It’s the most wonderful time of the year. And one of the craziest. Your students are preoccupied with visions of sugarplums, or more likely Playstations, and trying to keep their attention in December is often more challenging than untangling the Christmas lights. But don’t despair, because today I am sharing 6 holiday activities to keep kids ... Continue Reading
Top 10 Things Teachers Are Grateful for this Holiday Season
Are you excited about Thanksgiving? Maybe you’re looking forward to the cornbread stuffing, green bean casserole, or deep-dish apple pie. Maybe you're excited about the football games or gathering with family. (That is allowed this year, isn’t it?) Or maybe, you’re grateful for an extra-long weekend. No shame in that. Even during the best of times, ... Continue Reading
Interactive Notebooks: An Easy Way to Engage and Assess Students
I love interactive notebooks. If you are familiar with my materials, you know I include them regularly in reading, grammar, and math. Interactive notebooks are an easy way to engage and assess students. And I'm not the only one who loves them. When I was in the classroom, interactive notebooks were one of my students’ favorite parts of our ... Continue Reading
Easy Thanksgiving Activities Your Students Will Enjoy
I’m dropping by today with a quick reminder . . . Thanksgiving is right around the corner! Today I’ve got 5 easy Thanksgiving activities to help you celebrate in the classroom. These activities will keep your kids engaged in learning and give them a little taste of the upcoming holiday. Thanksgiving PBL: Plan Thanksgiving Dinner Get your ... Continue Reading
Making Math Centers Easy and More Efficient
It’s no secret that I love using the workshop method to teach math. A big part of math workshop is centers. Centers are great because they give you the opportunity to meet with small groups and provide differentiated instruction and they keep the rest of your students engaged in learning. But I know centers can sometimes feel overwhelming. Today ... Continue Reading
3 Reasons Your Grammar Lessons Aren’t Working (And What You Can Do About It)
What do you think of when I say, "It's time for grammar!"? Are you super-excited, sitting on the edge of your seat, bouncing with anticipation? Yeah, I didn't think so. Most people, including a lot of your students, don't get real jazzed up about grammar. But what if it didn't have to be that way? What if, when you said, "Hey class, it's ... Continue Reading
8 Multiplication Activities that Are Fun and Effective
Multiplication is one of the most important math concepts to master in elementary school. But it can be tricky to learn. There are lots of students who don't understand how multiplication works or have not yet mastered fact fluency. Today I am sharing some of my very favorite ways to teach multiplication. These techniques will help students ... Continue Reading
Close Reading Strategies that Keep Kids Engaged
Close reading is an important skill for students to learn. Not only is it required by the Common Core standards, but it helps deepen comprehension. But close reading can be hard for students. And boring. It requires repeated reading and discussion of the same text. And each time students read, they are pushed to dig deeper into the text for its ... Continue Reading
Halloween Activities Your Students Will Love
Halloween is almost here! The most frightening time of the year. And I'm not talking about ghosts, goblins, and ghouls. No, I'm talking about the uncontainable excitement that leads to non-stop chatter, lack of focus, and a buzzing candy-infused craziness that seems to settle in elementary students long before trick-or-treat night. Luckily, ... Continue Reading
Math Small Groups are the Best Way to Differentiate Lessons
Math workshop is divided into four parts: the mini lesson, student centers, small group instruction, and sharing time. Today we are talking about math small groups and why you need to add guided math instruction to your math block. If you're new to math workshop, check out this post for an overview of all four elements. You can read more about ... Continue Reading
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