Analyzing character traits is a key fiction reading skill that is needed for successful comprehension. In most cases, authors do not just come out and tell readers the traits that a character possesses. By teaching
Looking for the right picture book to teach inferences? Check out my list of making inference mentor texts for the elementary classroom!
We all know the importance of reading stories in the the classroom. They can build background knowledge on a topic being discussed. It is a great way to increase vocabulary. Students get excited about learning. Plus, you can increase students reading and listening comprehension. I want to challenge you to go beyond they everyday read ... Read More about Interactive Read Aloud
Are your students having trouble identifying theme within a story? This step-by-step process scaffolds through several reading comprehension skills to help students get a thorough understanding of theme. Students will be able to determine the theme of a story, poem, or drama from details in the text by first
If you are looking for some high-interest activities, try using animated shorts to teach inference. Free handouts focus on student learning.
Switch up Taco Tuesday with oil-free, crunchy vegan taquitos. With various filling choices, tortilla choices, and even two cooking options, this vegan taquito recipe is fabulous, especially for the kids.
When I start the new school year, I pick a book of the day for the first two weeks. I create a variety of activities to go with each book. I use a lot of books that focus on social and emotional learning, including kindness, friendship, and respect. But, I also add in some fun ... Read More about 8 Books for Back to School
Do you use visuals in your classroom? Visuals support students understand what you are trying to teach them. They encourage students to associate pieces of information with visuals. Visual learning helps you to store information for a longer period of time. It is said that videos and images are directly processed by long term memory. The visual ... Read More about Classroom Visuals
Each classroom brings students of multiple learning styles and backgrounds. It is our job to provide opportunities that reach all of the many different learning styles that come to us. For this reason, it is
This spring is presenting new challenges for teachers all across the country. Some of us are getting ready to go back to the classroom for the first time this year. Some of us have been in person all year, but we are about to get new virtual kids. Some of you have been in the ... Read More about Classroom Management and Expectations
This spring is presenting new challenges for teachers all across the country. Some of us are getting ready to go back to the classroom for the first time this year. Some of us have been in person all year, but we are about to get new virtual kids. Some of you have been in the ... Read More about Classroom Management and Expectations
Our new reading series at school uses a lot of photo cards. We use them to introduce our new vocabulary words and to retell our stories.
Supercharge your morning work with I Heart Literacy! Each page features a fun theme so your students will not only be practicing reading and ELA skills, but will also be learning about a curriculum-based topic. A wide variety of Common Core skills are addressed. Try these five free pages for free! Happy Teaching! Rachel Lynette ... Read More about Morning Work ELA and Reading Freebie!
New retelling activities, retelling ideas, and retelling lesson plans are always something I am searching for. Retelling is a skill many of my students
Book clubs in first grade?! It may seem like a stretch, but the Spring is such a great time to get your students ready and used to reading, thinking about, and discussing books with their peers instead of me, the teacher! When done right, it can be such a fun learning experience for both […]
Teaching theme in fourth grade is not easy, but it is very rewarding to see the students' little light bulbs come on! In my experience, students need many
Eclectic and diverse 8th grade reading list. 12-14 year olds will love this collection of realism, fantasy books, historical fiction novels and even poetry.
When I start the new school year, I pick a book of the day for the first two weeks. I create a variety of activities to go with each book. I use a lot of books that focus on social and emotional learning, including kindness, friendship, and respect. But, I also add in some fun ... Read More about 8 Books for Back to School
So it’s about that time for a lot of you out there. You know, Back to School Time! I have a little less than a month before I need to report for duty, but come August my brain pretty much switches from Summer Brain over to Teacher Brain. One of the things I love about going back to school is that it’s my opportunity to try out new ideas, to change up the decorations or furniture placement in my room, and to become a better version of my teacher self. I have last years mistakes and successes under my belt. I know what works, what really, really works, and what I won’t do again. Heading into my 6th year of teaching {{gasp}} I’m starting to finally feel like I know a few things :) I decided to round up some pins and products that I am really excited to put to use come September. Hopefully you will find some new ideas too. And if you’ve already tried an activity, tip, or product, I’d love to hear what you think about it! All the pictures are linked to the original source so you can read up on what makes them so fabulous! There are so many cute ideas listed here. It’s an especially awesome pin if you are also a parent with kids heading back to school. I especially love this adorable binder from Thirty Handmade Days… I’m loving the idea of individual trash cans so my kiddos aren’t up and down every time we make a craft or do a project. The ones pictured are from the adorable Michelle over at Fabulous in First. Speaking of Michelle… I am really excited to use her “Second Grade Helper” this year. This is going to be such a great resource for my kiddos to have in their desks. I can already hear the words, “Use your Helper.” Love it! {The link to this one is not a link to the specific post. I couldn’t find it on there! I’m also Tumblr-Illiterate so that might be part of the problem} I’m on a never-ending quest to be more organized and I love this idea. It lays it all out there for ya! When I make a big long list the important stuff sometimes gets lost in the shuffle. I might have to make a cutisfied version of this one but I love the inspiration! Speaking of being organized I am so loving this awesome InFORMation Kit by none other than the awesome, amazing Kelley Dolling. She’s seriously thought of everything, made it cute, and even better…editable. I wish I thought of it myself. This is a MUST DO for me. I love the “More Time” Bin. Instead of papers getting hidden in classwork folders, students put unfinished papers in the basket. They can go back to the basket whenever they have extra time AND I always know who is still working on what. Genius! I don’t have a classroom bathroom anymore, but I’m going to put these in the hallway bathrooms. They’re cute and they get the point across…don’t you just love when that happens?! I love, love, love all of these Parent Resources for Back to School. Consider them printed and prepared for the first day of school and/or Open House. They’re attention grabbing but have really important and relevant information and tips for parents. Creating a tightknit classroom community from day 1 is so important to me. I organize plenty of activities year after year that have worked wonderfully and I am excited about adding this one to the mix. I bought the frame to make this today and I can’t wait to have my kiddos sign it the first day. {The print is a FREEBIE by the way :)} This class list idea is oh-so-cute and perfect for a sub-binder or student teacher. Or those first few crazy days where you don’t even remember your own name, much less those 28 little people running around your room. Okay, so I kind, sorta, cheated with the second image because it’s a product of mine, but really, between Alisha’s totally awesome, super-fabulous “Savvy in Second Grade” pack and my “Back to School MEGA Book Pack” my lessons and activities for the first two weeks of school are completely covered. Alisha has compiled some of the cutest crafts and activities into this pack. I am seriously obsessed. Seriously. I’m lovin’ it. I am also a HUGE book lover and I want my kiddos to have the same love for reading that I do. I try to incorporate as many story-based lessons as I can {outside of our regular curriculum}. I start off right away with my Back to School MEGA Pack. It has tons of lessons to go with your favorite Back to School books including… *Stripes *Chrysanthemum *The Recess Queen *The Juicebox Bully *Hooway for Wodney Wat *Dear Teacher *How I Spent My Summer Vacation I’ll be back soon to show off a few of the activities! The above are only a few of my Back to School Pins. You can check out my Back to School Pinterest Board by clicking below. Don’t forget…my Favorite Things Linky is this Thursday! The category this week is Back to School Faves for the Kids. I’ll be back with even more Back to School goodies! There’s also still time to scoop up this fabulous BUNDLE from educents. There are so many great products included in this bundle by so many of my favorite 2nd and 3rd Grade bloggers. This is good stuff, people! Have a great night everyone! Halle
Writers Write is a resource for writers. In this post, we give you advice on how to write dialogue in five easy steps.
Writers Write is your one-stop writing resource. These lists will help you select the character traits you need for the characters in your books.
If you are looking for some high-interest activities, try using animated shorts to teach inference. Free handouts focus on student learning.
Every weekend, I make this Veggie Casserole featuring cauliflower and broccoli, and it never fails to impress. This dish is not only incredibly delicious but also packed with nutrients, making ... Read more
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Teaching point of view and perspective can be difficult, but with the perfect read aloud and activities, students get it.
Crossing the midline activities for kids. What on earth are those? Sometimes in the educational world we start speaking a slightly different language than 'normal' people. Not that teachers aren't normal ... though ... you do need to be a little insane to work with small children all day long, don't you? Anyways. I had
Ahoy Pirates! Transform your classroom with perfect resources- Pirate reading passages, an elementary breakout, a STEM Challenge, & nonfiction task cards!
Switch up Taco Tuesday with oil-free, crunchy vegan taquitos. With various filling choices, tortilla choices, and even two cooking options, this vegan taquito recipe is fabulous, especially for the kids.
I'm going to show you how to make a smart and fabulous pillow cover with a truly invisible zipper! Few things bring me more satisfaction than a well done invisible zipper. I see lots of tutorials for
An early lesson you want to teach your students is the difference in books that tell stories and books that give information. I have found that the best way to teach this is within context of different types of texts. Let's read more about some resources that I have used to teach the differences in the two types, as well as meet our pesky friend, the BOOK BANDIT! We begin the unit learning the text features of both types of texts by creating this anchor chart and using real text examples to discuss the differences between the two. I print the anchor chart from the pack as a poster, along with the two mini posters, for students to reference throughout the unit. I printed the sorting cards on cardstock and students helped me attach them to the anchor chart during our whole group discussion. They then completed their own sort below. This is great to glue into their reading journal for additional reference during the unit. I have lots of activities that I use included within the pack, but you don't have to use them in the order laid out in this blog post. ;) The activity below is one I like to always do with a new reading skill. My students become reading detectives during this cooperative group activity. Each group gets an envelope with the following recording sheets and a text, which might be a book or a passage, inside. They work with their group to decide if the book tells a story or gives information. They have to prove their thinking by providing three pieces of evidence from the text. After you do a few rotations of these throughout your unit, you can add it to a learning center for additional practice. Throughout the unit, I kept two bins of books labeled books that tell stories and books that give information. I referred to a few of them during the unit. But at the end of the unit, I threw them all over the classroom for students to walk in and find the next morning with a letter from the Book Bandit! He had came in and made a mess of our sorted books, so it was the students' challenge to sort them back into their proper bins. They had to provide three pieces of evidence from the text to prove their thinking and they attached it to a craft of the Book Bandit that they had made. This was such an engaging activity and a great assessment! I have included lots of other resources in the pack to use during your lessons. Throughout the unit, students pretended to be detectives, so they wore these little badges! We used these interactive notebook pieces for different texts. If you have Scholastic flyers, you can have students sort them in these flapbooks. This is another great quick assessment! We always finish our lessons with an exit ticket for me to quickly assess their understanding of the different features of these two types of texts. After completing a unit, I love to give my students new bookmarks for them to use during independent reading just to remind them of the previous skill taught so that they can independently apply those skills during reading. Click any of the pics in the blogpost to check this resource out! As always, happy teaching and happy reading!
Have you ever had a class that just tried your patience day after day? Have you ever felt like you could walk away from teaching forever tom...
It's been almost 7 years now since I was diagnosed with my first autoimmune disease and a few years since a second one was identified and added to the list. I've spent countless hours researching and experimenting with different things, as well as working with doctors and naturopaths, in order to fight for my quality
