We all know and love Kahoot, right? If you do not know about Kahoot then we have a few blog posts with tips and ideas to get you up to sp...
All about how to assess the BC core competencies in your primary classroom. You can use kid-friendly language and cute pictures to help your students understand what the BC core competencies are and be able to complete self-assessments. What are the BC Core Competencies Were you thrown off a
Sticker Stories are a fun way to get kids excited about writing! They are not only a great tool for the classroom, but also for at home, motivating your own children to practice their writing skills. How Sticker Stories are done: The Child….. 1. Chooses ONE sticker and places it anywhere in the picture box […]
Blog post about fun, low-prep STEM playdough activities with a fun freebie!
Teaching area is engaging and authentic with this hands-on applied math activity! Students arrange furniture to find the area and perimeter of their house.
All about how to assess the BC core competencies in your primary classroom. You can use kid-friendly language and cute pictures to help your students understand what the BC core competencies are and be able to complete self-assessments. What are the BC Core Competencies Were you thrown off a
“La politesse” is such an important component to our classroom environment. It is so important to spend time with students throughout the year working on appropriate behaviours and learning to be polite in French. Here are some ideas to introduce your French Immersion students to vocabulary around politeness using two French texts and fun visual […]
These Foundation history activities are fun and engaging for younger children. Learn about the past and present through creating, making and play.
A blog post sharing information about why Contraction Surgery is a success in classrooms! Hands-on information is shared. #ContractionSurgery
In this post, I'll talk about why teaching schema is important, give some ideas and tips for teaching about schema to your young readers, and discuss when we
Kids love music! I try to find ways to incorporate it throughout our school day. It is such an amazing learning tool. My Songs for the Year
Teaching area is engaging and authentic with this hands-on applied math activity! Students arrange furniture to find the area and perimeter of their house.
Academic Ways to Use the MaKey-MaKey in the Elementary Classroom: Fun ways to advance coding in the classroom!
One of the final things we study in 4th grade math is Geometry. By this point in the year, students brains are tired, folks. It’s about that time when we begin prepping students for the lovely end of the year tests, and we are all just.. well… TIRED. But hey.. the show must go on, […]
Hi friends! We just wrapped up one of my favorite units…2D shapes! I LOVE this unit because it’s an nice break from the addition and subtraction we do the other […]
Johnny Appleseed Day Some links may be affiliate links. I may make a small commission from the above at no cost to you and I only share things I love. Hey there! Today I am sharing my favorite Johnny Appleseed Day activities for your kindergarteners! I just love Johnny Appleseed Day! Something about apples
Do you Kahoot? My kids LOVE it and their faces light up every Thursday morning when I get the iPads out and they realize we are playing Kahoot! First of all - you might be asking "what is Kahoot?" Kahoot is a game-based learning platform that allows you to quiz your students on a variety of concepts. This is a great platform to review a concept before a test or quiz. We use this as a type of practice spelling test on Thursday before our actual spelling test on Friday. How does it work? First, you'll need to set up an account at www.getkahoot.com. Setting up a quiz is easy and Kahoot will even walk you through the set up. You can find quizzes made by other teachers or you can create your own. You input your questions and then up to 4 choices for answers. At least one must be marked correct, as this is how student accuracy and points is determined. After you set up your questions and answers, you save, and then your ready to play. How do I utilize Kahoot for spelling? I utilize Kahoot! for spelling by making my students become very careful word detectives as they read the 4 choices of a word spelling and have to determine which one is correct. I have created quizzes for almost all of our spelling units that align with our spelling curriculum. Some weeks we will have multiple spelling patterns that make the same sound but use different letters (such as air and are in the images below), so students have to determine which pattern is the one for that word. When it's time to play you will login into your Kahoot! account, select the game you want to play, and choose the way you want to play. We play Classic, since I am 1:1. If you want students to play in groups, you can also choose that option. Students will then see this screen projected that will have their game pin. Students will input this code to join your game. That will keep others from all over the word joining the game you are playing. As students login on their devices they will choose a username. I usually make students put their first name only, but if they choose to do a silly name - I can delete them and make them log in again. They will have a confirmation screen on their device that says they are logged in and their name will display on the board. What students see on their device when they log in: Once everyone is logged in it's time to begin! Because I tell the students the word that they are choosing the spelling for, all of my questions are the same "How do you spell...?" After the question is displayed, the time begins to choose the answer. Students will see this screen on their device for EVERY question. But - the words will be different on the board! For Question #1, students are deciding the correct spelling of the word "square". I do sometimes get a little funny with my misspelled spellings and the kids enjoy it! I sometimes try to channel my inner 2nd grader and think of some of the misspelled sounds that they make in addition to including our different weekly spelling patterns. You can also trick them by making two answer choices correct! I don't have one pictured, but sometimes I get so stumped on funky ways to spell the spelling word that I just make 2 choices correct and spell the word correctly for 2 answers. Because I have selected both of these choices to be correct, any students that choose either of these get it correct. You can change the amount of time that students have to answer the question. I have mine set to 30 seconds and most times all answers are in within 10-15 seconds. Once every has answers, Kahoot! will automatically show the correct answer and how many students got the answer correct. Woohoo! I got it right! haha In class though - we do celebrate it everyone gets one right! At the top right, you see the "Next" button. By clicking that, you'll be taken to the scoreboard screen. Students get answers for getting the correct answer as well as how quickly they answer (you can turn that off though). My students LOVE competing against each other and themselves to up their score and get on the leaderboard. We go through all of our spelling words in the same fashion. I usually do between 10-12 words depending on the list, which sometimes leaves us time to play GHOSTMODE! After you have played one round of a Kahoot! game, you'll have the option to play Ghostmode. The order of the questions will be the same, but you'll have twice as many players because each player has a ghost. So my 22 players in my first round would become 44 players during Ghostmode. In Ghostmode, students are competing against their ghost, as well as their peers to get on the leaderboard. We have figured out that the ghosts are their score from the first game, so we make it a class goal to improve our score and keep those ghosts off the leaderboard. Be warned - this is not a quiet game! I do try to make my kids keep their excitement and agony (when they realize they picked a word to quick and chose the wrong one) to indoor voices - but it doesn't always work. But, I can guarantee that your kids will LOVE this game and don't even get upset that they are practicing spelling words (or whatever other subject you choose!). Do you Kahoot?
Looking for a some fun ways to create flow from welcome, to lesson to activity, to closing in your music classroom? Creating a classroom environment of respect and accountability requires procedures, plans, rewards and consequences in your classroom. One way to keep everything flowing is to use transitions. This blog post has a ton of ideas for music class transitions.
What is explicit teaching and how to do you use this teaching method in the classroom so that it is an effective method? Check out this blog post where I walk you through everything you need to know to help you make explicit teaching successful in your classroom!
Do you know how to teach skip counting by 2’s, 5’s and 10’s? Learn how to introduce and reinforce skip counting with these fun skip counting activities.
Classroom movie day ideas and activities that are both fun and educational with FREE printable movie day resource to keep students engaged and still learning even after the movie is over! Ideal for end of the year theme days or any time teachers show a movie.
Shared writing is an important part of writing instruction in primary classrooms! Use this time to model correct writing and how to think like a writer! Encourage your students to share in the writing process as you are the scribe!
Books, activities and lesson plans for teaching primary grade students about protective behaviors and sexual abuse disclosure - Erin's Law
Are you teaching children about Canada and its symbols? This post includes arts and craft activities, lesson suggestions and ideas, and a FREE printable Canadian resource for primary teachers.
The London Activity Book illustrated by Esther Coombs is packed full of creative activities for kids, from colouring to drawing and designing. It also has lots of fun London facts, and puzzles for children to complete
As a first grade teacher, we spend A LOT of time working on retelling skills. With lots of practice and constant retelling instruction throughout the year, I
Parents and Teachers Educational Resources for Preschool to Elementary
Have you ever thought of giving an interactive notebook a try in your primary classroom, but the thought seems too overwhelming? Do you have an interactive notebook resource, but are not sure
Teaching dependent and independent clauses in upper elementary does not have to be as tricky or difficult as you think.
This activity was our first one since COVID-19. I was able to do one in February, my first one in this ward. Working carefully with the Relief Society & the Bishopbric we got permission to do a…
6 Simple and effective ways you can give students feedback that actually make a difference. Monitory tasks and summative assessment for primary school teachers. #foundationintofirst #feedback #students #earlyyears #primary
Some of our students need movement to help them learn! Speech therapy and in particular, minimal pairs, can become boring... so inject movement activities!
Join my Smorgasbord Linky group! I realized that as a teacher I tend to do these random posts on Sunday, so follow along with me.
