Red Ribbon week is just around the corner! With Halloween on my mind, sometimes I feel like Red Ribbon Week sneaks up on me! In my classroom, we will be celebrating in three different ways. Classroom Door Decorating Contest: Each classroom is asked to decorate the front of their door in celebration of Red Ribbon Week. Judges will go around and ... Continue Reading
Teaching Meaningful Vocabulary Lessons
Every year I am shocked by my students' underdeveloped vocabulary. They struggle with reading comprehension because of their limited understanding of words. Their writing can be very drab because of their limited word choice. And when it comes time for standardized testing they often struggle with understanding what is being asked of them because ... Continue Reading
Camp Share-a-Story (and a FREE Reward Tag!)
I am always looking for ways to get my students engaged and excited. As the quarter was coming to an end, I wanted a fun way to celebrate my students' writing. That was the beginning of Camp Share-a-Story. I have done camping as an end of the year activity. But why not during the year?! My son made and painted this sign for me. Pretty awesome, ... Continue Reading
5 Tips for Teaching Students to Respond to Text
New standards make it more important than ever before that we teach students to thoughtfully respond to text in writing. Having the ability to write about the text shows a deeper understanding of the material and allows teachers to integrate reading, writing and language. But there is NOTHING EASY about teaching students to respond to ... Continue Reading
FREE Halloween Writing Menu
I am always looking for ways to keep my students engaged the week before Halloween while still working on our standards. I created this writing menu and some graphic organizers to give my kids a fun Halloween themed writing activity that reenforces our writing lessons. The menu includes 3 narrative prompts, 3 informational prompts and 3 ... Continue Reading
4 Simple Steps to Solve a Word Problem
I LOVE teaching third grade math! If I could find a way to teach nothing but third grade math- I would be in heaven. I did not like math as a child. I just couldn't understand WHY! I was THAT kid asking, "When will I use this?" "Why does that work?" My math teachers hated me. And because of that experience, I strive to give my third graders a ... Continue Reading
Crock Pot Recipes for the Busy Teacher
I wanted to share this post that I wrote for iTeach Third.After a long day of differentiating, assessing, managing, data analyzing and communicating with parents- I am shocked to come home and discover that my children want to eat dinner. Don't they know how tired I am?! Do they really need to eat dinner EVERY day? Tired mommy and hungry kids ... Continue Reading
5 Reasons Centers Work in my Classroom
I am passionate about using guided reading and math small groups with centers. I just can't imagine teaching diverse learners any other way. I have had lots of followers and colleagues give up on centers, especially math, because they didn't work in their classroom. I did a guest blog post for Rachel Lynette's Minds in Bloom site. I share 5 of the ... Continue Reading
FREE Addition & Subtraction Interactive Notebook!
I hope that the title of this post caught your attention! I am so excited to be able to give ALL of you my newest interactive notebook for FREE! The notebook includes fact flaps for 2 digit and 3 digit numbers. I included sets that require regrouping and sets that don't for both addition and subtraction. There are a total of 8 ... Continue Reading
My Focus Board!
I am really excited to show off my new focus bulletin board! I use most of Whole Brain Teaching rules. I did opt to exclude "Raise your hand for permission to leave your seat." I have a student led classroom. I show students where to find supplies and discuss when they can and cannot get up. They don't need to ask me for a new marker or ... Continue Reading
End of Year Carnival Week for grades 2-5!