Latest on the Blog

10 Holiday Writing Activities that Aren’t Santa Letters

Dear Santa,All I want for Christmas are some new holiday writing ideas!Sincerely,A teacher who is bored with Santa letter writingIf you're looking to spice up your holiday season writing program this is the place for you! Read on to get some new or different ideas.I'm going to just jump right in with the writing ideas:1. How to make an ornament! I know many of you do Christmas themed art or crafts around this time and many of you make ornaments. Why not have the students write about the ... Read the Post

10 Reasons You Should Use Games in the Classroom

Time and time again we see posts on facebook about children needing time to play. Research has told us that many children do not actually learn through "drill and kill" type worksheets. There is a time and a place for worksheet type work but in general, children do better with authentic learning activities, activities where they can have a choice, where student voice is considered, and where there is an element of play.Read on to find out more about how using games in the classroom ... Read the Post

Why I Still Celebrate Halloween in the Classroom

In today's diverse classrooms we need to be careful and cognizant of the fact that not everyone celebrates Halloween. I have taught at schools where we were not allowed to do any Halloween themed activities as well as some schools where we were allowed to as long as we toned it down and also celebrated holidays from other cultures. Read on to find out why I still include Halloween as a celebration in my classroom:I have always seen this as a positive thing. Each year I invited parents from ... Read the Post

An Easy Activity to Promote Growth Mindset

I love to start the year building classroom community with Peter H. Reynold's books like The Dot and Ish. They are great read aloud books to begin a growth mindset activity. Both books are great for teaching kids that it is okay to take risks and make mistakes. Those books also go very well with this growth mindset activity we worked on. Read on to find out how this activity worked out in my classroom. Growth Mindset Activity: I started this school year with an activity that I saw on Twitter. ... Read the Post

Fun Activities for Teaching the Doubles Strategy

Mental math skills are integral to our daily lives and as such we should be teaching them to our students. Knowing their doubles facts is a key component in being able to use a variety of mental math strategies such as doubles plus or minus one, two, or three. If you have never used the doubles strategy before and aren't sure of how it can help students, consider this: "I know that 10 + 12 = 22, because I know that 10 + 10 = 20 so I just add on 2 more". Before children can learn ... Read the Post

Morning Work Made Easy!

If you were a fly on the wall in my classroom, you would see that I like routine and structure. This isn't to say that I don't do things on the fly (had to throw that in there! )....but there are very clear routines and structure to my day.One of my favorite routines is starting the day with morning work. I get a lot of questions about how I do this. Specifically, how I mark it or take it up. The truth is, I don't really mark it. Read on to learn about how I use morning work to start our day off ... Read the Post