Build social responsibility and encourage good behavior by creating a classroom contract. Helpful anchor chart idea and FREE printable included!
Roberta Bell is a very special woman.
Looking for words of encouragement to use with your kids? Use these positive phrases to build them up and ignite their inner confidence!
This ultra crispy air fryer tofu is super flavorful and cooked through in just 13 minutes! Popular with kids and adults and an easy vegan recipe.
If you have no idea what to put into an onigiri, you can find the answer in this recipe! You will get the 16 Best Onigiri Fillings ideas you want to try!
Welcome to Amsterdam! Filled with beautiful, winding canals and plenty of famous buildings people come in droves to visit the city's famous museums, get lost in its maze of streets, or simply stroll along one of its many bridges. It's also richly steeped in Dutch culture and history. But if you're a first-time visitor, there
Hungry but don't have time to cook?! These spicy peanut butter noodles are just for you. They're vegan, gluten free, easy to whip up, ready in just about 20 minutes and packed with delicious peanut flavor.
Time to push the limits, leave your comfort bubble and face new adventures in life? This 30-day comfort zone challenge will inspire you.
Teach children about emotions with activities to identify, express, and manage their feelings appropriately in school with these tips!
From spicy stews to stir fries, soups & grills, here's 15 mouthwatering recipes to use up that little tub of gochujang (Korean fermented spice paste).
Looking to spend 3 Days in Vancouver? Our Vancouver itinerary includes where to stay, what to eat, the best things to do in Vancouver!
This is the BEST vegan Pad Thai recipe! It's incredibly easy to make, ready in just 30 minutes and naturally gluten free. This recipe is full of flavor and features an easy tofu scramble.
Take heed. 20 common mistakes that first time visitors (always) make when planning a trip to Ireland. Avoid looking like a typical tourist - It's a Drama!
Warm, soft, and rich, nothing beats a piece of this homemade naan bread recipe alongside your favorite rich curry.
It seems like every day there is an endless stream of students reporting behaviors or incidents that happen in the classroom. On one hand, we want to help our students feel heard and validated so they know we are a safe person for them to talk to. On the other hand, we certainly don't want to feed into the tattle machine. It's a fine line to walk. So how do we handle tattling in our classrooms?
It's that time of year again... We've got just a few short weeks left with our kiddos. Let's be honest though, we're all tired. More like exhausted. Summer
This chicken curry noodle soup is a take on the Northern Thai Soup: Khao Soi. Tender chicken in a spicy coconut broth with egg noodles with a variety of toppings.
There are many reasons you might want to start using flexible seating in your room. They could range from giving your students more choice to letting your students move more throughout the day. You may have read the research and decided it's something you were ready to try.
When I was a brand new teacher, I thought the quality of my teaching was ultimately tied to the quality of my resources, so I spent hours searching for great materials. I believed that if I had quality resources, ones that my students enjoyed and were engaged with, then that would make me a good teacher. Well, I still believe that having quality resources is extremely important, but over the years I've also come to realize that being a good teacher is SO much more than the tools in my toolbox. Everyday has a million moving parts that need our constant attention, focus, knowledge and skills of best practice. So even though I now believe that being a good teacher is more than the quality of my teaching materials, knowing that I have a good variety of kid tested and teacher approved resources at my fingertips allows me the time and energy to focus on other aspects of my teaching day. So today, as a follow-up to my original "favorite resources" post, I want to share with you MORE of my "go-to" resources that I consistently use in my classroom with my students! Build a Sentence I love this resource, and so do my students! This resource gets beginning and intermediate ELs speaking and writing! First, a photograph is posted. Then students generate a word bank by telling what they see in the picture. I ask for one word at a time. No matter the level of my ELs, everyone can come up with at least a word or two. I get additional details by asking about colors and quantities of items they see. Once our word bank is sufficient, they use those words to create varying lengths of sentences. They are asked to create a 3 word sentence, then a four word sentence, then a five word sentence, and so on. I'll ask, "Who thinks they can come up with a 4 word sentence?" My students all start thinking and counting on their fingers, then quickly a hand shoots up, then another. They love it! This activity is heavily scaffolded for beginners. Students orally create the word bank and sentences, but I write the words and sentences on the board using correct spelling and grammar. Then they copy. I am a big believer in modeling for beginners, and I model a LOT! This activity is a definite favorite among my students. They practice their oral language skills as well as their writing skills. I do this with my small groups at least once a month. Writing with English Learners I created this resource to prep my students for the writing portion of the annual language proficiency assessment. In Virginia, where I'm from, ESL students take the WIDA ACCESS each winter. Being that writing is the literacy skill that usually takes the longest to develop, I wanted to explicitly teach the skills students needed to be most successful on this assessment. In my lesson plans, I incorporate a listening, reading, speaking and writing focus each week. For the writing focus, I usually pull from these two resources. Whether I am teaching how to stretch out words, write a story, explain a process or analyze information, this resource allows me to choose the skills my particular groups need to work on. For my intermediate and advanced ELs in grades 3-6, I focus on "language formats" found in writing. Whether they are asked to describe, provide an opinion, analyze or compare and contrast, understanding and applying the language with that format is key. 5 Ws and H - A Writing Resource for Adding Details This resource is a new favorite! It teaches students to add meaningful details to their sentences. I often ask students to "tell me more." This writing activity gets them in the habit of giving more information in their sentences by adding thoughtful details. This resource is designed for gradual release. The first set of activities can be done in a whole group setting. A photograph is projected and students are asked to answer the 5W & H questions about the picture. This information is then used to write two thoughtful sentences. As students become more proficient with adding details to their sentences, the next set of activities can be done in either a small group setting or as an independent activity. The last set of activities are writing prompts that students can independently respond to in their notebooks. Posters are included which add a great visual reference for a classroom display. Restate the Question This is a simple, yet effective, activity that teaches students to restate the question or prompt in their answers, both orally and in writing. As a writing activity, either project a prompt on the whiteboard and have students write their responses in their notebooks, or print out the question and have them glue it into their notebook. This takes modeling the first several times, but afterwards should be a quick independent activity. For a speaking activity, pull out a card and ask the question. Students take turns answering several of the questions. This works great in a small group setting. My students often ask if we can keep on "playing." VIDEOS! VIDEOS! VIDEOS! Incorporating videos into my lessons is a MUST! When I plan a new unit, one of the first things I do is to scour the internet looking for fun and meaningful videos. My go to place is YouTube. There are some real gems out there, but it does take some looking. When I find a goody, it goes into my collection and I use it again and again. Here is a blog post that I wrote about using short films to teach reading comprehension skills. I continue to add to the list as I find new films. Click on the image to see the list! Check out my Short Film Bundle here. Monthly Themed Vocabulary This is an great resource to use with primary learners and beginning ELs. Each month contains 20 vocabulary words. I love this because it's relevant to what's happening around students at the given time of year. Along with the terms, which I use as a monthly word wall, matching cards, writing activities, a vocabulary booklet and BINGO games are included. In closing... As I create my weekly lesson plans, these "tried and true" resources are many of the activities that my students use throughout the school year. Having a collection of reliable and engaging materials available frees up the time I'd otherwise spend searching. I'm sure you have your go-to resources too. Happy teaching!! (Affiliate Link)
You'll love this easy and healthy Bibimbap recipe, incredibly rich in flavors AND colors! Plus, you can mix and match ingredients to make endless variations!
35 hands-on spelling activities that get kids actively engaged with spelling words-thinking, making and creating. Perfect for literacy centers and homework.
Throw away all your other recipes for Thai peanut sauce, this is the only one you need. This vegan peanut sauce is easy to make, creamy and perfect for salads, as a dip, noodles & more!
Use excess sourdough starter discard to make the best, easiest homemade small batch sourdough pizza dough to make an airy and chewy sourdough pizza crust.
Okonomiyaki are Japanese savoury pancakes packed with flavour and SO easy to make! Ready in less than 30 minutes, these 'as you like it' pancakes are sure to be the new family favourite.
Have you ever thought about using wordless videos in your speech therapy lessons? It increases engagement! Start with these videos...
“You’re such an agoniser, Bradley. You romanticise art. You’re a masochist about it, you want to suffer, you want to feel that your inability to create is continuously significant.” ― Iris Murdoch, The Black Prince Roland Topor understood his surroundings because he wasn’t of them? When you’re a stranger, everything is strange. And … Continue reading "The Masochists – A 1960 Study In Extreme Pain"
This thick & delish pastry cream can be used to fill cakes, layered desserts, and tarts. Or simply served on its own with your favorite topping.
It's that time of year! Back to school time (even though I know some of my bloggy friends have been back for a couple of weeks now.) While you may be in a district that wants you to hit the academics hard core from the first day of school and cut out "fluff", there's nothing fluffy about a cohesive classroom. And you can forget good things happening academically when nobody can get along. Do you hear me administrators? I think it's a wise idea to spend some time helping your students learn to live together in a room that gives everybody about one square foot of personal space. So here's a little collection of some fabuloso ideas I found through the wonderful world of blogging. Here are some great ideas to get your new friends talking to each other, working together, and thinking about what a successful classroom looks like. 1. Talk about how to treat each other. Tales from a Tidy Teacher shares a lesson using Finding the Green Stone by Alice Walker. She gives each student a shiny green "stone". They plan how they will keep their stones shiny all year. I think this would be a great anchor lesson to refer to all year long. Here's a post from Mrs. Robinson's Classroom Blog. She has a different question each day to get kids thinking about their role in the classroom. Your actions are who you are. When things were getting cranky in my classroom last year, we worked on this activity. We planned out the words that we would want our principal to use when describing us. Then we planned out the actions that would get us there. 2. Talk about words and what they can do (for good and evil). I love love love this poster. It is from Sweet Blessings who also happens to be the genius behind Technology Rocks. Seriously. I had it printed as an 11x17 on glossy card stock ($1.50 at Office Max). I referred to it all year long the last couple of years. By the second month of school, all I had to do was say, "THINK before you speak" and they knew exactly what had gone wrong. Yes, Mrs. O Knows will convince you that toothpaste and toothpicks will teach kids everything they need to know about words. I tried so hard to find the original source for this one. Please leave a comment if you know where it came from. Cause it's awesome. 3. Have kids work together in a fun way. Who wouldn't want to save Fred? This is a great team work lesson from Fabulous Fourth Grade Froggies. This one's from Science Gal. Now tell me that doesn't look fun? And because the best way to learn that the world does not revolve around you, have your kids perform RACKS. Random Acts of Classroom Kindness. Here's an idea from 3rd Grade Thoughts. There are tons more great ideas out there on this, too. Have kids work in teams to plan out some RACKS for each the classroom, other students, and staff, too. And now for a little giggle: Hope you have a great school year!
Make your best take out right in your own kitchen! There are several theories on where the name for this dish came from, but it's not what you think - there's no alcohol used in preparing drunken noodles.
Homemade Mushroom Vol Au Vents made with puff pastry loaded with delicious creamy mushroom filling - perfect party appetiser recipe.
These are the BEST things to do in Athens. Explore the history, eat your way through the city, drink at rooftop bars, cook Greek food & more!
These spots showcase fairytale England at its best.
Somatic yoga, with its gentle yet effective exercises, offers a unique opportunity to connect with your body, mind, and soul. In this blog post, we're excited to share eight empowering somatic yoga exercises for beginners.
How do you stop students from blurting out in the classroom? Do you have some processes in place to curb blurting, but they're just not working for you
This is a fun game to play with a pair of dice. Read a story and help recall the various features of the story with this creative activity.
Get a taste of Scotland with these traditional Scottish recipes! From bubble and squeak to haggis to shortbread, these delicacies just might become your new favorites.
Throw away all your other recipes for Thai peanut sauce, this is the only one you need. This vegan peanut sauce is easy to make, creamy and perfect for salads, as a dip, noodles & more!
Make the softest glazed donuts and use your sourdough discard with this delicious sourdough discard donuts recipe! Make the same day, or rest the donuts overnight to prepare in the morning. Either way, you'll love the results!
In this post, I'm going to share how I differentiated word work during our Daily 5 time! Because my district uses Fundations on a daily basis for spelling
These five fun vocabulary word games that will have your students learning without even realizing it! A bunch of ideas of ESL students too!
20 love quotes that will inspire you to get up and find your true, undeniable soulmate.
If you want this delicate custard wrapped up by layers of thin, crunchy phyllo bathed in delicious, succulent syrup, you should make galaktoboureko, the famous Greek custard pie.
Florence and the Machine played sold out crowd
Assessing a student’s learning is an integral part of teaching. An assessment aims to measure what your students have learned or will be learning in the future.
This creamy, sweet and kinda' spicy Thai Peanut Sauce recipe is perfect with spring rolls, easily customizable, and ready in just 5 minutes!
Vancouver for the first time? Insider travel tips to help plan your itinerary, where to stay, eat, and the top things to do in Vancouver.
Mulled Wine is one of the best ways to stay warm and merry! So this year I decided to prepare my own recipe as a way to get into the true CHristmas spirit without leaving the living room.
