Musical chairs, rover red rover come over and doge ball are good elementary team building activity. Tag, hide and go seek, and capture the flag are good games for team building too. Have the students make their own cookbook and sale them for a fundraiser. Have a talent show or musical play for a team building activity. Have monthly birthday party for your students. Host a lunch for the local Veterans Day with a special musical presentation. Visit a local nursing home and put on a Christmas concert.
Try out Toobeez, it fun Elementary team building activity.
Physical Education:
In the "Laser Maze" Activity, construct an obstacle course and challenge students to crawl through without touching the Toobeez. Promote flexibility and teamwork.
Hands-On Mathematics Activities:
Teach X + Y axes and +/- quadrant values by playing "You Sank My Battleship." Review geometric vocabulary while building structures.
Special Education:
Experiential activities strengthen various skills including counting, motor-planning, visual-motor, auditory-processing, sensory exploration/integration, attention, concentration, spatial awareness, and social skills.
TOOBEEZ - Educational & Entertaining! Inspire Your Child's Creativity!
Do you have a classroom of kinetic learners who do not want to sit still? Use Toobeez learning toys to work with this kinesthetic style. Children love hands-on education and the Toobeez educational toys for kids are just the tool to get them learning through play and physical activity. These giant tinker toy like building kits support educational classroom goals through exciting and enticing activities and differentiated instruction that addresses multiple intelligences.
You’ll find dozens of learning activities created by teachers for teachers in the Toobeez activities books.
Kinesthetic Language Arts Activities
In your language arts classroom, the Toobeez educational toys for children are a quick way to set the stage for dramatic learning. Act out literature for greater understanding. Role play scenes and then record the dialogue to build writing skills. Have students create a new invention with Toobeez and then produce an instruction pamphlet for their unique device, including clear instructions. With the Toobeez Language Arts Activities Book, you will find ten innovative activities to improve reading comprehension, grammar, and creative expression. There is no end to the cooperative learning possibilities. Excellent Educational & Team Building Toys - Toobeez.com! Shop Now!
Hands-On Mathematics Activities Bring another dimension to your math instruction with Toobeez construction toys for the mathematics classroom. Difficult, abstract concepts are easier to master when you build graphs, angles, and shapes using Toobeez learning toys. As Kim Cooke of Walter Bickett Elementary School in Monroe, NC, explains, “One of my passions is gaining a better understanding on how the brain learns, and your activity books included up to date brain strategies. The books were very teacher-friendly and I was able to instantly incorporate the activities into my presentations and lessons. I have contacted 3 other principals and 18 other Teachers in my school system about your products.” Students will understand the relevance of mathematics as they build and test their Toobeez structures. Ten engaging and open ended activities from the Toobeez Mathematics Activities Book will have students eager to learn more about mathematics. Teamwork and Creativity Toys for Kids and Adults. TOOBEEZ just $34.99!
Educational Toys for Toddlers and Preschooler Young children learn best through play. Give kids a good start by choosing the right educational learning toys for toddlers and preschoolers. Because these multipurpose toys can be used in a variety of educational and fun ways, Toobeez make the perfect day care toy or toy for teachers of young children. Toobeez encourage young children to explore their world in an educational and rewarding way. Build a tunnel, teach basic shapes, and create puppet theaters for kids. Learning Toys With these educational toys for kids, classroom activities transform into an opportunity for collaboration and genuine discovery. Pete Smithson from Central Middle School, Orlando, FL, is impressed with the flexibility of these building toys: “The open ended nature of the product allows us to use your products within our entire school. We use them in our staff development days, core subjects, field day, and even our after school activities. What a great program.” As teachers and educators, you know the value of character education. Toobeez brings learners together to complete authentic tasks. Toobeez encourage perseverance, trust, responsibility and cooperation through activities that complement linguistic, logical spatial or kinesthetic learning styles. The workbooks also include discussion questions and activity variations to differentiate for learning styles and strengths! Your students will build amazing things with Toobeez—including their self-esteem.FREE TOOBEEZ Activity Workbook with Purchase! Shop Now!
The Heart of A Teacher
For a long time I've wanted to publish a book with inspirational stories about how teachers made a difference in the lives of their students; because I know they made a difference in mine!
Paula Fox helped to make that dream come true. She's a teacher with 35 years experience teaching and leading all ages from preschool through adult.
Her book,The Heart of A Teacher , is an inspirational masterpiece!! The stories, the quotes and Paula's beautiful original poetry will grab the heart of any teacher, or anyone (like me) whose life has been influenced by a teacher.
Today, I'd like to share the beautiful true story about Mark Eklund, which was written by Sister Helen Mrosla. I'm betting it's one you won't forget!
An excerpt from
The Heart of A Teacher
by Paula Fox He was in the first third grade class I taught at Saint Mary's School in Morris, Minnesota. All 34 of my students were dear to me, but Mark Eklund was one in a million. Very neat in appearance, he had that happy-to-be-alive attitude that made even his occasional mischievousness delightful.
Mark talked incessantly. I had to remind him again and again that talking without permission was not acceptable. What impressed me so much, though, was his sincere response every time I had to correct him for misbehaving. "Thank you for correcting me, Sister!" I didn't know what to make of it at first, but before long I became accustomed to hearing it many times a day.
One morning my patience was growing thin when Mark talked once too often, and then I made a novice teacher's mistake. I looked at Mark and said, "If you say one more word, I am going to tape your mouth shut!" It wasn't ten seconds later when Chuck blurted out, "Mark is talking again." I hadn't asked any of the students to help me watch Mark, but since I had stated the punishment in front of the class, I had to act on it. I remember the scene as if it had occurred this morning. I walked to my desk, very deliberately opened my drawer and took out a roll of masking tape. Without saying a word, I proceeded to Mark's desk, tore off two pieces of tape and made a big X with them over his mouth. I then returned to the front of the room. As I glanced at Mark to see how he was doing, he winked at me. That did it! I started laughing. The class cheered as I walked back to Mark's desk, removed the tape, and shrugged my shoulders. His first words were, "Thank you for correcting me, Sister."
At the end of the year, I was asked to teach junior-high math. The years flew by, and before I knew it, Mark was in my classroom again. He was more handsome than ever and just as polite. Since he had to listen carefully to my instruction in the "new math," he did not talk as much in ninth grade as he had in third. One Friday, things just didn't feel right. We had worked hard on a new concept all week, and I sensed that the students were frowning, frustrated with themselves and edgy with one another. I had to stop this crankiness before it got out of hand. So I asked them to list the names of the other students in the room on two sheets of paper, leaving a space between each name. Then I told them to think of the nicest thing they could say about each of their classmates and write it down. It took the remainder of the class period to finish the assignment, and as the students left the room, each one handed me the papers. Charlie smiled. Mark said, "Thank you for teaching me, Sister. Have a good weekend." That Saturday, I wrote down the name of each student on a separate sheet of paper, and I listed what everyone else had said about that individual.
On Monday, I gave each student his or her list. Before long, the entire class was smiling. "Really?" I heard whispered. "I never knew that meant anything to anyone!" "I didn't know others liked me so much." No one ever mentioned those papers in class again. I never knew if they discussed them after class or with their parents, but it didn't matter. The exercise had accomplished its purpose. The students were happy with themselves and one another again.
That group of students moved on. Several years later, after I returned from vacation, my parents met me at the airport. As we were driving home, Mother asked me the usual questions about the trip, the weather, my experiences in general. There was a lull in the conversation. Mother gave Dad a sideways glance and simply said, "Dad?" My father cleared his throat as he usually did before saying something important.
"The Eklunds called last night," he began. "Really?" I said. "I haven't heard from them in years. I wonder how Mark is." Dad responded quietly. "Mark was killed in Vietnam," he said. "The funeral is tomorrow, and his parents would like it if you could attend." To this day I can still point to the exact spot on I-494 where Dad told me about Mark.
I had never seen a serviceman in a military coffin before. Mark looked so handsome, so mature. All I could think at that moment was, "Mark, I would give all the masking tape in the world if only you would talk to me." The church was packed with Mark's friends. Chuck's sister sang "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." Why did it have to rain on the day of the funeral? It was difficult enough at the graveside. The pastor said the usual prayers, and the bugler played taps. One by one those who loved Mark took a last walk by the coffin and sprinkled it with holy water. I was the last one to bless the coffin. As I stood there, one of the soldiers who acted as pallbearer came up to me. "Were you Mark's math teacher?" he asked. I nodded as I continued to stare at the coffin. "Mark talked about you a lot," he said.
After the funeral, most of Mark's former classmates headed to Chuck's farmhouse for lunch. Mark's mother and father were there, obviously waiting for me. "We want to show you something," his father said, taking a wallet out of his pocket. "They found this on Mark when he was killed. We thought you might recognize it." Opening the billfold, he carefully removed two worn pieces of notebook paper that had obviously been taped, folded and refolded many times. I knew without looking that the papers were the ones on which I had listed all the good things each of Mark's classmates had said about him. "Thank you so much for doing that," Mark's mother said. "As you can see, Mark treasured it." Mark's classmates started to gather around us. Charlie smiled rather sheepishly and said, "I still have my list. I keep it in the top drawer of my desk at home." Chuck's wife said, "Chuck asked me to put his in our wedding album." "I have mine too," Marilyn said. "It's in my diary." Then Vicki, another classmate, reached into her pocketbook, took out her wallet and showed her worn and frazzled list to the group. "I carry this with me at all times," Vicki said without batting an eyelash. "I think we all saved our lists." That's when I finally sat down and cried. I cried for Mark and for all his friends who would never see him again.
The density of people in society is so thick that we forget that life will end one day. And we don't know when that one day will be. So please, tell the people you love and care for that they are special and important. Tell them, before it is too late.