Showing posts with label Homework. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Homework. Show all posts

Monday, January 31, 2011

Classroom Teachers Need Fun Halloween Activities to Use For Homework Assignments

Halloween comes at the perfect time in the school year to give students a break. Teachers might give their students homework that includes fun Halloween activities without losing progress in their educational curriculum. Some teachers will take the time to create these on their own, others will purchase an activity to download. Here is a list of the sort of fun activities teachers should look for in products they create, purchase or download as a printable worksheets or games.



Word Search Puzzles These are easily created with programs found online or customized by hand using graph paper. Pre-made puzzles can be purchased, downloaded and saved for future use. The key here is to be sure the words are at the reading level of your students.Never just assign a word search puzzle without also including a way for the students to use the word independently. An example would be to write ten sentences, trying to fit two or three words in each sentence.
Fill in the Blank Word Puzzles These usually involve a particular word with some letters left blank and some additional activity to find the correct letter. It might be unscrambling. Often these worksheets include secret messages that are solved using letters from the words. Again in order to help build vocabulary, the students need to use the words from their assignments, may-be during an in class review or orally reciting a sentence as they go over homework in class.

Math Worksheets Normally math worksheets for Halloween are a worksheet pages decorated with pumpkins or ghosts and possible a secret word. What would be perfect for math Halloween homework is something different, where you might work with place value, or factors or review order of operations. Take the time to look for some quality math ideas to use as a fun Halloween activity assigned for homework.

Writing Prompts Teachers are always looking for new and different prompts to use for writing assignments. A motivating writing prompt pre-written on a Halloween designed worksheet that students to use for homework is an essential resource to have on hand.

Story Starters It is very common for higher elementary and middle school classes to begin the school year with a review of the plot chart. Halloween is perfect timing to put those to use and have the students write their own short story, with characters, conflict, the climax and a Resolution. With graphic organizers plan that provides the plot elements has long been a thorough review of these conditions. This is a perfect long-term task, because the history of Halloween.

Puzzles and Logic Puzzles for a Super Brain Teaser Poster weekly use with students during Halloween is some opportunity for students to solve problems. Send every student home with some of these challenges and areup with solutions is a simple yet effective way to get them to use problem solving skills and to get their families involved as well.
Halloween comes once a year whether teacher like it or not. The closer the holiday comes, the harder it is to keep student focused. Having some fun Halloween activities to use as homework assignments may be just the thing needed to tap into that energy, and keep their brains focused on academics.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Keep Your Cognitive Ability Healthy By Helping With Your Kids' Homework

Every parent wants to help their child to do well in school. As you already know, helping your children with their homework is one of the most reliable ways to improve their academic performance. Things have probably changed quite a bit since you were in school yourself, but the basics will never really change - and by helping your children with their homework, you'll be exercising your own brain and improving your own cognitive abilities, not just your child's.

It may take you a little time to get back into the swing of things. Most likely, it's been a long time since you took algebra and if you're like most of us, you've forgotten much of what you learned. If you need to, follow along with the sample problems given in the book to refresh yourself so you can help your child with their work. You can check your child's math homework by doing the problems yourself independently. If your child comes up with a different answer, then help them work through the problem again until they find the right answer.

You can also improve your cognitive abilities while helping your children out with their English homework. You probably don't remember all of the grammatical rules you learned back then; most of us don't! You'll relearn this material quickly though and improve your own reading and writing skills even as you help your child improve theirs.

Once your children see how interested you are in their homework, they'll be more likely to come to you when they need help as well as being more motivated to get their homework done. Doing homework with your child can also be a family bonding experience; kids don't always feel comfortable asking their teachers for help, but they will come to you.

All too often though, parents aren't familiar enough with the material their kids are learning or are in need of a refresher to help them with their homework. Helping your kids with your homework helps them do better in school while giving you the mental workout you need to improve your cognitive abilities. If you have more than one child, you'll have your work cut out for you, since you'll have to learn what all of them are learning

You can get information which can help you help your kids online if you don't find your child's school books helpful. There are many websites which are devoted to helping parents to get back up to speed on these long-forgotten school subjects in order to help their kids. You can get in touch with your children's teachers if you're unclear about anything - explain that you're interested in helping your child with their homework and they'll be glad to assist you.

Best of all, you'll remember more of what you learn now that you're doing it for the second time. You'll have more background knowledge and some skills you didn't have as a child. You'll gain a new perspective on this old coursework; you'll know just what your kids are doing and how long it should take.