If you teach in the primary grades, it is essential that you have enough sets of magnetic letters and magnetic boards for a small group of students. This is a tool that I use almost daily in my reading small groups. You can do so many quick, meaningful actvities by having students use magnetic letters! By using magnetic letters you […]
Magnetic Letters: A Mighty Literacy Tool
Ten Low-Prep 100s Day Centers
The 100th day of school is coming up! For many of us it usually occurs in February, right around Valentine’s Day. In fact, one year I combined our 100s Day celebration with Valentine’s Day. Since 100s Day activities take a little bit of advance preparation, I thought now would be the perfect time to share some ideas for simple 100s […]
Rock Your Report Card Comments
The end of the semester is just around the corner! And you know what that means. Time to complete report cards for your students and fill in the dreaded comments section. I tell you the first time I wrote report card comments, it took me hours! I wanted each comment to be unique and meaningful. Over the years I learned […]
Class Pets Made Easy! (Not the Real Kind)
Happy New Year! I had a great break and I hope you did, too! Or, maybe, you’re still enjoying one more weekend of relaxation. Lucky you! As we get back into the groove with our students, this is an opportune time to introduce a class pet! And as the title of this post says, not the real kind. I feel […]
Top Ten Turkey Day Freebies
I can’t believe November starts in just a few days! And after that it’s only three more weeks until Thanksgiving break! We’re almost there folks. To help you hang on until we get there, I’ve compiled a list of my top ten turkey day freebies from around the web that are easy to prep, keep students engaged, and still present […]
Setting the Tone: Music in the Classroom
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 […]
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 […]
10 Must-Have Student Supplies
Last week I wrote about must-have teacher supplies, so this week I feel the need to write about must-have student supplies. Students at my school come back this week! In only a few short days students will, again, be walking down the halls, chattering in the cafeteria, and back in our classrooms. As much as I wish we were supplied […]