Oatmeal includes over 20 activities involving yoga, dinosaurs, and an alphabet theme.

67 Kid-Friendly Brain Break Songs and Musicians from Really Good Stuff is a great list of songs to play when you want to encourage kids to get up and dance for a few minutes during the day.

Brain Breaks Guide is full of different activities to use with kids in elementary and middle school.

GoNoodle is a site that provides tons of brain break activities for teachers. Sign up for a free account, and then set up a class to get activities organized by grade-level.

Do Nothing for Two Minutes is a two-minute timer with relaxing images and background music. If two minutes seems like a long time, work up to it. Start with 30 second, then a minute, and then two minutes.

HelpTeaching’s Physical Education Worksheets offers free games and other activities to get students moving in the classroom.

Whatever brain breaks you choose, there are few things to keep in mind:

1. Keep the brain breaks short. 2-3 minutes is enough to get students ready to learn again.
2. Explain to students the purpose of brain breaks. This will help main control in the classroom and may get more students involved.
3. Choose activities that benefit students. You may like yoga, but your students might think it’s crazy. If you can’t get them engaged in activity, it won’t benefit them.

Don’t let your students experience the brain breaks alone either. Adults need brain breaks too, so jump right in and enjoy them with your students.

Do you use brain breaks with your students? If so, we’d love to hear some of your favorite activities and resources.

If you enjoyed this read, you might also like what KidsKonnect has to say. Check out their articles today.

March is Women’s History Month. Like other special months, such as Black History Month and Hispanic American Heritage Month, Women’s History Month places an emphasis on the contributions to the history of our world by a particular group of people. We list impactful women you haven’t heard about so you can introduce them to your students.

Also like other special celebratory months, teaching about women’s gifts to humanity should not be limited to March, but included in your regular everyday curriculum.
We are all familiar with many female history-makers — Susan B. Anthony, Harriet Tubman, Marie Curie, Rosa Parks, Florence Nightingale, Hillary Clinton, Serena Williams (there are more resources to teach about famous women listed later in this article)  — but there are so many lesser-known women whose accomplishments should be trumpeted.  We’ll look at five women you may have never heard of whose contributions to history are significant.

The List of Significant Women You Haven’t Heard About

Finding your way with Gladys West

It’s become a staple of any trip we take.  Global Positioning Systems have revolutionized the way we travel.  People of a certain age (like me) will recall the days before GPS when we pulled out the road atlas, employed a magnifying glass to see the tiny print, and carefully mapped out a route to our vacation destination.  The back of the atlas had a chart listing distance between major cities, but for the obsessive-compulsive among us (also like me), we would attempt to tally up the miles between tiny arrows on the map’s roadways.  Invariably, we would lose count and have to start all over again!

Well thanks to Dr. Gladys West, we now can do all that in just seconds with an app on our mobile phones.  The work of Gladys West was instrumental in developing the mathematics behind the GPS.  She started her career in 1956 as a programmer of large-scale computers at what is now the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Virginia.  Just one other black woman and two black men worked alongside her.

Dr. West was also a project manager for data-processing systems used in satellite data analysis.  She built altimeter models of the Earth’s shape, managed the first satellite that could remotely sense oceans, programmed a computer to spit out precise calculations to model the shape of the Earth.  Dr. West’s data ultimately became the basis for the Global Positioning System.

Born in 1930 in Virginia, West’s family had a small farm, and she had to work in the fields with them.   Many of the families around them were sharecroppers.  Not satisfied with a life picking tobacco or working in the nearby cigarette factory, she realized education would be the key to her moving up in the world.  At her school, people at the top of the class were offered university scholarships, and since her family was poor, she worked hard in her studies to win one to Virginia State College.  Eventually Dr. West earned two master’s degrees and a Ph.D.  West was inducted into the United States Air Force Hall of Fame in 2018.

Britain’s Boudica

In a world dominated by men, Boudica, Queen of the Iceni tribe during the Roman occupation of Britain c. 60 CE, united different tribes in a Celtic military revolt against Roman rule.  Queen Boudica led an army of about 100,000 soldiers and succeeded in driving the Romans out of what was then the capital of Roman Britain (now modern-day Colchester), Verulamium and Londinium.  Boudica’s success forced the Roman emperor Nero to consider withdrawing his forces from Britain entirely.  However, the Roman governor, Gaius Suetonius Paulinus, finally defeated Boudica in a battle in the West Midlands.

Known as the scourge of the Roman Empire, Queen Boudica was a flashy figure.  Primary material about her comes from the Roman historians Tacitus and Cassius Dio who describes Boudica as a tall tawny-haired woman whose tresses hung down below her waist.  She had a harsh voice and a piercing glare.  Dio says she customarily wore a large golden necklace, a colorful tunic, and a thick cloak fastened by a brooch.  Her name derives from words in the various Celtic languages for “victorious”.

When Boudica’s husband King Prasutagus died, the Romans took the opportunity to increase their power in western Britain, but Boudica would have none of it.  The rebellion was fomented by a Roman assault on Boudica’s people whose homes were pillaged by centurions.  The assault included a Roman whipping of Boudica, and the raping of her two daughters, plus the confiscation of the estates of the leading Iceni men.  According to Tacitus, Boudica’s inspiring words to her army led them to victory: “It is not as a woman descended from noble ancestry, but as one of the people that I am avenging lost freedom, my scourged body, and the outraged chastity of my daughters.”

Viva la Vera!

Vera May Atkins, CBE (16 June 1908 – 24 June 2000) was a Romanian-born British intelligence officer assigned to France during the Second World War.  Among her accomplishments in the war effort was the evacuation of Polish Enigma codebreakers into Romania.  These Polish linguists were instrumental in helping the Allies break Nazi Germany’s military secret code which gave them a great advantage on the battlefield.  Atkin’s work in German-occupied France was made even more dangerous by the fact that her parents were Jews.  Prior to World War II, she also traveled clandestinely throughout Europe gathering intelligence on Nazi Germany for Winston Churchill.

Atkins was a member of the Special Operations Executive (SOE), a branch of British Military Intelligence assigned to train and send agents overseas.  At the end of the war, as a member of the British War Crimes Commission, Atkins embarked on a mission to find out what had become of the over one hundred special agents who had not made it back to Britain.  She was able to trace all but one.  Atkins was given the Croix de Guerre in 1948 and made a member of the French Legion of Honor in 1987.

Warren’s Writings on the War of Independence

The leading female intellectual of the American Revolution and early U.S. republic is hardly remembered today.  The published poet, political playwright, satirist, historian, and outspoken commentator Mercy Otis Warren engaged with the leading figures at a time when women were expected to keep silent on political matters.  She corresponded often with three presidents: Washington, John Adams, and Jefferson.

Despite having no formal schooling — as was common for women in colonial times — Warren displayed her talent for writing in her poetry, histories of the Revolutionary era, and politically scathing plays published serially in a Boston newspaper.  She did more than just write, hosting protest meetings at her home that led to the establishment of the Committees of Correspondence.  After independence, Warren was a staunch republican whose Observations on the New Constitution, published in 1788, held forth her opposition to the new constitution because she felt it gave too much power to a central government.

Wall Street’s Siebert

Known as the “First Woman of Finance”, Muriel “Mickie” Siebert was a bold Wall Street broker who was also the first woman to become a member of the New York Stock Exchange.  Although she did not have a college degree, Siebert was the first woman to become the superintendent of banking for New York State.

In the mid-1950s, when Siebert moved to New York City from her home in Cleveland, the only women working on Wall Street were secretaries and support staff.  Ten years later, after moving from job to job because she was not getting paid the same as men for an equal amount of work and responsibility, Siebert applied for, and eventually bought, to the tune of nearly half a million dollars, a much-coveted seat on the New York Stock Exchange.

Seibert eventually founded her own investment company, and for ten years remained the only woman out of over 1,300 men on the NYSE.

Eventually, Seibert’s financial prowess was recognized by New York’s governor Hugh Carey who appointed her the state’s banking superintendent.  She ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate in 1982 and then returned to Wall Street.  Despite her success as an investor, she still suffered indignities in the workplace.  Even as late as the mid-1980s, there was no ladies’ bathroom on the seventh floor of the New York Stock Exchange building.  Threatening to put a portable toilet in the building if there was no bathroom for women, she successfully campaigned to have a proper one installed.

Seibert was recognized for her philanthropic work and was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 1994.  Her impact on Wall Street was memorialized at the NYSE when a room was named after her marking the first time in the exchange’s 200 year history that a room was named for a person.

Resources for Teaching about Famous Women in History

Help Teaching has created many educational resources for Women’s History Month.

• Rosa Parks (Grade 3)
• Harriet Tubman (Grade 4)
• Equal Rights Amendment (Grade 5)
• Women’s Suffrage (Grade 5)
• Susan B. Anthony (Grade 5)
• Sojourner Truth (Grade 5)
• Marie Curie (Grade 5)
• Amelia Earhart (Grade 5)
• Who is Hillary Clinton? (Grade 5)
• Ida Tarbell (Grade 6)
• Seneca Falls Convention (Grade 6)
• Shirley Chisholm (Grade 7)
• Maya Angelou (Grade 7)
• Queen Victoria (Grade 7)
• Queen Elizabeth I (Grade 7)
• Anne Frank (Grade 7)
• Florence Nightingale (Grade 7)
• Women in WWII: Rosie the Riveter (Grade 7)
• Maya Angelou’s poem “On The Pulse Of Morning” (Grade 8)
• Madam C.J. Walker (Grade 8)
• Women Through History (Grade 8)
• Catherine de Medici (Grade 8)
• Serena Williams (Grade 8)
• People of Peace: Jane Addams (Grade 9)
• People of Peace: Mother Teresa (Grade 9)
• Catherine the Great (Grade 9)

KidsKonnect.com has worksheets and factsheets about these famous women:

• Susan B. Anthony
• Elizabeth Cady Stanton
• Lucy Stone
• Sojourner Truth
• Lucretia Mott
• Harriet Tubman
• Dorothy Height
• Ella Baker
• Malala Yousafzai
• Marsha P. Johnson
• Margaret Thatcher
• Hillary Clinton
• Michelle Obama
• Kamala Harris
• J.K. Rowling
• Beatrix Potter
• Jane Austen
• Agatha Christie
• Frida Kahlo
• Amelia Earhart
• Sally Ride
• Elizabeth Blackwell
• Coco Chanel
• Florence Nightingale
• Hatshepsut
• Cleopatra
• Joan of Arc
• Queen Elizabeth I
• Anne Frank
• Hellen Keller
• Sacagawea
• Princess Diana
• Mother Teresa
• Hope Solo
• Althea Gibson
• Michelle Kwan
• Serena Williams

So dive in and learn more about incredible women who’ve shaped each and every aspect of modern life!

Image sourced from Free Library of Philadelphia

If you’re a math teacher, every day is a reason to celebrate math, but did you know that there are also a multitude of “holidays” centered around math? Using a math holiday as an angle to get students excited about math adds up to a whole lot of fun! We hope this list will inspire and energize your math teaching throughout the year. Keep reading to discover 11 prime days to celebrate math holidays.

1. Our first math holiday is e Day

If you teach any high school students with irrational math fears, then help them transcend their fears on February 7. Euler’s number, e, which is both irrational and transcendental, rounds to 2.7, thus we have e Day on 2/7. Show students the practical use of Euler’s number by introducing them to continuous compounding interest. A little lesson in financial literacy is always valuable!

2. 100^th Day of School

The number of creative ways to celebrate this day is certainly not limited to 100! Ask students to bring in containers of 100 small objects and display them around the school. Have students create a list of 100 reasons why they love their school or community. Explore what life was like 100 years ago. Collect 100 food items and donate them to your local food pantry. Visit Help Teaching to use our 100 charts and lessons, as well as all of our counting worksheets.

3. Pi Day

Pi may be infinite, but Pi Day is not. Celebrate Pi Day on March 14 in recognition of its common abbreviation, 3.14. Plan a party with your students, but wait to sound the party horns until exactly 1:59 in the afternoon (3.14159)! Double the fun and make it a party for Albert Einstein, whose birthday is also on March 14. Be sure to check out Help Teaching’s worksheets featuring the number pi. Pi Day also kicks off World Math Week.

4. Mathematics & Statistics Awareness Month

Use all 1 + 4 + 9 + 16 days of April to celebrate the beauty and fun of mathematics. Focus on bringing math alive by making math relevant for students and connecting math and statistics to real-world problems. Elementary students can record daily weather data throughout April, then graph and analyze their results. Middle school students are at an age where decision making becomes more independent. Connect daily decisions making to probability with the game-based activity SKUNK. High school students have enough mathematical background to develop statistical questions on topics of personal interest, then collect, interpret, and present their data. Get started with this collection of statistics worksheets.

5. Square Root Day

The only thing square about Square Root Day is the date. When the day and the month are both the square root of the last two digits of the year, we have a Square Root Day. April 4, 2016 (4/4/16) was a Square Root Day, but the next one won’t be until May 5, 2025 (5/5/25)! Get radical and make these special days square-themed.

6. Palindrome Days

Palindrome days aren’t just for students named Bob or Hannah. Palindrome days fall on any dates where the numbers of the month, day, and year are the same both forward and backward. For example, in the year 2022, February 22 was a palindrome date (22/02/2022) but only in countries where dates are written in the dd/mm/yyyy format! Challenge your students to formulate lists of future Palindrome dates. Start with five-digit Palindrome dates (M/DD/YY) and work up to eight-digit dates (MM/DD/YYYY).

7. Pythagorean Theorem Day

As proof that the squares don’t have a monopoly on the math holidays, Pythagorean Theorem Day comes around periodically. Also known as Right Triangle Day, recognize Pythagorean Theorem Day whenever the sums of the squares of the month and day equals the square of the last two digits of the year. August 15, 2017 (8/15/17) and December 16, 2020 (12/16/20) are both Pythagorean Theorem Days. Make sure to check out our self-paced lesson on Solving Right Triangles.

8. Math Storytelling Day

No need to divide your instructional time between math and ELA on September 25 (9/25), it’s Math Storytelling Day! There are many ways to teach math through storytelling. Start the day by reading Math Curse, The Grapes of Math, or Sir Cumference or any math story to your students. Try a math story lesson like The General Sherman Tree or Let’s Go to the Zoo. Then, provide a writing prompt and ask students to write and share their own math stories.

9. Powers of Ten Day

Although 10/10/10 has passed, each October 10 can still be used to illustrate the powers of tens. Show your students the power of magnitude by screening the classic film Powers of Ten^TM. Spend at least one-tenth of your class time this day doing hands-on decimal or base ten exponent activities.

10. Mole Day

No, this day doesn’t pay homage to the subterranean dwellers. Rather, it is a special day for anyone with an interest in math or chemistry. If you remember Avogadro’s number, then you may guess the date of this math day! Mole Day takes place on October 23 each year between 6:02 a.m. and 6:02 p.m. (6.02 x 10^23) during National Chemistry Week. Use Help Teaching’s Chemistry Lessons and this TedEd video to introduce students to mathematical moles.

11. Our last math holiday is Fibonacci Day

Quick, what number comes next: 0 + 1 + 1 + 2 + 3 + ___? If you said five, then embrace your inner math geek and celebrate Fibonacci Day with your students on November 23 (11/23). Take this day to let your students explore the Fibonacci sequence and the Golden Ratio in nature. Mensa for Kids offers a nice selection of activities perfect for introducing students to the elegance of Fibonacci.

Visit HelpTeaching.com and utilize our growing library of K-12 math worksheets, lessons, and math generators!

In the American mind, little is known about the “land down under” when compared to their knowledge of other parts of the world. So here’s where you learn about Australia, Australia Day, and why it’s controversial for some.

Australian History

Most Americans’ knowledge of Australia is limited to the unusual animals like the kangaroo and duck-billed platypus, Hollywood’s Crocodile Dundee, and “put another shrimp on the barbie”.

But any understanding of Australia Day must begin with knowledge of the colonial history of the country and an overview of how that narrative is intertwined with the culture and history of the first people to settle the continent thousands of years before the arrival of Europeans.

The First People of Australia

Although it is considered among the world’s oldest cultures, Aboriginal Australians have a rich, vibrant, and living culture today.  Aboriginal peoples form two groups: those descended from people who already inhabited the continent when Great Britain began colonizing the island in 1788, and the Torres Strait Islander peoples, who are descended from residents of the Torres Strait Islands, part of modern-day Queensland, Australia.

Academics believe there is evidence of complex social behaviors among the native people including cremation, personal ornamentation in the form of shell beads, and long-distance trade.  Watercraft were used for some travel by aboriginals to Bali and Timor, and this is thought to be the earliest confirmed seafaring in the world.

Traditional scholarship holds that Australia’s indigenous peoples were hunter-gatherers who did not practice agriculture.  Recently, though, some historians and archaeologists have argued that native peoples did use agricultural practices.  Despite being nomadic, aboriginals were very much attached to their home territory.

Aboriginal peoples understood the world through interpretation of “the Dreaming” (or “dream-time”), a concept embodying the past, present, and future.  This comprehensive belief system includes creation at the dawn of time when supernatural beings made the land with flora, fauna, and humans.  These beings also gave rules for social life. 

Aborigines make up nearly 800,000 out of a total Australian population of 25 million.  Per capita, they suffer higher rates of suicide, alcohol abuse, domestic violence, and incarceration when compared to the general populace.  This is the legacy of British colonial rule which decimated the aboriginal population through the introduction of new diseases such as  smallpox, measles, and influenza, the acquisition of native lands by British settlers, and direct and violent conflict.  It’s estimated that in the ten years following the arrival of the British, the indigenous population was reduced by 90%.  Since aboriginal culture connects with the land, the annexation of native lands was particularly disastrous for indigenous peoples. 

European Knowledge of Australia

As far back as the 2nd century CE, the Roman mathematician, astronomer, and geographer Ptolemy, despite no observational evidence, hypothesized the existence of terra australis incognita (“the unknown land of the south”).  This southern land intrigued medieval European scholars for centuries.  From the 16th century, European cartographers and navigators began including this “Australia” on maps, and as sailing technology advanced, it was inevitable that Europeans would eventually reach the continent.

British Arrival in Australia

By the 1700’s, Great Britain was ascending to the place of unrivaled dominance of the high seas.  By 1770, Captain James Cook planted the Union Jack on what is now called Possession Island, claiming the eastern half of the continent for the British.  On January 26, 1788, Captain Arthur Phillip, commander of the First Fleet of convict ships from England arrived at Sydney Cove to establish the colony of New South Wales.  January 26 has become known as Australia Day by the general population, but also as “Invasion Day” by Aboriginal Australians (more about this below).

Through the 1800’s, the British control and colonization of the continent continued rapidly, and this meant persecution of native peoples, including dozens of massacres throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries.  By 1901, the various British Australian colonies federated to form the Commonwealth of Australia which was given “dominion” status in the British Empire in 1907.  By the 1940’s, most of the constitutional ties with the United Kingdom were severed, and the Australia Act of 1986 dissolved the rest.  Today, Australia has a federal democratic parliamentary system of government but remains a constitutional monarchy with the British sovereign as a figurehead.

Famous Australians and Their Accomplishments

Daisy May Bates (born Margaret Dwyer in Ireland in 1859) was an Australian journalist, welfare worker, and lifelong student of Australian Aboriginal culture and society.  Revered among some aboriginal people, Bates was referred to by the name Kabbarli, or “grandmother.”

Vincent Lingiari (born in 1908) was an Australian Aboriginal rights activist.  Early in life he was a stockman at Wave Hill Station, a pastoral lease in the Northern Territory.  A pastoral lease, or run, is when Australian government-owned Crown land is leased out for the purpose of livestock grazing.  Aboriginal workers were paid only in rations, tobacco and clothing.  In 1966, after workers demanded higher pay and improved working conditions, Lingiari led the workers in the Wave Hill walk-off, also known as the Gurindji strike.  In 1976, Lingiari was named a Member of the Order of Australia for his services to native aboriginal peoples.

Rupert Murdoch (born in Melbourne in 1931) is an American media mogul and billionaire.  He owns hundreds of local, national, and international publishing outlets worldwide, including in the United Kingdom (The Sun and The Times), in Australia (The Daily Telegraph, Herald Sun and The Australian), and in the United States (The Wall Street Journal and The New York Post).  He also owns book publisher HarperCollins and television network Fox News.

Germaine Greer (born in Melbourne in 1939) is among Australia’s most controversial authors seen by many as one of the major voices of the radical feminist movement in the second half of the 20th century.  Her first book, The Female Eunuch, published in 1970, made her a household name.  Greer has also championed the environment.  Her book, White Beech: The Rainforest Years, is the story of her efforts to restore part of a rainforest in the Numinbah Valley in Australia.
Emily Kame Kngwarreye (born in Alhalkere country in 1910) one of the country’s most significant contemporary artists.  She grew up in a remote desert area known as Utopia.  Kngwarreye began painting late in life (age 80), however she was a prolific artist producing over 3,000 paintings in her eight-year painting career.  That’s an average of one painting per day.  Her work was inspired by her cultural life as an aboriginal elder, and her custodianship of the women’s Dreaming sites in her clan country.  She died in 1996.

Australia Day

January 26 is an important date in Australia’s history, but its meaning has changed over time.  Australia Day started in 1808 as a celebration for pardoned convicts and gradually developed into a celebration of Australia that reflects the nation’s diverse people.  However, for many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, the date has long symbolized sorrow and mourning.

Opposition to Australia Day

Aboriginal leaders formally met for the first time in Sydney in 1938 to mark a Day of Mourning to protest the mistreatment of native peoples by the British and white Australians.  They also were seeking full citizen rights for aboriginal people.  50 years later, many native leaders renamed Australia Day as ‘Invasion Day’.  Protests have been held almost every year on Australia Day with some calling it “Survival Day” to emphasize that despite British colonization, aboriginal culture has survived.

Protesters have pushed for treaties between native and non-native Australians and recognition in the county’s constitution.  They also want the date of Australia Day to be altered or abolished.  Victoria state is working toward a first-of-its-kind treaty with its aboriginal population that would recognize the sovereignty of Aboriginal Australians and include compensation.  However, federal Australia itself has never made such a treaty.  It’s the only country in the British Commonwealth not to have ratified a treaty with its indigenous peoples.

Changing the Date

For many Australians, January 26 is a symbol of inequity and institutionalized racism.  However, a survey by the Institute of Public Affairs says 69% of Australians want the date to remain unchanged.

Several dates have been proposed, including January 1, when the Commonwealth of Australia was born in 1901 and Australia, as one united nation, was created.  Some feel, though, that this date change would do nothing to address the unfair treatment of native peoples in the past and present.

Some have argued that Australia’s “National Sorry Day” (observed each year on May 26) should be a new date for Australia Day.  National Sorry Day memorializes the mistreatment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Another, more tongue-in-cheek, suggestion for a new Australia Day date is May 8.  Say the date quickly and you’ve got the word “mate”.  Proposers say being a mate can surmount cultural and racial barriers.

Resources for Teaching about Australia

Help Teaching has created many educational resources including

• Australia Quiz 
• Australian Geography
• Aboriginal Australians
• Australia History

KidsKonnect.com has worksheets on

• Australia Day 
• Aboriginal Peoples of Australia
• Australia Facts
• Convicts in Australia
• White Australia Policy
• Australia (Continent)
• Stolen Generation
• Australian virologist Macfarlane Burnet
• Bennelong
• Canberra

Check out these free resources from BusyTeacher.org.

• Australia
• Welcome to Australia (PowerPoint)
• Australian Animals
• Australia: The Upside Down World (PowerPoint)

There are free curriculum resources from Australians Together.  Cool Australia has produced 52 lessons that investigate racism, privilege, truth-telling, cultural pride, and resilience.  Mr. Donn has produced many worksheets and activities about Australia.  In Clarendon Learning’s “All About Australia” lesson plan, students learn Australian history and culture.

The National Museum of Australia has loads of free resources for teaching about Australia.  You will find plenty of resources for teaching specifically about Australia’s indigenous population at the Aussie Educator website.  ABC Education offers free educational content including videos, digibooks, games and audio lessons about many aspects of Australian history and culture.

Australia is a wonderfully diverse place worthy of study.  G’day, Mate!

Image source: Freepik.com

Ripley’s Believe It or Not, Weird But True, and other enterprises like them have made an entire business of highlighting the odd, wacky, and incredible things the human body can do. Yet, engaging high school students in a topic that they may feel they already know enough about (after all, don’t we walk around in these bodies every day?!) can be a challenge. We list top strategies for teaching anatomy and physiology to bring it alive in the classroom with resources that will draw students in, hold their interest, and maximize their learning.

The Importance of Anatomy & Physiology

Anatomy, or the study of the structure of body parts, and physiology, or the study of the function of body parts, may be offered as a separate course in some high schools or may be integrated into various topics within a biology course, including botany and the human body. Therefore, neither anatomy or physiology is completely new for students in the upper grades. The key is to explore this wide range of topics in a way that students find fresh. But why are anatomy and physiology so important?

• The study of the structure and function of the body is crucial for the basis of health and medicine. Today’s technology for diagnosis and management, pharmaceutical development and application, and techniques for the treatment or prevention of disease—all depend on anatomy and physiology. Understanding the anatomy, physiology, and pathophysiology of our own bodies make us all more science literate—more capable of asking the right questions, understanding relevant concepts, and making sound decisions about our health.
• An anatomy and physiology course integrates both the life sciences and the physical sciences of physics and chemistry—much like biochemistry—and provides a natural interdisciplinary approach to topics from the simple to the complex, allowing students to begin to understand the relationships between various branches of science.
• The field of anatomy and physiology is a wonderful example of exploring a single entity—the human body—by breaking the overwhelming expanse of it into systems. The systems can then be examined independently and relative to one another. The skills of analysis, synthesis, and making connections can also be applied across disciplines.
• Learning anatomy can be a huge exercise in memorization because of the many structures in the body, such as the skeletal and muscular systems. Developing techniques and ability for memorization will serve students in any subject.

An Approach to Teaching Anatomy and Physiology

Not every student in a biology or anatomy and physiology course is interested in pursuing a career in health and medicine in college or professional school. So how do you keep all the students in your classroom engaged in learning? First, students need to feel that the subject matter has relevance in their world. That’s the easiest part; every student in your classroom has a body!

1. Introduce material with a story. Be clear about objectives for the lesson or unit. This may include a list of vocabulary terms and key concepts. Then find resources that will lay a foundation of interest while touching upon these terms and concepts. A news story, podcast, or segment from a network program could fit the bill perfectly. A quick online search can bring up interesting stories that cover just about any organ system.

• Body Pods podcast. A series of seven podcasts, each is a unique focus on a part of the body and is produced through a collaboration of an artist and a scientist in the field.
• LiveScience online. Read about some of the strangest medical reports, affecting systems from the eye to the gut.
• ABC News online. This article covers baffling medical conditions.

Present only the portion that is relevant to the current topic. While some students may find themselves squeamish with any content dealing with the body, do exercise caution in avoiding exploitative or insensitive material.

2. Conduct laboratory activities that allow students to use their own bodies. Everyone has been medically examined using equipment that they may find intimidating and foreign, so allowing students to use simple items to take physiological measurements makes real science reachable. When students understand what these numbers mean and what normal ranges and abnormal values indicate, concepts can be solidified. Get started with these classroom activities:

• Human cardiovascular and respiratory function.
• Muscle physiology.

3.  When real-life experience is impossible, look for the next best thing. Images, animations, videos, and simulations abound in the world of anatomy and physiology for both states of health and disease.

• The Visible Body. This website has apps of images and simulations that cost, but there is also free content available.
• Videos Medical. A YouTube channel, this video series shows blood moving through a beating heart or bones and muscles putting the body in motion.
• MedLinePlus Surgical Procedures. These videos show actual surgeries, from angioplasty to knee replacement. Warning: Some videos can be quite graphic, so preview thoroughly before introducing to students.

4. Explore and solve a medical mystery. Use case studies as a culminating activity to reinforce vocabulary and concepts. Alternatively, case studies could be the primary method for covering a unit. Although a complete inquiry process would most likely take much longer than allowable in a course, allowing students to form groups under a system of their choice would allow for more in-depth examination and understanding. Groups work independently then present their case study, course of action, and conclusions to the entire class. Students work together to learn the anatomical structures and major physiological concepts of their system, common disorders and diseases of the system, and methods and techniques used to examine and assess the system. Students could broaden their resources, reaching out to experts in the field locally or digitally, as available.

Remember to make instruction effective by engaging students right from the beginning, checking in using assessments and questioning, allowing for collaborative learning, and providing feedback throughout the learning process.

Dana Johnson is a freelance editor and writer specializing in science education. Using every bit of her experience as a corporate and government scientist, high school science teacher, and academic specialist, Dana creates, reviews, and edits premium science materials for secondary and higher education. She currently serves as Help Teaching’s biology subject matter expert. When not working away at her laptop, Dana loves reading, journaling in long hand, gardening, and patronizing the arts.

On January 27 each year, the world observes Holocaust Remembrance Day to remember the millions of Jewish people and other minorities who were systematically persecuted and murdered by Nazi Germany. Learn how to teach this dark (but important to know) period of history to kids.

What was the Holocaust?

Auschwitz-Birkenau, Buchenwald, Treblinka: these and the names of the other Nazi concentration, labor, and extermination camps raise the spectre of a living hell of hopelessness, human degradation, and gripping fear.  The Holocaust was an unprecedented, systematic, and total genocide perpetrated by Nazi Germany and its collaborators, with the goal of completely wiping out the Jews and other “undesirable” minorities. 

The primary motivation for the genocide was the Nazis’ anti-Semitic, racist ideology that positioned them as superior to all other races.  Between 1933 and 1941, Nazi Germany followed a policy that stripped the Jews of their rights and their property, and subsequently branded and concentrated the Jewish population. This policy had broad support in Germany and much of occupied Europe.

In 1941, following Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union, the Third Reich and their collaborators launched the systematic mass murder of Jews.  By 1945, nearly six million Jews had been executed according to Adolph Hitler’s “final solution”.  The Nazis also murdered a quarter of a million handicapped persons and over 200,000 Roma.  Soviet civilians, Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexuals, and those the authorities deemed “asocial” were also killed.  When totaling all civilians killed, not as collateral damage due to military conflict, but those murdered in cold blood by the Nazis and their collaborators, the total dead reaches a staggering 11 million.

Most of Europe’s Jewish population was exterminated by 1945.  A civilization that had flourished for millennia was no more.  The dazed and emaciated survivors were bereaved beyond measure.  They gathered whatever strength which remained and rebuilt. They never sought out justice – for what justice could ever be achieved after such a heinous crime?  Rather, they turned to rebuilding.  Their new families were forever under the shadow of absent loved ones.  Their new life stories were forever twisted by terrible physical and psychological wounds.

The human tragedy of the Holocaust would be unimaginable if it hadn’t, in fact, happened.

What is Holocaust Remembrance Day?

International Holocaust Remembrance Day, is an international memorial day held every January 27.  It commemorates the tragedy of the Holocaust that occurred during the Second World War.  This day of remembrance was so designated by the United Nations General Assembly on November 1, 2005.  January 27 was chosen because that was the day in 1945 when Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi concentration and death camp, was liberated by the Soviet Army.

The January 27 International Holocaust Remembrance Day should not be confused with Holocaust Remembrance Day, or Holocaust Day, (known in Hebrew as Yom HaShoah).  This memorial day occurs on the 27th day of the Hebrew month of Nisan (which falls in April or May).  This day is observed in Israel and by many Jewish communities in the United States and elsewhere.  The date is tied to both the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, which began 13 days earlier in 1943, and to the Israeli Independence Day, which happened eight days later in 1948.

Holocaust survivors

It’s estimated that approximately 67,000 survivors of the Holocaust are living in the United States and about 400,000 survivors worldwide. With most eyewitnesses to Nazi atrocities now in their 80s and 90s, it’s imperative that our society keep their story alive to that it never happens again.  You can do this with your students by using some of the resources highlighted below.  Help Teaching has scanned the many websites which offer Holocaust content, and the best are listed here.

Teaching about the Holocaust

If you are nervous about teaching this very sensitive subject, you are not alone.  Teaching Holocaust history calls for a high level of sensitivity and a keen understanding of the complex subject matter.  The photographic and film images can produce emotional reactions in students (and adults, too).  The heart-wrenching stories of survivors may have an unforgettable impact on students.  Here are some articles you might find helpful:

• Jeffrey Parker’s and Laura Tavares’ article “When Teaching the Holocaust, Heed These Three Recommendations” from EdSurge
• “‘Holocaust Fatigue’ in Teaching Today” by Simone Schweber and the National Council for the Social Studies
• “Guidelines for Teaching About the Holocaust” from The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Holocaust Resources

There are countless resources out there for all grade levels.  Here are a few.

From Help Teaching

• Video lesson and worksheet on Anne Frank
• Video lesson and worksheet about a child victim’s poem written in a concentration camp
• Questions about the young person’s Holocaust novel The Book Thief 
• Worksheet defining Holocaust vocabulary

From KidsKonnect

• Auschwitz Facts & Worksheets
• Holocaust Facts & Worksheets
• Anne Frank Facts & Worksheets
• Nazi Germany Facts & Worksheets
• World War II Facts (WW2) & Worksheets
• Judaism Facts & Worksheets

Online resources

These groups and institutions offer resources to help you teach about the Holocaust:

• The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC teaches millions of people each year about the dangers of unchecked hatred.  Learn more about the Holocaust, antisemitism, and genocide here.
  • Among the museum’s online exhibitions, “Some Were Neighbors: Collaboration and Complicity in the Holocaust” has lesson plans examining the motives and pressures which led so many individuals to abandon their fellow human beings and collaborate with the Nazis.
  • The museum also has a lesson plan for grades 9-12 called “History Unfolded: U.S. Newspapers and the Holocaust”
• Yad Vashem – The World Holocaust Remembrance Center has many free educational videos, lesson plans, and activities for all grades
• Facing History and Ourselves has a free unit of 23 lessons and assessments on Teaching Holocaust and Human Behavior plus some thoughts on teaching emotionally challenging content
• PBS Newshour has free Holocaust Remembrance Day Lesson Plans and Activities
• The National Endowment for the Humanities has free lessons plans on Anne Frank and a lesson challenging students to reflect on the Holocaust from the point of view of those who actively resisted Nazi persecution
• You will find free lesson plans and resources for elementary, middle school, and high school students provided by the Cohen Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Keene State College in New Hampshire
• Teaching Tolerance’s “One Survivor Remembers” unit has three free lessons plans
  • Bullies & Bystanders
  • Anti-semitism
  • Intolerance Today

Online events

Here’s a sampling of the many live and recorded online events planned for this year:

• On January 13, 2021, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum hosts a free virtual event The Difference between Life and Death: Choices That Saved a Young Boy.  If you miss the live program, a free recording will be available to watch on demand on the museum’s Facebook page.  You do not need a Facebook account to view the program.
• UN.org has planned a Holocaust Remembrance “Invitation: Virtual United Nations Holocaust Memorial Ceremony” ceremony on Jan. 27, 2022.
• The National WWII Museum in New Orleans is hosting an International Holocaust Remembrance Day webinar, International Holocaust Remembrance Commemoration Ceremony, Jan. 27 at 6 p.m.
• The Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City presents a special virtual reading “Echoes In Ink: A Liberation Day Reading Of Short Stories From The Holocaust“, Jan. 27, 10 a.m.
• The Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh is having a free, live Zoom event in collaboration with world-renowned institutions to present a special concert for this year’s commemoration.

Hollywood films about the Holocaust

A word of caution: Always preview any film you are going to show to students for appropriateness of content for the given age group.  The films recommended here best shown only to high school students.

• Eight lessons on Schindler’s List from Facing History
  • Steven Spielberg’s 1993 epic starring Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, and Ben Kingsley remains at the top of the list. (Rated “R” for violence, nudity, language; here is a critique of the film’s elements)
• Defiance study guide from the Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation
  • Jewish brothers in Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe escape into the Belarussian forests, where they endeavor to build a village, in order to protect themselves and about one thousand Jewish non-combatants (Rated “R” for violence, nudity, language; here is a critique of the film’s elements)
• Denial discussion guide from the ADL
  • Denial recounts Deborah E. Lipstadt’s legal battle for historical truth against British author David Irving who sued her and her publisher for libel after she declared him a Holocaust denier in her 1993 book (Rated “PG-13” for language; here is a critique of the film’s elements).  For resources specifically addressing this issue see below.
• The Book Thief activity guide from the Unitarian Universalist Association
  • Based on the novel by Markus Zusak, this film tells the story of a young girl living with her adoptive German family in the 1930s and 40s.  After her foster father teaches her to read, she begins “borrowing” books and sharing them with the Jewish refugee sheltering in their home. (Rated “PG-13” for violence; here is a critique of the film’s elements)
• Life Is Beautiful discussion questions from ReadWriteThink
  • Director/actor Roberto Benigni’s Italian-language (with English subtitles) recounting of Holocaust atrocities is injected with a story of hope, joy and a love more precious than words.  The film won three Oscars in 1999.  (Rated “PG-13” for violent content; here is a critique of the film’s elements)
• The Hiding Place curriculum created by the Holocaust Museum Houston 

The true story of the Ten Boom family, members of the Dutch Resistance during World War II who found shelter for dozens of Jews, including many children. Corrie Ten Boom and her sister were caught and sent to the Ravensbrück concentration camp.  (Rated “PG” for mild violent content; here is a critique of the film’s elements)

Holocaust denial

Sadly, we must note that in recent decades, Holocaust denial has become more widespread and sophisticated worldwide. The Miami Herald reports one in ten young American adults thinks Jewish people caused the Holocaust. Another one in ten doesn’t believe the Holocaust happened.  However, encouragingly, 80% of Millennials in a survey commissioned by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, responded they felt it is important to continue teaching about the Holocaust.  In October 2020, Facebook placed a ban on posts espousing Holocaust denial.

Holocaust denial is a form of historical revisionism which denies that the murder of six million Jews ever happened.  This phenomenon gained some popularity after World War Two among former supporters and participants of the Nazi regime who refused to accept responsibility for the crimes of genocide.

The general aim of Holocaust denial is to challenge and ridicule the history of Jewish suffering during the war.  Holocaust denial is the most extreme form of antisemitism.  Here are some classroom resources which specifically counteract this dangerous retooling of history:

• A thematic leaflet by UNITED for Intercultural Action
• An educational module on Holocaust denial and hate speech from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
• The Jewish Virtual Library’s project “How to Refute Holocaust Denial”
• The National Council for the Social Studies has a white paper on the subject
• The American Jewish Committee has a pdf of Kenneth S. Stern’s valuable work Holocaust Denial
• The Southern Poverty Law Center has resources which address this topic

Image source: www.freepik.com

On the third Monday of January each year (in 2024, that’s 15 January), Martin Luther King Day is observed and celebrated through service in the US. Learn more about MLK and his contribution to the Civil Rights Movement here!

Who was Martin Luther King, Jr.?

Born on January 15, 1929, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a Christian pastor, a leader of the civil rights movement in America, Nobel laureate, and anti-war activist.  King was the conscience of a nation as he stood up in the face of institutional racism leading millions to demonstrate against the injustices of American society.  King’s embodiment of the non-violent methods used to protest racial discrimination changed the course of history.  He remains an inspiration to generations of people regardless of their racial and ethnic background.

His birth name was Michael, as was his father’s.  After a trip to Germany, where the elder King became impressed by the life of the Reformation priest Martin Luther, Michael’s father changed his name to Martin.  Soon the younger King would also adopt the name.  That’s not the only thing Martin, Jr. would imitate from his father’s life.  After undergoing seminary training, the young MLK would eventually join his father as co-pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was famous for many accomplishments, but perhaps his greatest legacy is not in his achievements but in his methods.  Nonviolence was the hallmark of King’s success at leading a movement for civil rights for African Americans.  King fused his belief in the Christian doctrine of love, espoused by Jesus, with the non-violent political resistance demonstrated by Mohandas K. Gandhi.  King said this powerful combination gave him the method for social reform he needed.

Civil Rights Movement

King went to segregated schools in Georgia, and this experience of discrimination led him to become a strong proponent for civil rights for African Americans.  While serving as a pastor, he was also a member of the executive committee of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.  This prepared him to take on a leadership role in one of America’s greatest non-violent demonstrations — the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955.

Montgomery Bus Boycott

The boycott began when a Black woman, Rosa Parks, refused to give up her seat in the “whites only” section of a bus.  This year-long political demonstration when Black passengers refused to ride on the city’s bus services because they were treated as second class citizens to white passengers captured the nation’s attention and catapulted King to fame.  During the boycott, King was arrested, his home was bombed, and he was subjected to personal abuse, as were other protesters.  Yet his unwavering commitment to non-violence in the face of police aggression set in motion a political movement the country had rarely before seen.

Greater Leadership

By 1957, King became president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference which bolstered the burgeoning civil rights movement.  For the next decade, MLK would travel more than six million miles giving speeches, leading demonstrations, and at times being imprisoned, physically threatened, and beaten.  He led voter registration drives, organized the peaceful March on Washington where he gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech, and gave advice to Presidents Kennedy and Johnson.

Accomplished Author

MLK wrote many books including Stride Toward Freedom, his first book.  It recounts the story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott.  The famous 1967 Massey Lectures which King gave through the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation are collected in The Trumpet of Conscience.  In the lectures, King addressed the Vietnam War and civil disobedience.  In 1963, he wrote the movement’s seminal work “Letter from Birmingham Jail”.  In a triumph of oratory, the letter is a scathing indictment of white church leaders who preach the love of God but do nothing to stop the injustices God despises.  King said that people have a moral responsibility to break unjust laws and to take direct action rather than waiting forever for justice to come through the courts.  The letter contains one of most memorable King quotes: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

Nobel Peace Prize

King was awarded five honorary degrees in his lifetime, was named “Man of the Year” by Time magazine in 1963, and received, at age 35, one of the world’s most prestigious awards — the Nobel Peace Prize.  In his acceptance speech, King said, “…man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.”

Tragic Death

On the evening of April 4, 1968, while standing on the balcony of his motel room in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was to lead a protest march in sympathy with striking garbage workers of that city, King was assassinated by a lone gunman.  He was just 39.

Honoring King’s Legacy on Martin Luther King Day

Martin Luther King Jr. Day (officially Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., and sometimes referred to as MLK Day) is a federal holiday marking the birthday of the civil rights leader.  It is observed each year on the third Monday of January.  King’s birthday is January 15.  Known as “a day on, not a day off”, the holiday is an opportunity for adults and children to spend their day off from work and school performing acts of service.  Martin Luther King Jr. Day is the only federal holiday designated as a national day of service to encourage all Americans to volunteer to improve their communities.

In 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed a bill into law to create the federal holiday honoring King.  The national Martin Luther King Day of Service was started by U.S. Senator Harris Wofford and U.S. Representative John Lewis, who co-authored the King Holiday and Service Act.  This federal legislation was signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1994.

Resources for Learning about Dr. King and the Civil Rights Movement

Help Teaching has created many educational resources for Martin Luther King Day.

KidsKonnect.com has a library full of MLK-related activities

• Martin Luther King Jr. Day Facts & Worksheets 
• The March on Washington Facts & Worksheets
• Civil Rights Movement Facts & Worksheets

Check out these free resources from BusyTeacher.org.

• Beyond Martin Luther King Day: Teaching Argument Through the Writings of Martin Luther King
• 7 Ready to Use ESL Activities for Martin Luther King Day
• H: Talking About Our Heroes [Teacher Tips from A to Z]

These groups and institutions can also help you teach about MLK Day:

• Teaching Tolerance provides free resources to educators for teaching about MLK.
• You might find these free classroom resources from The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University helpful.
• Civil Rights Teaching, a project of Teaching for Change, provides lessons, handouts, news, and resources for teaching about Dr. King and the role of everyday people in the Civil Rights Movement.
• Hey Teach, a content hub for K-12 educators created and operated by Western Governors University offers 5 Classroom Activities for a Meaningful Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
• The National Education Association has free lesson plans, activity ideas and other resources for teaching MLK Day.

Learning at home and online

• 8 Frugal & Fun Martin Luther King Day Activities for Kids from Money Crashers
• Watch King’s speeches on YouTube
• MLK Day: 5 Ways to Help Your Kids Understand the Significance from the U.S. Department of Education
• Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts celebrates the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. by surrounding you with art, culture, and community
• Celebrate With DE: Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service

Watch the short video; then do any of the activities created by Discover EducationTry making these I Have a Dream mobiles from the National Constitution Center

Recommended Videos

• “MLK- The King and His Dream” 
• “Kid President Has a Dream”
• “The Story of Martin Luther King Jr. by Kid President”
• “Let Freedom Ring – MLK Rap Song”
• Story reading on video of “Martin’s Big Words;The life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.”
• “Martin Luther King Jr.” (a 5-min. video documentary by Studies Weekly)
• Martin Luther King – “I Have A Dream Speech” – August 28, 1963

Recommended Books

• Books for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day recommended by PBS

Service activities online

• AmeriCorps will help you find a volunteer opportunity and suggest service project ideas
• Try these 5 MLK Day of Service Activities for Families from Create the Good
• The largest MLK Day event in the nation is the Greater Philadelphia Martin Luther King Day of Service
• Youth Service America’s MLK Day of Service offers free downloadable resources and video trainings to guide you as you take your project from idea to action including a Kids in Action Guide (for ages 5-12) and a Youth Changing the World Toolkit (for ages 13-25).

Webinars and online educational events

• AmeriCorps webinar: MLK Day 2022 – Stepping up for the Fierce Urgency of Now

Or skip the video and download a pdf of the slides from the presentation

• The Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change (“The King Center”) presents a worldwide The 2023 Virtual Beloved Community Global Summit.  Thursday, January 12, 2023. 
• The Town of Lexington, Massachusetts, will hold its 28th commemoration of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day with its 9th annual family-friendly day of volunteer activities supporting the underserved.  Monday, January 16, 2023. 
• The State of New Jersey Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemorative Commission will host a 2022 MLK Scholarship Essay Competition for New Jersey High School Seniors which opens Monday January 17 at 9AM.

Image source: Photo by Ilse Orsel on Unsplash

It’s the beginning of a new school year and you’re anxious to jump into the new curriculum. However, as many veteran teachers will tell you, before you jump headfirst into the new curriculum, it may be helpful to take some time to review. Of course, you can also review during the school year – before midterms, after covering a difficult subject, or simply when you want to see where your students are. One thing’s for certain – reviewing can you save you a lot of time and headaches during the year. In addition to saving time and headaches, reviewing previously taught material offers other benefits as well.

Review Helps Students Gain Confidence

You don’t start an AP Calculus course by having students find the derivative of a function. Instead, you build up to that skill by reviewing trigonometric functions and discussing limits. By starting with something students know, you help build their confidence to tackle more complex tasks.

Review Shows Where Students Are

Reviewing with students, also helps you gain a sense of where students are and what gaps may exist in the learning. For example, you may hope to move into a lesson about writing complex sentences and realize that students still don’t understand the basic parts of speech (nouns, verbs, adjectives). While you may not be able to fill in all of the gaps before introducing new content, you will know the areas where you may have to spend a bit of extra time as you introduce new concepts throughout the school year. If only a few students have gaps, you may be able to provide them with worksheets, video lessons, and other resources to help catch them up.

Review Improves Retention

As a teacher, your goal isn’t just to cover the standards, it’s to ensure that students retain the information as well. By reviewing previously taught material with students, you help that material to begin to take root in their brains so that it’s more likely to stick with them. For example, if students hear once that a comma goes inside quotation marks, they’re not as likely to remember it, but if they hear it multiple times throughout the school year and are required to practice putting the comma inside quotation marks, they’re more likely to remember that bit of information.

Strategies for Review

When it comes to reviewing material with students, the level of review will depend on the level each student is at and the amount of time you can build in for review. Pick and choose the following strategies based on your students’ needs.

Let Students Conduct the Review

Give students a chance to show what they know and to make sense of the information themselves by allowing them to conduct a review. A few ways you can do this include:

Summarize
Give students a concept or briefly review information with students and have them summarize what they’ve learned or what they remember in their own words. As students share their summaries with one another, they’ll gain a better understanding of the concept.

Organize
Give students a set of information and have them organize it in a way that makes sense. You could give students a paragraph that needs to be put back into order or a group of animals that need to be organized by habitat. As they organize the information, students will get the chance to review the material and make meaning out of it.

Elaborate
Give students a task that requires them to use information they need to review in a new way. For example, students could use the laws of physics to solve a problem.

Info Dump
At the beginning of a lesson, give students a chance to complete an info dump, where they write down or say everything they remember about a particular topic. Have students work in pairs or small groups so they can learn from one another. When you get into the actual lesson, you can touch on topics students remember and clear up any misunderstandings they may have.

Incorporate Short Video Lessons

Short video lessons are a quick way to help students review a concept before introducing a new one. Help Teaching’s self-paced lessons feature short videos accompanied by practice questions and worksheets. Best of all, you can assign individual students lessons to watch based on their needs.

Play Fun Review Games

Download a slideshow template to create your own version of Jeopardy or Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? that includes questions related to material students need to review. If you don’t have time to create an entire slideshow, just create a list of a few questions and have teams of students take turns answering them in the classroom. You can add excitement by letting students try to shoot a basket every time they get a question correct.

Choose a Topic of the Day

Start each day or class period with a particular topic students need to review. You may have students answer a question in their journals, read a short paragraph and complete reading response activities, or even complete a short worksheet, such as a daily grammar review or number sense worksheets. You only need about five minutes a day to conduct a short review.

Integrate Old Material with New Material

As you teach new material, build upon previous knowledge. You can do this through an info dump, short bell-ringer activities at the beginning of every lesson, or by simply pointing out how the skills build upon one another. Not only will students review the concepts, they’ll begin to see how different skills and topics work together. This will help them begin to make critical connections on their own.

Very few people can read or hear something once and remember it forever. Instead, they need to regularly review material to keep it fresh in their brains. Don’t think of review as a waste of time. Instead, try to build time in your schedule to review with students at the beginning of the school year and throughout the year.

Do you have any strategies you use to review? If so, we’d love to hear them. Share your ideas in the comments!

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Joe Pizzuto-Pomaco is an educator, writer, and editor who has taught in public and private schools 15 years.