SVEA at the University of Virginia: Teacher Tips

Submit your helpful/funny/inspiring teacher tips here!

Teacher Tip #65
Slap Game

Call out a word and first person to slap it gets to add it to his or her pile. This game can be used for vocabulary, sight words, math facts, etc.

Teacher Tip #64
Clean Water Project

Teacher Tip #63
Shade of Meaning

Teacher Tip #62
Long Division Burger

Teacher Tip #61
Sentence Variety

Teacher Tip #60
Function Dancing

Teacher Tip #59
Fun Word Tracing Activity

Teacher Tip #58
Percentage Trick

Teacher Tip #57
Hidden Minutes Plate Clock

Teacher Tip #56
Counterclaim Sentence Starters

Teacher Tip #55
Non-Traditional Homework

Teacher Tip #54
Philosophy and Math Joke

Teacher Tip #53
B's and D's

Teacher Tip #52
Shout Out Wall

Students can shout out their success in school, home, work or activities.

Teacher Tip #51
Real World Math Errors

Great math starters: "What's wrong with this picture?"

Teacher Tip #50
Plate Tectonics with Food

http://evavarga.net/2014/09/18/modeling-plate-tectonics/

Teacher Tip #49
Why I Teach Music

Teacher Tip #48
CVC Cups

Teacher Tip #47
Meme Activity

Teacher Tip #46
Puzzle Teams

For a group assignment, students have to find their teammates after being given puzzle pieces with their names on them.

Teacher Tip #45
What Stuck With You?

Teacher Tip #44
3D Shape Terms

Teacher Tip #43
Math Coasters

Teacher Tip #42
Subtraction Poem

Teacher Tip #41
Sentence Patterns Made Easy

Teacher Tip #40
Dr. Seuss Door

Teacher Tip #39
Technology-Themed Exit Slip

Teacher Tip #38
Error Bars Joke ("Sorry, we just can't trust you.")

Teacher Tip #37
Engineering Mystery Bag Challenges

http://childhood101.com/2014/08/create-an-engineering-mystery-bag-challenge-for-kids/

Teacher Tip #36
Small Moment Writing

Teacher Tip #35

Chair Felt

Cover the feet of chairs with pieces of felt and rubber bands to keep the chairs from making noise and marking up the floor. This solution is easier and cheaper than using tennis balls!

Teacher Tip #34

9-Layer Density Tower

Teacher Tip #33

Growth Mindset Strategies

Teacher Tip #32

Playing Card Statistics

Teacher Tip #31

"I Can" Jars

Students write down what they can do on little slips of paper to put in their "I Can" jars. When they have a challenging day, they can read through their strengths as a pick-me-up.

Teacher Tip #30

Fly Swatter Reading

Use a fly swatter to help young readers find and identify words.

Teacher Tip #29

Self-Assessing Baskets

Teacher Tip #28

Make-the-Question Boards

Give students an answer, and have them write a word problem that would result in the answer.

Teacher Tip #27

Dice Game for Reading

Teacher Tip #26

Explaining "i" with Ice Cream

Teacher Tip #25

Homework Motivation

Teacher Tip #24

Cute Math Poster

Teacher Tip #23

Number Ice Cream Cones

Teacher Tip #22

Cool Down Cubes

Each plastic ice cube has a "cool down" strategy written on it.

Teacher Tip #21

Teaching Time

Teacher Tip #20

The 9s Trick

Teacher Tip #19

Never Have a No-Name Paper

Teacher Tip #18

Historical Figures Guess-Who Game

Teacher Tip #17

Self-Check Cereal Box Math

Use a cereal box to create a fun activity with a self-checking feature. Put a math problem on one side and the answer on the other. If you are correct, you'll create the correct image on the cereal box.

Teacher Tip #16

Minion Lab Safety

Teacher Tip #15

Joking Electrons

Teacher Tip #14

Teaching Math Kinesthetically

Teacher Tip #13

Sentences with Superhero Swag

Teacher Tip #12

The Difference Between Revising and Editing

Teacher Tip #11

Linus the Minus

Teacher Tip #10

Fairness Poster

Help explain to your kids why they might not get something that another student gets.

Teacher Tip #9

Annotate Textbooks with Sheet Protectors

Teacher Tip #8

Text-Based Opinion Posters

Have kids glue their reading onto a poster so that they can underline key text and write their opinions or notes to the side on the poster.

more information at: http://teachinginroom6.blogspot.com/2014/05/text-based-opinion-posters.html

Teacher Tip #7

Never Have a "No-Name" Paper Again

Teacher Tip #6

Change the Generation

Okay, not really a teaching tip, but this is just too funny not to post! Welcome to 2013, America.

Teacher Tip #5

Tattle Monsters

Have kids write their tattles on a piece of paper and stuff them in the monsters mouth! If the tattle is still important at the end of the day and if it is talk about it with the kid! Good way to eliminate the tiny "he stole my pencil" tattles! :)

Teacher Tip #4

Know how to use your technology:

Here's a link to a website that will tell you how all the tricks to a SMART board:)