After 19 years in the classroom, I‘ve picked up a few tricks that have saved me from hours reinventing the wheel year after year. The best thing I ever did for myself was complete some upfront work that led to years of little to no prep and planning! Here are my top three work smarter, not harder tips for easy lesson planning: 1. Save and store reusable worksheets and task cards. Classrooms don't have a lot of storage space, but keeping photocopies of the materials your students will use year af
Save money and have fun with this list of 50 free activities for families as recommended by parents. Includes a printable list too!
Matchbook chapter summaries super simple and fun project that you can have your students complete during your next novel study.
Grab our free rain cloud template and start making some simple rain crafts for kids! This free PDF is perfect for weather crafts and activities for kids.
Have your kids ever asked you why it rains? Making a rain cloud in a jar is a great way to teach them about the weather system and how ...
After recess or lunch can be one of the toughest times to transition back into instruction.
After 19 years in the classroom, I‘ve picked up a few tricks that have saved me from hours reinventing the wheel year after year. The best thing I ever did for myself was complete some upfront work that led to years of little to no prep and planning! Here are my top three work smarter, not harder tips for easy lesson planning: 1. Save and store reusable worksheets and task cards. Classrooms don't have a lot of storage space, but keeping photocopies of the materials your students will use year af
My kids always get excited for ANYTHING about animals. This pet theme pack is full of play based learning activities and centers to practice math, literacy, and writing skills. You can grab this pack in my TPT shop. Pet Preschool Pack Here is a look inside the pack! Cat CVC Words- Spell each CVC word with letter beads or tiles. Feed the Dog- Letters or Sight Words Feather Patterns- Create and extend each pattern with feathers. Turtle Tank Letters- Math the uppercase and lowercase letters. Dog Tag Fine Motor Counting- Count and lace beads onto each dog tag. Fish Bowl Letter Sort- Sort letters into each fish bowl. Goldfish Measurement- Use goldfish crackers, or cubes to measure each picture. Turtle Shape Graphing- Decorate a turtle with various shapes. Graph the shapes that were used. Bird Seed Writing Tray- Write each letter in a writing tray of bird seed. Dog Bowl Letters- Fill a dog bowl with letters! Find each letter and trace it on the recording sheet. Clip a Sound- Clip the pictures with the correct beginning sound on each collar. Pet Shop- I Spy Numbers- Find each number hidden in the picture. Trace the number on the recording page. Pet Food Counting- Pick a counting card. Count and scoop to feed each pet. Paw Print Names- Have your students write their names on paw prints! Pet Preschool Pack Pet Mini Erasers- We use mini erasers for SO many things (patterning, sorting, counting). This time, we counted pets into each dog house. Dog's Colorful Day Dot- We placed wax paper on a tray. Then we squirted dots of liquid watercolor onto the wax paper. It was so much fun! Pet Themed Sensory Bin- We used beans as the base, and added in bones and small dog figurines. Bubble Printed Fish Tanks- First, we painted the fish tank blue. Then, we painted bubble wrap. We printed each fish, cut them out, and placed them in the fish tank! Harry the Dirty Dog Sensory Play- We love the book Harry the Dirty Dog! After reading, we made a VERY messy sensory bin of Oobleck! It's just cornstarch and water, with a little cocoa powder to make it brown. This was tons of fun! Be sure to follow along with us on Instagram @michele_dillon
Hi Everyone! We hope you had a few days of relaxation over the long weekend (or week for some of you!) Marjorie went to visit her daughter in Israel, and Kristine went to visit her sister in Califo…
Make this easy resist art squirrel craft using our free printable squirrel template. Perfect as an autumn art idea for kids.
What a cute sun craft for kids! This doily craft idea is perfect as a summer craft for kids and is super cheerful to brighten your day.
This post shares 6 easy ways to teach grammar in different grade levels. These ideas for teaching grammar are fun, low-prep, and effective.
This is a fun way to get little nature lovers to learn about the different parts of a tree. Beginning writers will practice handwriting and learn sight words.
You spent all month teaching procedures...now what do you do? This post shares some strategies for how I ensure my students follow procedures all year.
There are still four long weeks until Thanksgiving break, so here's some of our favorite inspiring quotes and teacher humor to help you see it through.
Print some name cards from here. Write your popcorn words on them. Using clothespins with letters, have your child spell the sight word. I found this idea here.
Explore venspired's 3249 photos on Flickr!
In this article, I uncover how to acquire the tough mental mindset you need to stay the course and bring peace to a difficult class.
This Resilience unit is a crucial element for strengthening the core curriculum and ensuring our teenage students have a growth mindset and can bounce back from adversity so that they can succeed and reach their goals! Product includes: • 16 slides of resilience PowerPoint - fully structured so no prior experience is required to deliver it. The text is also editable for you to modify as needed! • 9 pages of resilience Printables - graphic organizers go perfectly with the PowerPoint if you want your students to record their thoughts as you discuss. There is also a fun bonus homework included! They are in a PowerPoint format so they can easily be converted to Google Slides for paperless activities if preferred. • 24 unique discussion cards to develop speaking and listening skills. Your students will learn: • how to define resilience • how to analyse their own and others' resilience • where they might need to demonstrate resilience • signs of high resilience • signs of low resilience • what can affect resilience • self-awareness of their own resilience • actionable steps to build resilience In order to ensure these important skills can be integrated into our busy timetables, this resource has been designed to make it as easy to deliver as possible! It includes a structured PowerPoint that guides the class through discussions about resilience and effective skills on how to bounce back from challenges. No prior knowledge or experience from you is required! On top of this, the PowerPoint text is editable so you can modify the content to suit your students’ needs, should you wish. Also included are bonus graphic organizers which are supplementary to the PowerPoint: they work as a helpful tool for students to record their thoughts in an aesthetically pleasing way that can then be used for bulletin board displays etc. You will also find a set of discussion task cards to spark conversation and thoughts on resilience: these can be printed off for each group of students, or they can be used in whole class discussion – it is up to you! So help build your students' resilience and encourage them to be all that you know they can be! Great for Character Education, Social Skills, Life skills and PSHCE (Physical, Social, Health, Citizenship Education) lessons. ************************************************************************* Check out these other great related products! • Resilience Interactive Lesson (self assessing for remote learning) • Self-respect: Character Education • Empathy: Character Education • Self-Esteem: Character Education • Cyber Bullying Awareness • Positive Attitude Task Cards and Posters • Bullying clip art • 101 inspirational and motivational classroom decoration posters • Social media exit tickets ************************************************************************* Useful Tips! • Receive free TPT credits to use on future purchases by going to your 'My Purchases' page in your account. Simply click the 'provide feedback' button and you will be taken to a page where you can rate and comment on the product. Each time you give me feedback, you earn 'feedback credits' that you can put towards future TpT purchases to reduce their costs! I do really value your feedback and I always look forward to reading what you think about my products! If you have any concerns or any of my resources are not what you expected, please contact me first before leaving feedback so I can have a chance to fix it for you! You can email me at [email protected] • Be the first to know when I upload new products, discounts and freebies by clicking on the green star next to my store logo to become a follower! ************************************************************************ Where else you can find me: Read my Blog Listen to my Podcast Follow me on Pinterest Check out my Instagram Find me on Facebook *************************************************************************** ★★★ Download exclusive freebies: ★★★ Join my newsletter and get access to a library of exclusive freebies as a bonus!
A blog with ideas to aid us on our life's journey to perfecting ourselves and our families. Crafts, Printable Pages, LDS lesson helps and more.
Geometry is such a fun topic to practice in 1st Grade! There are so many hands-on ways to work with shapes and fractions. Furthermore, many students
Looking for fun activities that are also educational? These are the 5 best activities for early childhood development.
After 19 years in the classroom, I‘ve picked up a few tricks that have saved me from hours reinventing the wheel year after year. The best thing I ever did for myself was complete some upfront work that led to years of little to no prep and planning! Here are my top three work smarter, not harder tips for easy lesson planning: 1. Save and store reusable worksheets and task cards. Classrooms don't have a lot of storage space, but keeping photocopies of the materials your students will use year af
Hello gorgeous friends. I have survived two weeks of school, and I did not have to do any of the following: 1. Take Valium 2. Sob 3. Or reach for the panic button more than twice. Twice? you say. Oh yes. I was reaching for the panic button when my desk looked like an earthquake had hit it. {No photo ‘cause, you guessed it, the camera was buried under the rubble} And I really panicked 5 minutes later when I realized that I only had 2 hours before the school closed with kids arriving the next day! But, I pulled it all together and had a great first two weeks. This is largely due to a couple of tricks up my sleeve. I want to share them with you. The first is kind of a no brainer… Lesson Plans. Planning is smart, but I am always surprised when people say, “Oh I don’t do lesson plans.” I actually tried that for a month. I just used the teacher’s manuals and a schedule. I was late to an assembly, forgot it was school picture day, and found myself reaching for the panic button all the live long day. It does not work for me. Nor does writing tiny on single sheet lesson plans. So I make BIG plans. DIY Tips: 1. Take your two page plans: I make my plans using Power Point. 2. Print and tape them together. 3. Grab white construction paper. Or go crazy and make your plans yellow, pink, or lime. 4. Photocopy. I placed the big uncut sheets in the external tray of our photocopier. This is not our photocopier… but close enough. See the tray on the right? That’s where I put the big paper. 5. Click print/copy and Ta-Da. It works perfectly! No more tiny printing, and it’s one single sheet! I love it! The second thing I want to share is being positive. Not just in a “grit your teeth until they crack SMILE” kind of way. But really positive and deliberate about praising great behavior. I wrote a bit about this {here} and want to share how my daily 30 second award assemblies are going. The pink and blue 1/4 sheets up there are my “Printing Prince” and “Printing Princess” awards. They went to the two kids in my my room with AMAZING penmanship. It was easy to chose them, because the other papers were not so great. But low and behold after rewarding these two, the next day about 13 of my kids could have gotten an award ! ! ! Simple … 30 seconds… no nagging! Here is what I do: 1. Right before dismissal I read a picture book while the kids sit on the carpet. 2. When we are done reading I tell them what the award is and call up the child. 3. Their faces light up!!!! They quickly come up, learn how to shake hands, take their award and stand next to me. I do this for about 2-4 kids using some of the 80+ awards I created. 4. Then, we all cheer for the kids and hold up our pretend cameras. 5. I say “Take their picture” 6. The kids say “CLICK! You’re famous!” I am telling you, it’s my favorite time of the day! I think it is their favorite time too. This makes the end of the day so special. I think the end of the day is super important. I try to send them off in a calm, happy, Zen way, because that is what they take to the car with them. My “End of the Day” basket helps with this. I just bought this basket at Target. It has a small footprint so it does not take up much room and it can hold my papers vertically. I stash my fliers, daily homework, and reminder notices in this basket. The basket MUST be empty or I don’t start the story. It’s a great system, keeps me organized, and keeps our classroom running smoothly=Zen! I have to share this graphic with you. My fellow bloggin’ buddies are showing you our favorite products “Yearbook Style”. Dying! I love my pal Christina! Click her sweet name to link back up! The big TpT sale is going this weekend and on into Monday! Along my sidebar are great units that you will love and will bring you results! You can click any picture to read a blog post or you can click "shop" at the top of this post to see all my goodies with the links to TpT. Happy back to school friends! I know this is going to be a great year!
