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Back to School Lessons

It's nearly time for another year of school to start. The classroom walls are bare, the floors have been polished and a new group of students are eagerly looking forward to starting a new year.

Whether you are a classroom teacher, parent or homeschooler, this lens will lead you to exciting, hands-on learning activities to get your year off to a good start.

The bell is about to ring! It's almost time for school to start...

Back to School with new Reading Ideas 

Start the year with Hands-on Reading

These lenses offer hundreds of ideas for creating a fun-filled, hands-on learning environment for learning to read. Whether you are a teacher, parent, or homeschooler you will activities that will get your children actively learning to read right from the first day of school.

Start the year with read the room activities, interactive bulletin boards and roll the blocks to learn to read. You will love all these ideas for back to school or any time.
featured lens Word Walls and Pointers

Word walls are a collection of words for beginning readers to use to promote learning in reading and writing. WordWalls are most effective when the children help to generate them. This lens will point out various types of WordWalls used in classroom...

featured lens Beginning to Read

Mrs. Wishy Washy and The Big Bad Pig are inviting you all beginning readers to join them in the adventure of learning to read. Learn how to make Word Walls, Literacy Bags, activities for Center Time and lots, lots, more. You will find suggested begi...

featured lens Baby Lamb's First Drink

It is spring. The pastures are green and lambing season is upon us. The baby lamb has just been born and the mother ewe is carefully looking after her baby. With beautiful illustrations and simple words, Beverley Randall tells the tale of a baby lam...

Best Book for Your Child's First Day of School 

Best Back to School Book

Every classroom should have a copy of the Kissing Hand to help children deal with those first days of separation. Having a stuffed Chester Raccoon puppet will make the transition even easier for many children.
The Kissing Hand--Large Format

The Kissing Hand--Large Format

by: Audrey Penn

Chester Raccoon doesn't want to go to school--he wants to stay home with his mother.

She assures him that he'll love school--with its promise of new friends, new toys, and new books.

Even better, she has a special secret that's been in the family for years--the Kissing Hand. This secret, she tells him, will make school seem as cozy as home.

She takes her son's hand, spreads his tiny fingers into a fan and kisses his palm--smack dab in the middle: "Chester felt his mother's kiss rush from his hand, up his arm, and into his heart." Whenever he feels lonely at school, all he has to do is press his hand to his cheek to feel the warmth of his mother's kiss.

Chester is so pleased with his Kissing Hand that he--in a genuinely touching moment--gives his mom a Kissing Hand, too, to comfort her when he is away. Audrey Penn's

The Kissing Hand, published by the Child Welfare League of America, is just the right book for any child taking that fledgling plunge into preschool--or for any youngster who is temporarily separated from home or loved ones.

The rough but endearing raccoon illustrations are as satisfying and soothing for anxious children as the simple story. (Ages 5 and older) --Karin Snelson

Amazon Price: $18.90 (as of 01/08/2010) Buy Now

Chester the Raccoon Doll: From the Kissing Hand

Chester the Raccoon Doll: From the Kissing Hand

Amazon Price: $11.90 (as of 01/08/2010) Buy Now

Chester Raccoon and the Kissing Hand Unit Study 

Lessons and Activities to help children coming Back to School

featured lens Chester Raccoon and The Kissing Hand

The first day of school can be very traumatic for both children and their parents. The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn is a wonderful tale of a mother raccoon reassuring her baby that he will have a great night at school and that the kiss she leaves on h...

Back to School with Math Ideas 

Math Ideas for Back to School

Whether you are doing Unit Studies or separating your classes by subjects you will find hundreds of fun, hands-on math games and activities to start the new year.

Back to school with math...
featured lens Frog Pattern Math

When planning activities for your Frog Unit Study you might think that math would be an abstract subject that has nothing to do with frogs. In this lens we will explore ways to integrated math into your study of frogs and tadpoles. Mathematics is ba...

featured lens Living Math

In a child's early years, math is actually play. Counting, stacking, sorting, and balancing are all fun activities that develop mathematical reasoning. Don't separate math from fun. Don't kill a child's natural love of mathematical play by insisting...

featured lens Learning and Teaching Math Headquarters

Learning and Teaching Math -- Math is FUN! Math is all around us, used in our daily lives. And math is actually fun! Come find out all the ways to learn math in a way that motivates and fascinates. Games, hands-on activities, crafts, experiments,...

featured lens Natural Math Manipulatives

A hands-on approach to learning new concepts involving all 5 senses makes understanding easier and quicker for learners of all styles. Here you will find manipulatives that intrigue, excite and encourage exploration. From wooden blocks to needle fel...

featured lens Hands-on Math Activities

Children learn and truly understand mathematical concepts best when engaged in hands-on activities and games. By manipulating everyday objects, playing games and finding out ways of solving everyday problems children gain a true understanding of the...

Favorite Math Materials 

Math Materials your child's teacher will love

These are a few of my very favorite teaching materials. Any teacher of homeschooling mom would love to receive these as a back to school gift.
CUISENAIRE RODS INTRO. SET WOOD

CUISENAIRE RODS INTRO. SET WOOD

Amazon Price: $13.33 (as of 01/08/2010) Buy Now

HANDS-ON MATH GR. K-1

HANDS-ON MATH GR. K-1

Amazon Price: (as of 01/08/2010) Buy Now

Back to School Science Ideas 

Science Ideas for getting the School Year off to a Great Start

Gather your children and vote on their favorite animal. Now check out these lenses for exciting ways to incorporate all subjects into unit studies that follow your children's love of animals to scientific understand.

Back to school with hands-on, fun, science projects!
featured lens Acorns for the Squirrels

Thanksgiving is coming and the squirrels are counting their acorns. Read tales of squirrels who are preparing for Thanksgiving by making place mats, toilet paper tube squirrels and other Thanksgiving decorations. What will they be thankful for and w...

featured lens Whitefoot the Wood Mouse: A Mouse Unit Study

Whitefoot welcomes homeschoolers, teachers, parents and children to turn into mice, scurry through the tunnels and sniff out learning opportunities in every corner. Whitefoot the Wood Mouse welcomes everyone to his nest where learning never ends. He...

featured lens Global Warming for children

For young children to understand a concept like Global Warming it needs to be taught through hands-on observable experiments. Make a terrarium with falling rain. Melt ice and watch the water level of a lake rise. Observe what happens when plants rec...

featured lens River Otters: Playful Friends of the Woodlands!

Learn about River Otters through games and hands-on learning centers. Decorate your classroom with a Woodlands Riverbank Theme. Learn the habits of River Otters, the food they eat and how they raise their young. You will find suggestions for both fi...

featured lens Nature Study -- Charlotte Mason Style

Charlotte Mason's educational philosohpy is a great fit for homeschool families who love great books, simple methods, and academic excellence. One component of a Charlotte Mason education is the regular study of nature. Nature Study has just two pa...

Back to School with Social Studies 

Social Studies Unit Studies for the Beginning of the Year

Learn about social issues and historical times with these hands-on themes ideas and activities.
featured lens Garner Rix and the Royalton Raid - 1780

Garner Rix was just 12 when he moved with his father, pregnant mother, two sisters and three brothers from a farm in Connecticut to a log cabin on the banks of the White River, a place that would one day be called Royalton, Vermont. He helped h...

featured lens Community Helpers in Your Neighborhood

Community helpers are people who help us in our neighborhoods. We say that they provide a service for us. Find out about the various community service jobs in your community and who the people are that provide those services. From the postal carrier...

Are you ready to go Back to School? 

It's almost time to go Back to School!

Photo Credit: Unit Studies
in the Public Domain.



As you look forward to the coming year, what kinds of lessons do you plan to teach? Are you open to new ideas? Would you like to find new and creative ways to make learning come alive for your children?

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Back to School Comments 

Messages for the Back to School Lens

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About the Author of this Back to School lens 

Find out what I'm up to the rest of the year...
featured lens Evelyn Saenz: Lensography of a Teacher

My passion is teaching and finding ways to teach children in fun, hands-on, creative ways. The unit studies I make on Squidoo reflect my view that learning should be integrated and no skills should be taught in isolation. I believe that each topic s...

by Evelyn_Saenz

My passion is teaching and finding ways to teach children in fun, hands-on, creative ways. The unit studies I make on Squidoo reflect my view that lea... (more)

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