Music is such an awesome classroom management tool! I know a lot of teachers who already do this, but I wanted to share how I use music in the classroom. When I was a classroom teacher, I created a Spotify playlist that I played every morning as my students were arriving. In case you don’t know, there is a free […]
Setting the Tone: Music in the Classroom
7 Materials to Strengthen Fine Motor Skills
Recently, I wrote a post about the decline of the quality of handwriting in students today. You can read that one here. In it, I mention that students need strong fine motor skills to be able to hold and write with a pencil correctly. I want to elaborate on that today. Children start developing fine motor skills from a very […]
A Round-Up of FREE Fall-Themed Activities
Last week I shared a list of notable nonfiction books for the fall season. With that in mind, I’d like to share a round-up of free fall-themed activities that could be used with those books. It’s always nice to have ideas saved in the same place. And even better when they’re free! Apples 1. Apple Investigation Worksheet from Preschool Play […]
Super Simple Ways to Celebrate Student Birthdays
I enjoy celebrating student birthdays in my classroom! Even as an interventionist, I still do. It is not required by my school, but I feel it is very meaningful to the student to be recognized on their special day. When I was a classroom teacher, one of the things I did was to have the birthday student get to be […]
5 Awesome Activities for an Unforgettable End of the Year!
Last week I wrote about 10 end of the year read-alouds to read to your students, which really started to get my mind on the end of the year. So to keep with that theme, this week, I’m going to share five awesome activities you can do with your students to close out the year in an unforgettable way! 1. […]
10 of the Best Books for the End of the Year
How many days of school do you left? We are at less than 30 days! Time seems to fly during these last days of school and I intend to make every minute count as we wind down the school year. But that doesn’t mean you can’t have a litttle fun! One way I like to have a little fun is […]
Motivating Your Students During Testing Season
The end of the year is near. We can feel it and so can our students. However, it is not over yet. Testing season is about begin. You know, those pesky end-of-year assessments for the school and the state. I’m sure you’ll agree with me that there is too much testing that happens during a typical school year, but that […]
10 Hoppy Easter Brain Breaks!
The first day of Spring is next week! Does it feel like spring where you are? Here in South Carolina we are finally getting some warm weather, but the pollen has kicked up. It’s like it is raining yellow! However with the arrival of spring and warmer weather, our students tend to get more bouncy as they wake up from […]
A Round-Up of FREE Math Resources for Independent Work
Two weeks ago I posted about free resources to use for your science of reading based independent work, so I thought it only right to do a post on free resources for math independent work! Most elementary classroom math time includes time for independent practice. And if it doesn’t, it should. This is usually done with the use of math […]
A Round-Up of FREE Resources for SOR Independent Work
Awhile back I wrote about how to bring the fun back into the classroom in a world of curriculums. If you didn’t catch that post, you can read it here. Anyway at the end I wrote that I would be back with some independent work ideas. You may be asking yourself, “Why is she giving us ideas now?” To answer […]