Wow! I blinked and it was almost November....where did October go annnnnnddddd everyone is forgetting November because Michael's had Thanksgiving items for 50% off and the entire store was decorated for December Holidays on October 15th same for Home Goods!!!

I can't even think about December yet...November just about to start...this is cray cray!!

With that being said, I want to quickly give you some fun days in November you can celebrate at home or with your students. I am not including Thanksgiving because that is a well known holiday!

So...Here we go!  6 Fun Days to Celebrate in November!

1.  Did you Know that November 8th is STEM/STEAM DAY? 

Everyday activities at home or in school can be fun and transformed into STEM challenges with the right questions to motivate STEM thinking!

Use of the correct questioning technique can encourage your kiddos to think outside the box, which is exactly what is needed with STEM activities.

• Ask questions that require more than one-word answers, which allows for students to think deeper to answer and promotes higher order thinking.
• Ask questions that focus on processes and reasoning, not solutions.
• Ask “why” questions that require examples and reasons as the justification and make sure studentes explain their thinking.

I found these great Stem activities at THE STEM Laboratory. Check them out to celebrate STEM DAY!

2.  I am pretty sure that most of your classrooms have a set or 2 of Dominoes.  Guess what?  November 10th is Domino Day!

AND......I am willing to guess that you might have more than 2 sets depending on the Math program your district uses...am I right?

I am sure your brain is bursting with ideas for Domino Day, but just incase your brain is fried from teaching all week, here are a few ideas:

I thought this was a bit different in that the sums are provided and the kiddos have to find the part/part that equals the sum to complete the puzzle or game.

This Domino resource is exactly one of the ways that I used Dominoes in my classroom to learn math facts. The Kiddos loved it and it became a popular choice activity after our "Have to" math was completed!  

Another fun idea might be to play dominoes exactly the way the kids love to play them and we all know what that is...simply line them up and knock them down. You might even want to time them and see if they can arrange the dominoes in a different way to beat the clock or who has the longest run of dominoes knock down. Here is a fun one I found that is just fun to watch!

Any way you decide to celebrate Domino Day will be fun for everyone...oh and before I forget, here is a Wikipedia about dominoes. You can pick out a few ideas to share with your kiddos: Dominoes

HERE is MY ALL TIME FAVORITE DOMINO CRAFT...

Have you met Domino Dominic and Domino Dominique? You haven't?  Well let me introduce this couple to you NOW! This would be a great Domino Day Craft after teaching domino fact families or part- part -whole with dominos!  

This fun craft also includes poster to teach or reteach how to find domino sums using the PART-PART-TOTAL concept.

This is one you will not want to miss!

3.  Veteran's Day is celebrated on November 11th!  Why not teach your students about the meaning of Veteran's Day? 

Need a video that explains Veteran's Day?  Here You GO!

Here is a cute and easy idea for your little learners or not so little learners:

Tissue paper crumbled flag and a cute poem you can copy to use.

For the flags simply use white
8 1/2 x 11 cardstock.  If you are doing these with an older class, you can create the flag with the correct amount of stripes, but with 5 or 6 year olds, I would just worry about making sure there are red stripes with white between them.

The blue tissue won't really matter as long as it looks proportional. Older children can try to fit 50 stars, which are simply small silver sticky stars.
The poem is an easy one that is written in kid friendly language.  You might want to use it as a morning message and look for rhyming words, 1-2 or 3 syllable words and any skill you are working on with your class.

This is a great anchor chart for Veteran's Day that really summarizes the day!

4.  We can't forget World Kindness Day on November 13th!

Teaching kids kindness is so important for building community and character education.

I firmly believe that we should celebrate kindness every single day of our lives.  

Here is a post that I that I thought would be perfect to share with you here:  

5 ideas to Create a Culture of Kindness in your Primary Classroom That Will Make you Smile

I know I said I would not mention Thanksgiving since it is an obvious day in November to celebrate BUT...this is a great activity to use for your family and classroom family to understand and show Gratitude. 

Teaching gratitude has many social and emotional benefits; such as, encouraging well-being, supporting optimism and positivity, building confidence, encourages empathy, supports giving to others, reduces materialism and stress. It supports children in being thankful for what they have and to be less materialistic.

This Gratitude Thanksgiving activity will support your children in their journey to understanding and showing gratitude.

 

5. OOPS! I almost forgot about Button Day! 

Yes in 1938 November 16th was set aside as National Button Day to celebrate those who collected buttons. Here is a cute craft with some math and ELA ideas to have a little fun with buttons!

So there you have it...a few awesome days with educational ideas to integrate into your daily learning to bring a little fun back into learning.

So, there you have it...a few days to celebrate in November to bring some fun activities into your classroom...ENJOY!

Please comment and share your November activity ideas!

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We all know a few days in October that are fun to celebrate in our classrooms. Obviously, if you are a primary teacher, you can find lots of days to celebrate in many ways. With Common Core coming our way, it is a bit more difficult to bring fun activities in to our classrooms. BUT...I think and I am sure you will agree that there are a plethora of ways to have fun with Common Core and there are definitely some Special Days to celebrate in October besides Halloween.

Sooooooo what days can be celebrated in school during October? 

Here are some ideas and activities for Special days to celebrate in October and still have a bit of fun learning in your classroom:

🎃 Did you know that October 4th is Taco Day?  

Here is a cute book and craft to celebrate this tasty taco treat.

• Before reading the story, you can access prior knowledge to find out what your students know about tacos, what their favorite taco is and maybe where they like to buy or eat their tacos.

• During reading stop every so often to have your students think, pair, share as you ask questions, have students make predictions or inferences as well as answer some questions about the text. Here is a fun interactive Reading Resource with ideas for use that you might want to use for shared reading for this text or any text!

 

🎃 We all know that this year(2019) Columbus Day or Indigenous People Day, as it is referred to now, is celebrated October 14th.

Here are a few Ideas to Celebrate Christopher Columbus that focus on Exploration:

Here is a way to bring out the Explorer in your students.

What would you explore and why?  Then...turn them into explorers.  

Be an Explorer

Explorer Telescope to Explore like Christopher Columbus

🎃 Another Fun Day to celebrate is PUMPKIN DAY.

Did you know that National Pumpkin Day is October 26th? 

Let's take a look at a few ideas for Pumpkin Day which is celebrated right before Halloween...perfect Timing!

This pumpkin resource includes everything you need to celebrate pumpkins from facts to opinions, measuring, graphing and more.  check it out Right here

Need some Great Books to go along with Pumpkins? 

here are 4 of my faves:  

1.  How Many Seeds in a Pumpkins works fabulous with Pumpkin "Fun"tivities. Read it before you do the measuring activities. it is super for making predictions and works great with the interavtive props and ideas!

2.  Seed, Sprout, Pumpkin Pie is great text to use to learn about how pumpkins grow and for facts and opinions about pumpkins.

 

3.  The Biggest Pumpkin Ever is another great story that is fun to use as a shared reading and the kiddos LOVE it!

4. My all time favorite book is the The Little Woman who wasn't Afraid of Anything.

I used this as an interactive shared reading with props and you could hear a pin drop as we shared the story and acted out the parts with  real items! 

Here is a link for Ideas to go along with this book!
Let's Get Interactive!

Well...there you have it! 3 Special Days to Celebrate in October...NEXt uP Some fun days to celebrate in November!

Have a great October!

Make this October the BEST EVER!

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We all know a few days in October that are fun to celebrate in our classrooms. Obviously, if you are a primary teacher, you can find lots of days to celebrate in many ways. With Common Core coming our way, it is a bit more difficult to bring fun activities in to our classrooms. BUT...I think and I am sure you will agree that there are a plethora of ways to have fun with Common Core and there are definitely some Special Days to celebrate in October besides Halloween...BUT we have to include Halloween for October or our kiddos will be sooooooo upset!

Sooooooo what days can be celebrated in school or at home during October? 

Here are some ideas and activities for Special days to celebrate in October and still have a bit of fun learning in your classroom:

🎃 World Smile Day is October 2nd!

What a great way to start the month of October. Tell children to bring their smiles to school or virtually to class that day and try a few of these activities to brighten their DAY!

Partner children 6 feet a part of course and see who can get the other to smile...but if in person, you can only tell by their eyes.

Have a joke telling chat.  With this kids simply tell jokes to make each other laugh!

If virtual these can be done in break out rooms.

🎃 Name your Car Day, Too...Say What?  

Now this is also another fun day to write about and have some fun with at home or at school.

At home, you might want to give your car a name...my granddaughter named my car "Vanilla Caramel Brownie" because it is white with tan interior and my perfume smells like vanilla sugar. and Brownie because it is not always the cleanest car on the road! You can have a lot of fun with this one and also get a few laughs or smiles since they are both celebrated on October 2nd!

🎃 Did you know that October 4th is Taco Day?  

Here is a cute book to celebrate tasty taco treats.

• Before reading the story, you can access prior knowledge to find out what your students know about tacos, what their favorite taco is and maybe where they like to buy or eat their tacos.

• During reading stop every so often to have your students think, pair, share as you ask questions, have students make predictions or inferences as well as answer some questions about the text. Here is a fun interactive Reading Resource with ideas for use that you might want to use for shared reading for this text or any text!

🎃How about Cake Decorating DAY? 

You can give each child a writing frame, which I have links to at the bottom of this post and have them decorate a cake and then write about it.

If they have a picture of a favorite birthday cake, have them share it during sharing time or reserve a few minutes to have children share or tell about their favorite birthday cake of all time!

🎃 Another Fun Day to celebrate is PUMPKIN DAY.

Did you know that National Pumpkin Day is October 26th? 

Let's take a look at a few ideas for Pumpkin Day which is celebrated right before Halloween...perfect Timing!

This pumpkin resource includes everything you need to celebrate pumpkins from facts to opinions, measuring, graphing and more.  check it out Right here

Need some Great Books to go along with Pumpkins? 

here are 4 of my faves:  

1.  How Many Seeds in a Pumpkins works fabulous with Pumpkin "Fun"tivities. Read it before you do the measuring activities. it is super for making predictions and works great with the interavtive props and ideas!

2.  Seed, Sprout, Pumpkin Pie is great text to use to learn about how pumpkins grow and for facts and opinions about pumpkins.

 

3.  The Biggest Pumpkin Ever is another great story that is fun to use as a shared reading and the kiddos LOVE it!

4. My all time favorite book is the The Little Woman who wasn't Afraid of Anything.

I used this as an interactive shared reading with props and you could hear a pin drop as we shared the story and acted out the parts with  real items! 

Here is a link for Ideas to go along with this book!
Let's Get Interactive!

🎃 If you Don't Like Pumpkins, you Can Always Celebrate Cupcake Day on the 26th or Both Days and Make Pumpkin Cupcakes!

YES! You read that right...CUPCAKE DAY!  Kids can draw cupcakes or make them out of construction paper and share about their favorite cupcake of all time!

Click on the picture to get this Dollar Deal to help you celebrate and use these 5 fun writing prompts! 

🎃 And Let's Not Forget Halloween    

Here are some tried and true Halloween Resources

Take a look and see if these might be something you want to try out this year!

Well...there you have it! Some Special Days to Celebrate in October...NEXT UP Some fun days to celebrate in November!

Have a great October!

Make this October the BEST EVER!

Keep Smiling...the BEST is yet to Come!

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