Do you and I run in the same circles? Doubt it. Although we do share at least one circle: teaching. Right? And if you and I ha...

First, Create Draft Topics in Google Classroom The new Google Classroom interface allows you to organize your assignments into topics. However, new topics

These choice boards you can send home with kindergarteners during a break, holiday or as homework. Includes 6 different free example choice boards.

If you are looking for some high-interest activities, try using animated shorts to teach inference. Free handouts focus on student learning.

Brain breaks are short, focused activities that help students recharge and refocus. Here's how you can incorporate them for all ages.

This is probably the most traditional of crafts for making a moving body – using split pins! To make this craft, you will need the 1-page template printout, scissors, and 5 split pins (or 4+ glue if gluing the head). Cut out all the shapes along the black lines. Find the stars on the ends […]

A new board game is ready to go! This new Area Invasion game is my first game that focuses on a geometry concept. This post explains the rules and how to play! You can get a copy of Area Invasion at the following link. Area Invasion! A Math Board Game Materials: The game includes a game board, four different sets of 22 Area Cards (Rectangle, Parallelogram, Triangle, and Trapezoid), 21 Circle Slide Cards, Teacher Instructions and Rules, a Student Worksheet, and an Answer Key. The game begins with each player on the "START" space. On each player's first turn, they can choose any type of Area Card. If they are able to correctly find the area of the shape on the card, they move ahead as many spaces indicated on the card. Once they are off of the "START" space, they must start each turn by drawing an Area Card that corresponds to the shape of the space that their game piece is on. For example, if they are on a trapezoid space, they start their turn by drawing a Trapezoid Area Card. If they are able to find the area of the trapezoid on that card, they move ahead the number of spaces it says on the card! The picture below shows one of the easier and more difficult problems for each type of shape. If at any time a player lands on a "Circle Slide" space, they immediately draw a Circle Slide Card. If they are able to find the area of the circle on the card, they get to move ahead on the slide (the arrow on that space). If they get the problem wrong, they stay at the space they are on. On their next turn, they would then take whatever shape is on that space. One of the easier and more difficult Circle Slide Cards are shown below! First person to reach the Finish space wins the game! I hope your students enjoy playing! If your students enjoyed this game, they may also like playing the following board games. Each of these sets are at a discount when purchased as the bundle. Fractions and Decimals Board Game Bundle Fractions and Decimals Board Game Bundle (Negative Number Edition) Expressions, Equations, and Inequalities Board Game Bundle

Hi everyone! Just popping in today with a little freebie for you to show how much I appreciate you all! This freebie is a great way to ch...

Hi Everyone, Sara here from Sara J Creations with some time saving tips for Powerpoint. Do you use Powerpoint? I made the move to Powerpoint when I started on TpT and learned about the awesomeness of this little program. I always thought Powerpoint was for creating a presentation or slide show. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Yes, it can be used for that, but it can be used for so much more. When I was in the classroom, Word was my go to program. I created worksheets, notes to parents, newsletters, and more. And now I just sit back and wish I had all those hours back where I fought with word to format a picture exactly like I wanted or create a new page identical to one I've already used. Enter Powerpoint! I have 5 tips for saving time on Powerpoint. Whether you are new to Powerpoint, have been using it for years, create and sell products for TpT, or design for your own classroom or house, these tips are for you! Just a note: I use Windows 10 (I'm still getting used to it) and recently updated to Powerpoint (Office) 2013. Your program might look a little different than mine depending on what versions you use. When you open Powerpoint, the slide that automatically pops up is designed for a slide show on your computer. I found myself constantly changing the slide size to print on standard paper. This step was driving me nuts each time I created something. Here's how to solve that - create templates of the sizes you use the most. Under slide size, choose the size that you use frequently (for me it was 8.5"x 11") and just keep the slide blank. Go to File > Save As and switch the file type to PowerPoint Template. It will automatically save this to your documents in a folder called Custom Office Templates. I have a vertical template, horizontal template, square template, brag tag template and task card template. Now, I don't have to start from scratch. I open the template for the product I want to create and it is already formatted for me, no need to adjust the slide size. Have you ever seen that paint brush in the corner of the home screen? This is on Word, too. That is a format painter and I remember learning about this in my computer class in high school and it is a feature I've used ever since. Let's say you format a text (meaning you picked the font, size and spacing) and you want something else that you type to look the same way. In my example above, I wanted Alternate Uses to look just like Directions for Use to keep it consistent on the page. I could highlight Alternate Uses and go up and change the font, size and spacing by myself by using Directions For Use to help me with remembering what numbers. Or I can use the format painter. Highlight the text that you want it to look like, so in this case Directions For Use. Then double click on the format painter. While the format painter is selected, highlight the text you want changed. It will automatically switch it so that it is formatted the exact same way that your original text that you selected was formatted. No need to remember what font you used, how big it was, if you made it bold, if you left justified it, etc. The format painter will do it all for you. Confession : I read about this tip on TpT (in the forums) and updated to Microsoft Office 2013 just for this feature. I had 2010 before and it wasn't available in that version. I HATE change. Updating any sort of technology makes me cringe. I hate getting used to something new. But I did, just so I could use this next tip I'm going to show you. Have you ever tried to match the color of text that you are using to something else in your document like clip art, a logo, digital paper, picture, etc.? I was doing this a lot to match things to the color of my blog. I would just pick something that looked close. Well, with the eye dropper tool, it does all the work for you and the color is an exact match. Let's say that you wanted your text to match some clip art like in the example below. Insert the picture that you are using. Then, highlight the text that you want to color. Go to the Format tab and click text fill. Then select eyedropper. You will get a little eye dropper and a square that shows up close the color that the dropper is pointing to. It will also give you the specific numbers and letters for the color if you need it (but you don't for this trick.) Click once you've found the color you want. Your text now matches the clip art!! Another way that I love to use this trick is when I am starting something from scratch and I'm trying to figure out what colors to use. I have a Pinterest board called Color Combinations where I save different color palettes that I like. If I want to make the text or background in my product using the color schemes I saved, it is easy! Just open up the board, and click on the pin that you want. When you get to this screen, right click on the image and click copy image. Then go back to your Powerpoint document and paste the image. Use the same steps as above to use the eye dropper to select each of the colors you want to use. If you need to repeat a color, it should show up in your recent colors so you really only need to use the eye dropper once for each color if you keep the document open. Just delete the Pinterest image from your document when you are done. I love using this tool because I don't often think of color combinations like this on my own and there are so many colors out there beyond the standard colors that are on the Powerpoint list. This helps me to narrow down what I want to use. This tip is for replacing the fonts in your text. Let's say you have pages of work and realize the font doesn't look right. Or maybe it is something you created a while ago and the font is outdated. You could go page by page, highlight the text and then change it. Or you could use the Replace Fonts feature. In the home tab, on the far right there is a Replace button. Click that, then click Replace fonts. Under Replace there will be a drop down menu with all of the fonts that are in your document. Select the one you want to change. Then for the part that says With: you will select the new fonts from the drop down menu. That menu includes all fonts that are installed on your computer. Click Replace. All the fonts in your entire document will be changed to your newly selected font without you having to go page by page. Another way to use the Replace feature is if you want to change certain words throughout the text. The one time I really use this is to change the date. Sometimes when I'm creating a product, I use an older product to get me set up and then change the content. I put my copyright information on every page and include the year. So I might have a new product that I just created but it was similar to an older product so I used the old version as my template. Now all of my dates say 2014 instead of 2015. Go to Replace again and use Replace instead of Replace Fonts. Type in what the text currently says (2014) and what you want it to say (2015). You can click Find Next if you want it to go page by page and show you the change before it replaces it. This would be helpful if you didn't want to replace every word in the text, only certain ones. Or you can click Replace All which is what I do because I know that I want every date in my product, whether in my cover or my footer at the bottom, to say 2015. Have you ever wanted to reuse a slide that you already created or parts from a different document? You could open both screens and cut and paste, but there is an easier way. Reuse slides!! Under the Home tab, click New Slide and then go down to the bottom and choose Reuse Slides. On the right side, it will show you frequently used documents but you can also click browse and go find the document you are looking for. I like to do this with my terms of use/thank you page because it is something I add to each document and there are a lot of parts and formatting so I wouldn't want to cut and paste it all. Once you've selected the document you want to open, all of the slides in the document will open. Find the one you want and click on it. BUT before you do that, make sure that the box that says Keep Source Formatting is checked. If not, you might lose some of your formatting like the background. An exact copy of that slide is now in the document. It is just like the other slides, you can still move it and change it and it will not change the original document it came from. Another similar feature is the Duplicate Selected Slides feature. This is if you want to use a slide again but it is in the same product. I like to do this when I am making task cards. I spend a lot of time getting the background, clip art and text just right and I don't want to have to do that for each page of cards. Plus I want to make sure they are all exactly the same. To get a copy, go to Home then find New Slide and then go down to Duplicate Selected Slides. Now that same slide will appear again. You just have to change the text that is on it. I start by changing the numbers and then change the text on each card. Wow! Did you catch all of that? Hopefully, this helped you and you learned a few new tricks to speed up your work time. What tip was new to you that you are going to try out soon?

I want to share an idea that has saved me some sanity in the past two years when many students are demanding my attention at once.

Write the numbers that come before, between, or after the given numbers.

I had no idea how appropriate Sunday's Words of the Week were going to be! Those of you on the East Coast are well aware of the Earthquake w...

I always try to be mindful when integrating technology into a lesson that I incorporate collaboration, movement, and creation when possible to reduce passive screen time and increase the learning and engagement. Technology by itself is not enough - it is what we do with it that matters. So here is something you can 'do with it' that will introduce key basic tech skills on Google Slides, make for an easy introduction to Google Classroom, AND break the ice with your class this upcoming school year...Google Scoot! What is Google Scoot? Google scoot is a digital scoot game similar to playing iPad Scoot or

Here are my tips and tricks for moving from making sounds in isolation to working on the VC and CV syllables during articulation therapy.

Autism and Transitions: Transitions can be hard for autistic individuals. Learn how transitions affect those with autism and how you can help #autismparenting #autism #asd #tranistions #autismacceptance #autismawareness

How to make theraputty for occupational therapy to improve fine motor skills and hand strength.

When I first started teaching, I remember trying so many different ideas all the time in my classroom. It was exhausting running a new small group scenario or differentiation strategy several times per week, and over my many years of teaching, I’ve come to master a handful of strategies that are ve

Want to attend college and not sure how to pay? This guide teaches you to get paid to go to school from grants, scholarships, work-study programs and tuition reimbursement.

Let me start off by saying, I hope you don’t have any reason to read this post. I hope that your students are all happy, healthy and well-adjusted. In fact, I hope you are wondering exactly what I mean by “classroom meltdowns”… but I have a sneaking suspicion that you do know what I mean. […]

On theBlog 2ND GRADE CLASSROOM MATH READING WRITING

teaching, teaching methods, students, testing, tests, learning, teaching strategies

Give your kids an early start with developing number sense with dot cards. There are so many number sense activities you can do with this simple set of visuals!

Since the very beginning of my daughter’s educational career, it was clear that she was going to need extra supports in order for her to reach her full potential. Since...

Because taking care of your classroom community is a job for everyone!

No doubt you will have 101 questions that you want to ask When Choosing A School. I'm hoping that these will help in your journey to choosing a school.

Control Your Future by controlling your GPA💯🥇👇 ➡️ https://t.co/lQVkJZzSyS #WednesdayMotivation #speedwrite #Developers #python #javascript #java #100daysofcode #pixelart best #essay #writing #service

Try these fun brain break ideas to help active kids stay focused and learn at their best like yoga, Go Noodle, and printable cards.

I wanted to share with you all what I have been doing in my classroom to manage my students' behavior lately. My students have a serious case of "spring

In this post are ideas for teaching algebraic functions, including activities, a study that I tell students to help function vs. not a function stick, a math word wall and an awesome introductory activity to introduce nonlinear functions.

A blog post of tips for incorporating movement in the classroom.

Since I typically leave my three bulletin boards up for the entire year, I decided to use PowerPoint to create my letters. See the steps below and

My daughter loves when we have storytime at our house. Every day we can easy read for 15-30 minutes. Visits to our local library is always exciting because of the idea of finding new books to enjoy. There has been one book that is not new to most, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. Although I've heard great reviews about this book I never made the decision to borrow it. I have found another fun way to find books and that is at yard sales! When I see a bin of books I'm all over it! Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs was one I recently found and grabbed it for .25 cents!! After the first read my daughter was hooked! She smiled and laughed and thoroughly enjoyed the story. She loves how it rains and snows food! Each night before bed my daughter chooses a book which is alot more fun and easier now that we have our rain gutter book shelf. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs was a favorite for at least a week straight! To help my daughter with reading comprehension I made up this activity, here's what I used and how we played: Giant Post it Notes (these are awesome!) Permanent Marker Brown paper bags Prizes for bag This was such an easy set up. I had a list of questions I asked my daughter about the story and wrote 2 choices to each question onto the Post It Notes. After I read the question my daughter had to choose which was the correct answer by jumping on it. At the end of each path I taped a brown paper bag, if she chose the right path she would receive some goodies I hid in the bag. If she chose the wrong path the bag would be empty. She chose the correct answers so she got the prizes on the first try - had she not we would have just kept playing until she got it right! This was a really fun activity that helped my daughter with her reading comprehension and got her moving at the same time.....and a little prize at the end never hurts!!

Techniques for getting everyone to the finish line.

The transition from elementary school to middle school gives the phrase a whole new world a different type of feeling (anxiety, night sweats, and nausea...and that’s the parents).

These Superhero-themed movement cards are the perfect way to help get your kids up and moving! This set includes 24 different movements allowing your students to get active and regain focus when you feel that a break is needed after long periods of learning! These cards works great in classrooms of all ages and can be used year after year. Included in this set: - 24 different movement cards (6 total pages) Cards set to print on 8.5"x 11" and print 4 cards per page. Attach to a key ring, Popsicle sticks, or draw cards from a bucket! Do one movement- or do them all! I recommend printing on cardstock and laminating for increased durability. If you have any questions regarding this product, please do not hesitate to ask. Enjoy! Please remember to rate this product and leave feedback. Thank you!

As we begin our TRANSPORTATION theme this week, beginning with TRAINS, the preschoolers have completed their train pre-writing worksheets during free-choice play. While I'm not a big fan of "worksheets," they love these pre-writing activities which are basically just coloring sheets on which I encourage them to try to trace on the line and color within the lines. Those that can, will usually choose to work on that skill. Those that can't, at least begin to understand the concept and can chew on it until they are ready and willing to execute it. Set of four, train, boat, airplane, and car. I will have additional freebies over the next three weeks of this theme. Tags: art, writing, child, Transportation, care, Car, Theme, kindergarten, Airplane, boat, preschool, Train, daycare, worksheet, coloring, unit, childcare, coloring book, prewriting, fine motor, printable, free, kid, kids

Exponent Properties Activity Bundle: Here is a great way to add fun and engagement while your students practice their exponent properties! This bundle consists of 4 great activities at a great discount! They include: Road Block Game: Simplify problems to gain board pieces and block your opponents from gaining territory! Exponents Scavenger Hunt: A great self-checking way to get students up and moving around the room! Partner Perfection: Differentiated partner worksheet! This allows you to really focus on students who need more help since partners can self-check. Also works well as homework. There are two levels that can be used interchangeably to differentiate as needed. 2 Truths and a Lie Task Cards: 24 cards where students are asked to determine which answer is INCORRECT. Change up students thinking! Also self-checking!