Use low-prep writing crafts to get students excited about writing and showcase everything they have learned.
Read a few ideas for civics and government activities. There are free lessons and activities as well as other fun hands-on, engaging ideas.
Do you teach your first and second-grade students to learn how to write a paragraph? In this post, I share ideas, lessons, and activities for students to learn how to write their own paragraphs in a structured way. Before I dive in, I wanted to let you know you can watch or listen to all […]
FREEZE is the math movement game of every elementary teacher’s dreams! It combines academics, social skills, movement, AND fun into one amazing activity.
Do first and second grade students need to learn the writing process? Yes! It’s important for kids to learn, from an early age, that writing is not a “one and done” activity. Understanding that there are steps in the writing process helps kids learn to take their time and make improvements to their writing. Of course, getting first graders or second graders to understand and use the steps in the writing process is easier said than done! In this post, I’ll share how you can make the writing process easier for your young writers. Choosing an Idea Before kids begin to write, they need to choose an idea! Sometimes, you might give them something specific to write about ( a writing prompt), and sometimes you might let them have free choice or guided choice in what they write about. Choosing an idea is step one, but this alone can be difficult for some kids! As a support, you might guide them with a writing prompt like, “Write a story about a great day at school when you had a lot of fun.” For even more support, you might give them some “starter ideas” as you can see in the graphic organizer below. I don’t always offer this much help, but if kids are struggling to get going on their own, this scaffold is very effective. Planning After students have an idea, should they begin writing? Not yet! It’s helpful for all writers to have a plan. Graphic organizers are a great way for students to draw and/or write their thoughts. Coming back to the “a great day at school” narrative writing prompt example, students draw a picture about what happened first, next, and last. I also included a place where they would check off a “feeling word.” Many standards require students to include feeling words in their narratives. Having students write how they felt is also a great way to help them provide a sense of closure / write a conclusion for their personal narratives. Drafting By now, students will have chosen an idea and created a plan for their writing. Now, it’s time for them to write a draft! You will need to model all stages in the writing process, but this stage is especially important to model. You need to show students how to take their plan and turn it into sentences, with as much detail as possible. It’s also helpful to have students talk to a partner to think through how they will turn their draft into a piece of writing. Revising Revising is so hard for first and second graders! Revising means making significant changes to a piece of writing, like rearranging parts, adding more, or removing parts. I model this process repeatedly throughout the year. I choose a specific revising strategy for each revising minilesson. For example, “Today I’m going to show you how to revise by adding more details about where your story took place” or “Today I’ll show you how to revise by cutting out parts that aren’t helpful for the reader.” Editing Editing is also tricky, because all writers (including adult writers) tend to become “blind” to their own mistakes! The best way that I’ve found to get first grade students and second grade students to edit is to implement partner editing. Their partner can look at their work with “fresh eyes.” They can check that their partner has written in complete sentences, used correct punctuation and capitalization, and spelled words correctly. Of course, I model and teach mini-lessons on editing, just like I do every other stage in the writing process! I also provide individual support to students to help them edit as part of our writer’s workshop. Using Structured Graphic Organizers to Teach the Writing Process My Structured Graphic organizers for K-2 are a great tool for supporting students through every stage of the writing process! The example I showed you is for personal narrative writing. The set also includes prompts for having students complete informative writing / informational writing, as well as opinion writing. Multiple writing prompts for each genre are included. Here are a few examples: You can grab my Structured Graphic Organizers for K-2 here! They’re great for teaching the writing process to all students, and they’re especially helpful for reluctant writers or students who have special needs. Save These Activities for Teaching the Writing Process! If you’d like to come back to this post later, save it to your Pinterest account for the future! Happy teaching!
I love using interactive lapbooks in the classroom. They are fun to create, engaging and can be used throughout the year to review skills taught. I finally completely my Lapbook Bundle and I am happy to share the lapbooks included with you. Whether you think your learners will enjoy creating all of the lapbooks, if you
A few years ago I attended a conference on Math Workshop. I really wasn’t convinced that it could work in a first grade classroom. We just have too many new concept to teach them, I thought. …
Engage your class in an exciting hands-on experience learning all about science! K-2 Endless Science Mega Bundle is perfect for science in Preschool, Pre-K, Kindergarten, First Grade, and Second Grade classrooms and is packed full
I have to admit. I love the classroom transformations that we've done this year so far. When my students walk into the classroom, their eyes light up! We had so much fun learning about the elements of fairy tales and it made it even more fun with a fairy tale classroom transformation! Transform Your Room!
GRAMMAR UNIT 7: CONTRACTIONS It is time to teach contractions ! My students have come so far with their grammar skills in units 1-6. Our language has improved so much as we have been learning about nouns , adjectives , verbs , adverbs , capitalization , and punctuation .
Create a solid math foundation with these tips for teaching place value in 1st grade. Use these ideas to avoid place value mistakes!
Helping K-2 Teachers Like You Save Time, Grow Instructional Skills, and Teach With Confidence!
Grab this FREE phonics assessment so you can find out exactly what phonics skills your students need to learn!
Setting up a fact fluency program in a classroom can be daunting- where do I store it all? How do I keep track? How do I determine if students are successful? What do I do if they aren't making progress? I have set up and run a fact fluency program in my classroom for a few years now, and while I was overwhelmed at first, I found that it's not as hard as you think to help students become fluent in math! It just takes 4 simple steps to get your fact fluency program up and running. Get Organized: I find that everything goes so much more smoothly if I am organized before I begin anything, and that's especially important when running a fact fluency program. Having assessments ready, keeping track of student data... it can be really overwhelming. I personally use a two part system for keeping myself organized, and I find that it really works. First, I printed out all of the testing originals for both addition and subtraction. I like having the originals all in one place because then I don't have to find the file on my computer, print out the page I need, run down to the copy room to make copies... I just grab my binder when I need more copies and take it to the copy room, make all the copies I need, and put the originals back in the sleeve when I'm finished! I hate trying to find things on my slow computer, so this works for me. I used to keep the student assessments in the binder as well, but I found that having all those extra pages in there was a little less organized than I would like it to be. So I decided to use hanging file folders in a crate to organize assessments. And since I really love it when things are color coded, particularly in color order, I created tabs that matched the color of each level. Inside the files for each level are the different assessments, the flash cards for that level, and copies of the reward certificate ready to go. When a student passes a level, I can easily grab the next set of flash cards and the reward certificate, staple them to their completed assessment, and send it home! It is also really easy to see how many more copies I may need of a particular assessment, and it's easy to slide them down in there once I've copied them. It is also important for you to determine what fluency looks like in your classroom. How long do they have to complete the assessment? Do they need to get them all correct? How many problems do they need to do- 25 or 15? 3 seconds per problem is considered "fluency" based on what I've heard. I give my students the 25 problem sheet. If a student does not complete 2-3 problems but gets the rest correct, I usually consider that "fluent" since it's above 80% mastery and let them move on. However, if the student is making computation mistakes, I don't. Of course, you will have to choose what works in your classroom! Practice, practice, practice! An important part of fact fluency is giving your students time to practice! I always begin our program with a letter to parents letting them know that we are going to be using the program this year. Attached to the letter is a copy of the 0s facts for them to practice with their child. I usually give them a few days or so to practice their facts at home and in the classroom before we do the first assessment. In the classroom, I like to integrate our fact fluency practice into our Fast Finisher activities, as well as math centers when appropriate. Several of our Fast Finisher activities involve some sort of fact practice. Flash cards: We began with the option of flash cards first- they are easy and since mine are color coded, the kids could just grab the color that matches the level they are working on. Fact Fluency Flip Books: A second option for my students are Fact Fluency Flip books. These are little books that students can grab and work on. Each book contains 8 pages with 11 different activities for practicing facts. For example, there is a page of number bonds, a page of number lines, etc... These are probably best for saving to use after you've taught addition strategies. I have 4 different books for each level, so students can grab a different book each time they use one. Games: I use lots of addition and subtraction games with my students that help to build fluency. Most of these games are simple as well! Games like Bump or Roll and Cover give students fluency practice while making it fun. War is another fun game, where students choose two cards, add the numbers together, and decide who has the higher sum. Other games where students are practicing adding together or subtracting two numbers are perfect for increasing fluency and providing students with practice! Boom Cards: My students LOVE Boom Cards, and if you haven't checked them out, you should! There are a ton of both free and paid options available both on the Boom website and Teachers Pay Teachers. Hot Dots: Hot Dots are something my students love to use. Power Pens are another similar option and the pens can be used interchangeably with the different card sets. I got mine through Donors Choose, so if this is something your school allows, it's definitely an engaging option to check out! There are addition and subtraction and Power Pens addition and subtraction sets that you can purchase. There are also Power Pen stickers that you can purchase to create your own. I find that having lots of choices increases student engagement and keeps them from getting bored using just one method to practice their facts. If they're tired of Boom Cards, they can use Hot Dots that day. Track Progress Of course, tracking your students progress is important to continuing to increase fluency! There are so many ways to track student progress. You can do a whole class board where students move their name to the level they are on, or write their name on each level once they've passed it. Or you can choose to make it a bit more private. Or you can choose not to track at all! In my Growing Fact Fluency pack, I've included tracking sheets for the teacher to use, as well as fun tracking sheets that the students can use to track their own progress. I also have included sticker charts, reward tags, and certificates to both track and celebrate student progress! Tracking also helps alert you to any difficulties a student may be having. When I realized that two of my students were really struggling with making it past their 1s facts, I knew that I needed to work with them and give them more opportunities to increase their fluency. I downloaded Boom Card games that just practiced adding one. One student was not actually adding one and did not understand the concept, so I taught a small group lesson on how adding one is just counting up one more. I have also included options for differentiating, so struggling students can be given the page with only 15 problems while everybody else has 25. By keeping track of their progress, I was able to identify those difficulties and work on those particular skills. Reap the Rewards I am not usually one for extrinsic rewards, and generally my Fact Fluency program operates in that same manner. For most students, knowing they've passed that level and are moving on to the next level is enough for them to be motivated. That being said, I do think it's very important to acknowledge their progress. I send home a certificate with the students once they've passed a level. If possible, I send it home that day. Attached to that certificate is the next set of fluency flashcards to begin working on. I also move their clip to the next level on our bulletin board so they can see their progress. They also get to move to the next set of Fact Fluency Flip Books, which they seem to find exciting. You can choose to do any sort of rewards you want to do with this program, and that's one thing I love about it. I've used this program different ways with different classes. I have options for different ways to track and reward, including sticker charts and reward tags, along with the certificates. Also, you can take the pressure off your students and not worry about levels, or tracking, or time, and just have fun with learning facts! Play the games, randomly use the fact fluency assessments for fun, or don't. All that matters is that your students become more fluent with their math facts and use them to become better and faster at math in general. How you choose to approach that is up to you and what works best for your students.
One of the important concepts we teach in early elementary is about the great big world we live in. Students will learn about the world beyo...
Classroom teachers have a ton of daily tasks to guarantee that students are engaged and learning. It's a tough job, and a stressful one, too. Teachers wear out easily if their classrooms aren't well managed. Creating a classroom that runs itself while you teach in smaller groups is the best way to keep students engaged.
habitat science unit for first grade, second grade, or third grade
Learn how to use these quality books for questioning that will help you teach students how to ask thoughtful questions before, during, and after reading.
This Royal Classroom Transformation is a great activity for students to practice math skills while pretending to be royals for the day.
Make your writing mini-lessons for the year successful! Follow a writer’s workshop lesson from beginning to end. Monthly writing lessons for Kindergarten, first grade, and second grade.
Last year, I taught how to make inferences for quite some time. With such an emphasis on close reading, I wanted my students to read between the lines, to dig deeper, and to find out the answer to the question, “what is the author really trying to say?!” I spent a lot of time […]
Inspire your second writers with this list of journal ideas and 2nd grade writing prompts shared by one of our Journal Buddies readers!
Need some graphic organizers for students K-3rd grade? Grab my free writing rraphic organizers to help students get started writing!
Is it too soon to be talking about ‘Back to School ideas’ already?
Science journal activities for budding scientists. Have your students keep a standards-based science journal like a true scientist.
Free second grade morning work, first grade morning work, counting money worksheets, and grammar worksheets for 2nd grade.
Preschool and Kindergarten Writing Lessons This 10-part series from This Reading Mama and me took place in the spring of 2014. This series will help you understand how to teach writing to young children, from
Hello and welcome to the WEIRDEST SCHOOL YEAR OF YOUR CAREER. While last year ended with quite an unexpected twist, not something anyone could have predicted,
Number fact fluency is important to develop in first and second grade. Without automatic recall it's hard to move on to more complex skills.
Are you looking for Writing lesson or bulletin board ideas? These no prep writing crafts are ideal for your literacy lessons!
Kids love to be helpers, so give them some amazing classroom jobs for students that will build responsibility and make your life in the classroom easier.
Meeting standards with science and social studies themes and standards alignment. Interactive activities for kinder, first, and second grade.
An important way to build relationships in your classroom is with a morning meeting. One of the components of morning meeting is a “game.” As a Spanish immersion teacher, I am always looking for easy, quick games that can be used during this portion of the day. I often use equity sticks and let the ... Read More about 12 Morning Meeting Games in Spanish
One of the BEST things about being a teacher is ALL. THE. SEASONAL. ACTIVITIES! I used to spend hours researching and putting together seasonal activities that would get my students excited and engaged, while enriching and differentiating for all ability levels. When I came across this fall read aloud, I could NOT pass it up!The Leaf Thief is an ADORABLE book to use for all ability levels. From talking about changes that happen in fall, to dissecting the text with rich reading comprehension skil
Do you use Whole Brain teaching as a classroom management approach with your students? Use these active, fun classroom rules! Head here for FREE printable posters!
A blog post sharing information about why Contraction Surgery is a success in classrooms! Hands-on information is shared. #ContractionSurgery
Ideas for teaching addition strategies in 1st grade to set students up for fact fluency success! Plus get 5 tips for making fact fluency fun!
