Elementary Matters is an educational blog focused on Elementary grades 1-3. These posts will make an elementary teacher's life easier by sharing information about how the brain learns best. It includes time savers, suggestions for classroom management, hints on effective teaching of reading, writing, and math, and several ideas for squeezing Science and Social Studies into daily instruction. These posts include links to several videos, articles, resources, and plenty of free materials.
Somehow it got to be March already! How did that happen?
March includes plenty of activity, including Read Across America Day, St. Patrick's Day, the return of Daylight Saving Time, maple syrup season, and the first day of spring!
It has been one long cold winter here in New Hampshire!
From what I understand, it's been a long cold winter all over the US!
Spring in New England shows up in mid-April, but as I was driving to my hair appointment this morning, I saw a couple of signs of Spring!
I saw buckets on maple trees!
I know Vermont is the big state for maple syrup, but we do it here in New Hampshire, too! The maple syrup tapping is actually late this year, because the weather's been so cold. They need cold nights and warm days for the sap to flow. We've had plenty of cold nights, but today, we had a warm day. The temp actually went up to 50! I actually took my coat off in the car, and didn't even button it when I was outside! It was fabulous!
Here's the other sign of spring I saw...
a little something green:
Yep, McDonald's Shamrock Shakes are definitely a sign that spring is coming!
I have a few things about spring up my sleeve. I always make sure I have plenty of books about the subject. Here are a few of my favorites:
I always make sure I read a few to the kids, but I also make sure I've got them in the book tubs so the kiddos will explore them.
I think videos are great to help the children understand concepts, especially things like how seasons work. Here are a couple I've found!
What Causes Earth's Seasons: (10:48 min)
How Seasons Work (58 seconds)
How Equinox's Work: Beyond Our Earth (2:24 minutes)
Try them all and see which one you like best!
As most teachers know, squeezing in science and social studies topics is tough, since most of our time is dedicated to reading, writing, and math! In my attempt to keep some of the fun stuff in the classroom, I've included signs of spring in with important literacy and math concepts in this set of No Prep Printables: Signs of Spring Printables: Literacy and Math. I've got some math story problems, popular fact games, word work, writing, and comprehension work, all somehow connected to Signs of Spring.
Spring is a great time to teach about life cycles! Here's a bundle of crafts and activities for the life cycles of 9 different plants and animals, at a huge discount! Spring Life Cycle Bundle
Here are some other games and activities with a spring theme:
My kids are working on using mental math for adding and subtracting. This game board has a set of cards for addition mental math, and a set of cards for subtraction mental math. Plus, it's got built-in brain breaks! It's a favorite in my classroom: Mental Math Addition and Subtraction: Spring Board Game.
Finally, this is a collection of 6 different games that are related to spring. It has word work, grammar, and plenty of math games, all made for second graders, but are also appropriate for high firsts or review for third graders. See the image to take a closer look at Literacy and Math Games Spring Bundle.
It's the end of winter here in New England, and we're enjoying a New England tradition: Maple sugaring!
Over the last couple of weeks, we've seen many a maple tree with buckets attached! Yep, when the days get warm but the nights are still cold, that's the right conditions for getting that sap flowing! They collect that sap and boil away!
Did you know it takes 40 - 50 gallons of sap to make one gallon of maple syrup?
I love to use children's literature to teach science and social studies concepts.
This topic includes both, a little history of the New England area, plus the science of trees and sap, as well as states of matter and evaporation!
Want to learn more about how maple syrup is made? Here are a couple of informational books for kids about the process.
It's truly a fascinating process! There are several "Sugar Houses" in my area, and a true hint that winter is nearing an end. The State of New Hampshire officially declared this "Maple Weekend" and many Sugar Houses are opened to the public this weekend!
Here's a little video I found on Youtube that demonstrates the process.
Doesn't it make you wonder how people figured out that draining trees of sap and boiling it like crazy would make a yummy liquid? Did they try oak trees and pine trees? How did they know to drill a hole in the tree and put a bucket underneath?
Here's one fiction book that suggests how it might have happened, back in the days when Native Americans lived peacefully with the earth in the New England area:
