When I was in elementary school, my aunt and uncle lived in Boston. We would travel to Plymouth (because I begged each year) to visit the recreated Plymouth Plantation during the summer. Ever since, I have loved learning about the lives of the early colonists. Now that I am teaching, I enjoy focusing on the Pilgrims and Plymouth Plantation during the month of November. We often read three books off and on over the course of the month: Samuel Eaton’s Day, Tapenum’s Day, & Sarah Morton’s Day. These three books are written from the child’s point of view and are highly engaging because of the real photographs. The children in all three books are based off of a real child who lived in Plymouth long ago. Depending on the grade level you teach, these books can be read from cover to cover (they’re quite long) or by simply focusing on specific parts. When teaching first grade and kindergarten, I pick certain pages to read every few days. When teaching third grade, I would read half of one book during our real aloud. My favorite way to use this book to teach about the way pilgrim children dressed. Samuel Eaton’s Day gives a step-by-step process of how Continue Reading
Last year when I was working at a private school, I started The Goop Group! This group of 17 K-2 kiddos met once a week after school for an hour to do nothing more than make goo. I called it STEM “Junior” because we followed all of the scientific method steps on a primary level. We practiced measuring while having fun with many gooey ingredients. We made glitter goo, apple oobleck, sprinkle goo, and pumpkin play dough! It is loud. It is messy. It is full of fun-filled kid memories! This year, I will be making Pumpkin Playdough during our Pumpkin Day centers in October. Take a look below to see this fun activity in action! Head over to The Primary Pack to read more!
(These examples are shown on plastic disposable plates. I just love this affordable option for student white boards! Just use a piece of felt or a tissue to wipe them clean. In class, we often also use white boards and chart paper when showing our examples.) Students always seem to struggle with elapsed time. It’s a hard concept for them to wrap their brains around because it is so abstract. When I taught third grade, I even found some students who have severe deficits in the basics of telling time. These students are just now mastering time to the minute, so I knew they would really struggle with elapsed time. This great way of mapping out elapsed time works like a charm. I wish I had learned it this way in school, because it just seems so obvious! Hop over to The Primary Pack to see the steps in action!
Fall is my favorite time of year! My students are working hard, we have established our rules and procedures for a month or so, and…we get to teach about pumpkins! Little Boo is a brilliant book that I just discovered last year. It is about a pumpkin seed named Boo who travels through many seasons of the year as he transforms into a pumpkin. Ladies and gentlemen, this book is amazing. Talk about content integration at your fingertips! This fiction story will allow your students to truly see the cycles that a pumpkin seed goes through to become a great big orange pumpkin. I plan to use this book as an introduction to our two-week pumpkin life cycle unit which begins in the middle of October. After reading the book, I will introduce each stage of the pumpkin and connect it to this text. During the last week of the unit, I always host “Pumpkin Day” for students and any parent volunteers. We transform the classroom into a pumpkin paradise complete with about 10 different pumpkin math, literacy, and science centers. On this day, the class plants individual seeds into a small clear cup at one of the center rotations. We water the seeds Continue Reading
Every year, September 11th brings back memories for all of us. We all remember that day. However, most of our students were not even born before 9/11/01. So, as a classroom teacher…Do you mention anything? Do you teach like any other day? I think it depends on the school environment you are in. My school usually plays a memorial video and has a moment of silence for Patriot Day. I enjoy reading the book The Man Who Walked Between the Towers during the week of September 11. It is a positive way to remember the day without showing graphics to young children. My students are always so engaged as we read the book because they cannot believe that someone would walk on a wire THAT high in the air! I also teach about America, American symbols, and citizenship during this week. I feel that this helps us pay tribute to our nation and all those who’s lives were changed on September 11th. One of my favorite activities is this All About America mini book. It is easy to complete in a few days, or you can complete one page each day as you take time to focus on each part. Students color a picture Continue Reading
As the new school year approaches, I just love taking {digital} peeks into everyone’s classrooms. Teachers are so full of inspiration and bright ideas. What would we do without each other? Our classrooms would probably just look like my before picture below…how sad….how drab. I want to thank all of you in advance because you inspire me daily with your posts and ideas on social media. Thank you, thank you, thank you! Here is a little photo tour of my kindergarten classroom. I hope you enjoy! As you walk up to my classroom, you will see this adorable sign. Simple, clear, to the point. I’m in love with it. Just inside the door to the left is my rolling big book cabinet. I was sad to discover that the white front (under the drawing paper) is not magnetic, so I decided to add a sign instead! On top of the cabinet are the 1, 2, 3 collapsable bins from IKEA. This is where I keep my early finisher activities. When my kinders have “nothing to do” they can go to one of these bins. Currently, the bins are filled with snap cube letters, plastic spoons to practice number sense, and two Kaboom games (one for Continue Reading
If Meet & Greet or Open House is coming up soon, you may want to add this fun idea to your repertoire! The idea is that you send parents, students, or both on a scavenger hunt around your classroom. By the end of the scavenger hunt, families have completed all necessary paperwork, received necessary information, and signed up for volunteer opportunities within the school. Of course, you can change each station to fit your needs and event. But today, I thought I’d give you an inside look at mine! We host Meet & Greet the Friday before school starts each year. Students receive their teacher placement and visit the classrooms with their families. As a teacher, there are so many things I need filled out, dropped off, taken home, etc. by the end of this one hour. This year, the morning was glitch free and convenient because parents led the way! My Writing Center was the first stop. Parents walked right in my door, signed in, and found their child’s folder. The scavenger hunt was stapled inside the folder. I also placed each student’s “Detective Badge” inside the folder. They wore it during the Meet and Greet so that I Continue Reading
Glad that you were able to join us for the third annual Orange Ya’ Glad it’s a Blog Hop! I am the fourth stop! If you have hopped with us in the past, some things will be familiar, and some things will be new! This year, all of our bloggers are focusing on free tips or ideas that they can share with you to get your school year off to a great start. Some ideas will have a freebie, others might just be a stand alone concept. The idea is to try and share things that will solve problems and create a happy and stress free first few weeks! Let’s talk about Feature Friday. This year, I really want my students to take ownership of their writing. I want them to be engaged and to interact with each other throughout the process. My hope is that Feature Friday will make this happen. What is Feature Friday? Feature Friday is an interactive way to integrate technology and writing. Students take photos throughout the week on iPads, iPhones, or with cameras (whichever you have access to!) of any classroom happening, activity, or student that interests them. Then, on Friday, you pick one photograph Continue Reading
Do you love lollipops? I do! …and I know for a fact that my kindergarteners do! I am thrilled to be working with Laura from Laura Kelly Designs & Me & My Inklings to share these tasty {personalized} treats with you! Yes, I said PERSONALIZED. If you’re a teacher like me, chances are you love a fancy monogram or freshly labeled bin. So, you can imagine my excitement when I discovered I could personalize a lollipop! Laura has designed some adorable clipart that is just right for your classroom, school, staff, or community. Her easy to use site even allows you to upload any image that you wish! When ordering my lollipops, I had to things in mind. 1 – Meet the Teacher night and 2 – How can I keep these going all year long? In the image below, you can see my Meet the Teacher lollipop which says “You color my world!” with a cute crayon doodle. These will be a HUGE hit with students and parents. I mean, what kid doesn’t love a large rainbow candy?! I will definitely be sharing more of these once I get all set up for that night! On the right, is Continue Reading
Hello friends! As back to school time approaches, bulletin boards are a constant topic. Today, I am linking up with Ashley from Schroeder Shenanigans in 2nd and Angie from Lucky Little Learners to share some tips and tricks to make your bulletin boards beautiful (and not too stressful!). Hope you enjoy! If you haven’t noticed already, I am (just a tad) OCD in my classroom. There is a place for everything, everything is in its place, and everything is tied together with COLOR. I have used blue, green, and brown with small pops of yellow for the past two years and absolutely love it! Why do I keep my color scheme the same? 1 – It’s expensive to purchase this stuff! Using it from year to year is important to me. 2 – A color scheme can go with almost any theme you wish. Why blue, green, and brown? There has been research done that shows the color blue produces a sense of calm. Yellow on the other hand, can be a very strong color for students who struggle with attention disorders or students who have autism. Think about ambulances and stop/yield signs. They are either red or yellow. These Continue Reading
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