"What do you teach?" asks the innocent inquirer of the elementary teacher. "Everything!" you reply. And yes, it's true. You teach everything - math, science, social studies, reading, writing, computer skills, social skills, sometimes even PE...I could make this list even longer, but I thought I'd limit myself to the basics.
When you are responsible for teaching every subject under the sun, it can be next to impossible to fit everything in every day. And we don't want to be "fitting" in important content, we want to be teaching it. Teaching it in depth and with consistency. Enter the cross-curricular activity. A way to get more bang for your buck, or rather more content covered in an engaging and meaningful way.
Sentence fluency is a trait of writing that can be studied and graphed during language arts, or you can use your students' favorite book to study this during math class. If your students have interests in music, they can practice their multiplication facts with their own created songs, or you can introduce fractions using musical notes. Origami is a beautiful and exciting art project that incorporates numerous geometry concepts, and your students can keep track of their geometry vocabulary in their very own student-created dictionary.