As classroom teachers, we need all the help we can get, amen? Wouldn’t an assistant be nice? Someone to remind you of things, tell you the weather before you run outside for recess, set the timer for you even when you are on the other side of the classroom? Well, there’s something for that, friend. […]
My first year of teaching, I had a fabulous science instructional coach at my school. He was really great at pushing me, which just made me a better teacher. He encouraged me to do individual science journals with my kindergarten kids. I wasn’t sure if my kids were ready to write in their own journals […]
It’s here! Seeing a solar eclipse is not something that happens every day! Years ago we were able to catch a solar eclipse at 100% totality here across America. How awesome was it to see something like this? The science nerd in me just loves it! You may be wondering, “How can I explain this […]
“What are your best sight word tips to help my readers learn them quickly?” is one question I get asked often. Well friends, I think it all comes down to how you introduce high-frequency words and how you keep reinforcing them. Once students understand how to orthographically map a word, it helps their brains learn […]
Guided reading has several tiny bits and pieces that come together to make your time at the table successful. I feel like the more I taught guided reading, the more aware I became of each puzzle piece. One of the pieces that I don’t think I fully grasped the power of until years later was […]
Having a birthday at school is always a special treat for students. Here are five ways you can help your students celebrate their special day without breaking the bank and without the extra sugar rush! Planning ahead and prepping a classroom set before the year begins will give you a head start to making your […]
Classroom time is so precious, and somehow things seem to just slip away sometimes. The floor is a mess. I lost time to re-test those sight words. The stack of papers to pass back is literally falling off of my table. I decided there had to be some hacks I could use to save some […]
RTI–those 3 letters that just make you want to pull your hair out sometimes. As elementary teachers, we already prep for so many content areas. Sometimes adding RTI to the plate is just too much. At least this is how I felt at times. Managing RTI was just going to send me to the looney […]
There is something special about the holiday spirit that lends itself naturally to teaching our little ones about kindness. While I think this is something that should be taught all year, the holiday season makes it easier. It also is a stressful time of year for parents, co-workers, and everyone. It can be a tough […]
Bringing science to life in hands-on ways is so important for our little learners. When it comes to teaching about weather and seasons, my students are always glued. I think that’s mostly because we don’t have all types of weather where we live. It’s mostly hot and hotter! Because of this, we do a lot […]
Writing is a time of our day that often gets squished to the end of the day, especially in kindergarten. So often we think, “Well, they aren’t reading yet so they aren’t ready to write much. They can just draw pictures.” You’re right, they can draw pictures, but have you ever thought about how that is […]
Word work, or word study, is an important part of the balanced literacy approach to teaching reading. This is the time for the teacher to provide explicit, direct, and systematic teaching instruction on the foundation of the English language. This is not a big chunk of our day, but it’s a part of our day […]
Teaching and structuring a guided reading lesson can seem overwhelming at first. I know that when I sat with my kids for the first time, though I had seen a great model, I was so worried about fitting it all in. I wasn’t sure if I was even teaching what I should. I felt like […]
At the beginning of the year I always spent the first 6 weeks focusing on classroom procedures and expectations. Without this, I just felt like I was herding cats all year long. In a classroom full of little learners, teaching them when it’s okay to interrupt classroom instruction was at the top of my to-do […]
92 words. 100 words. It doesn’t matter which list you use – Dolch, Fry’s, or your own. Mastering sight words is a key factor in reading success with little learners. That makes progress monitoring for sight words important. But the task of tracking it all can seem so daunting. How do you keep students motivated? […]
If there was one sure way to engage my little learners, it was to do science experiments! Their eyes just lit up when I told them we are going to implement a science experiment. It’s definitely a moment that made my teacher heart so happy–and forget all the craziness of our day! There were 4 […]
Loving to read is not something that comes naturally to all children. Sometimes they love to get lost in a book, make connections, predict what will happen next and other times children just want to look at the pictures and be done. I can even see that in both of my own children. My son […]
The end of the school year is so close, yet there are days that it just seems so far away! I know I always was looking for the last day of school on the horizon, but I wanted to keep my students engaged in learning all the way until the end. To help make planning […]
