November provides so many opportunities to use Wixie to engage students in learning. While Thanksgiving is always a crowd favorite, use these ideas to celebrate other November holidays and inspire creative writing and project work in your classroom.

Celebrate Writing

Combining multimedia and online forms of writing can help learners connect with content in relevant, authentic, and meaningful ways.

November is Picture Book Month. Use the templates in Wixie’s Language Arts > Story Adaptations folder to have students adapt their favorite stories.

To tie into Thanksgiving, use a sentence starter like, "The perfect balloon for next year's parade is ________________," after reading Melissa Sweet's Balloons Over Broadway (template*) story about Tony Sarg.

*Select the link above (and all links in this blog) to view the project and then use the Log In button in the upper right side of the page. Go to the File menu and select Copy to My Projects to add the file to your personal Wixie account. 

You can also use Picture Book Month celebrations to encourage your budding writers to author and illustrate their own picture book from scratch. Students can use the text, paint, stickers, and background images to craft their masterpiece. Students can even record voice or video for even more self-expression.

Student writing needs a real-world audience. Use Wixie’s print options to print a 4-page project as a booklet students can fold, read, and share. You can also embed student stories on your classroom or school website, email parents a direct link, or export student work to eBook format, PDF, or even as a movie!

Celebrate STEM

National STEM day takes place on November 8th. Celebrate by asking students to:

Then, on November 15th, celebrate America Recycles Day. Search “recycle” on your Wixie homepage to find a collection of templates to get students thinking about recycling.

Have students support the healthy lifestyles promoted by the American Cancer Society's Great American Smokeout, which occurs on the third Thursday every November. Encourage students to create their own health PSA’s.

You can also take an open-ended approach and ask students to use a design process to solve a STEM-focused problem. 

For additional ideas, visit using a STEM approach with Wixie.

Celebrate Geography

It’s easy to engage students in geography with Wixie during Geography Awareness Week. Show off your student’s skills by using Wixie to showcase the geographic features, regions, and economy of a state or region. Browse the Social Studies > Geography folder to find the perfect template to get started.

For example, assign the By My House template to help young learners identify things in each direction around their home. Students can use Wixie’s paint tools to create a map.

In the Geographic Regions template students create a real estate sign describing and extolling the virtues of a specific geographic region to demonstrate their understanding.

To help students better understand the unique features of a state or country, search “persuasive” in Wixie for a template to guide students as they develop materials to attract visitors to a location at a virtual tourism trade show.

Looking for more geography ideas? Visit Engage Students in Geography with Wixie.

Celebrate Kindness

World Kindness Day is November 13 and provides a great opportunity to promote kindness in your classroom. Celebrate and encourage kindness with Wixie by:

You can also assign the Kindness Choice Board to give students voice and choice in how they want to share kindness with others, themselves, and the world. 

Celebrate learning

No matter what holiday or curriculum your students are working with, using creative tools like Wixie helps to motivate students and to engage them in their learning. 

As always, we’d love to see the projects you create! Please share with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or in the comments below.