Let's face it. We can always use MORE things in our classroom, but there just isn't time enough in the day. Here are the 7 sets of must-have materials to get your special education classroom up and running quickly.
Boost your child's confidence and improve their mindset with these free affirmation station printables!
Let's talk about how using podcasts in your K-2 classroom can take your student's learning to a whole new level! Engagement is about to go through the roof!WHY PODCASTS IN THE CLASS?So WHY podcasts? Why should I use podcasts in my room and what if I don't have 1:1 technology? That answer is simple. Podcasts provide a wide variety of topics for students to choose from and listen to. They provide students with the opportunity to practice listening skills, critical thinking, and they are engag
Brain break games for high school are easy to play (especially when they're activities your students will buy into) and more necessary than you think.
We've all used exit tickets in our classroom for informal assessment, but sometimes it can become boring. Read this post to get exit ticket ideas on how you can engage students with exit slips and still assess your students!
As teachers, we know that consistency and following through is KEY when it comes to behavior management in our classrooms! This tool is not only perfect to help roll out Expected Behaviors and set a tone for the year, but it is a great kid-friendly reference tool to keep handy in the classroom when expected behaviors are not met. It will also help hold YOU the teacher accountable and make sure you follow through with the logical consequences. The best part is, it's TOTALLY EDITABLE TOO! I've provided what I use for expected behaviors in different areas along with logical consequences, but you can easily create your own to fit your teaching style. At the beginning of the year I present this as a power point. It helps give kids a clear sense of what will happen if expected behaviors are not followed. You could present one or two a day for the first few days of school or all at once. Then you could hang them in your classroom for continual reference. I like to keep them in a binder in page protectors. When a child is not following expected behaviors I pull it out and flip to the correct page. Using it as a reference tool reminds kids that these logical consequences are put in place for a reason and you are going to follow through with them. I also store the binder in my classroom library. This helps make it accessible for kids to reread in their spare time. Also, having it out constantly on display in a place where kids can see it will remind them of expectations and consequences daily. Get ready to have your sanity saved with this behavior management resource!! Expected Behaviors & Logical Consequences discussed: sitting, listening and participating in class traveling in the hallways homework classwork how we talk to one another respectful whole body listening how we treat classroom materials calm and safe body recess lunch bathrooms going to specials dismissal procedures **ALSO the ability to edit and create your own :) *************************************************************************** Customer Tips: How to get TPT credit to use on future purchases: • Please go to your My Purchases page (you may need to login). Beside each purchase you'll see a Provide Feedback button. Simply click it and you will be taken to a page where you can give a quick rating and leave a short comment for the product. I value your feedback greatly as it helps me determine which products are most valuable for your classroom so I can create more for you. ☺ Be the first to know about my new discounts, freebies and product launches: • Look for the red star near the top of any page within my store and click it to become a follower. You will now receive customized email updates about this store. ☺
This toddler friendship activity is easy and fun to make and is a simple reminder that we are all friends in our classroom. Free printable!
Ideas for making your classroom cozy and comfortable.
Teaching Resource: A getting to know you activity to do at the beginning of a new school year.
As teachers in Australia, we know it is important to integrate First Nations content and perspectives in our classrooms.
We use tools in our classroom that help encourage our students' thinking -- but are you making their thinking visible? We use anchor charts and other strategies, but are you doing all of these? There's one way to find out!
Check out some easy DIY classroom mailbox ideas for your students and for you too including ideas that you would not have thought of!
These nine main idea strategies will help your students successfully master this important reading skill. The Teacher Next Door shares her favorite main idea strategies for teachers of upper elementary students.
Classroom Wireless Doorbells are an innovative tool to use as a classroom management strategy. SADOCTECH has created an easy to use system that allows teachers to organize class activities and manage their class more efficiently.
Wecome to my Pre-K Cottage! I teach pre-k in a public elementary school in a portable classroom aka cottage. With that being said, ...
your curly comrade, Suzanne Me and Lori is teachers. We has a blog too. Until all the readers runs away because we wrote like this. I know. Sorry! A lack of mastery in subject-verb agreement is the metaphorical nail on my chalkboard. This is not a new concept for students, but most, especially English Language Learners, could use a refresher. In the second semester, I ran out of Star Point words, so we have been working through the Grammar Specs Lori mentioned. Most days we talk about a rule or two and record it in our notebook, complete with a class-generated example. Then I turn students loose to do some independent reading and look for that rule in play. They copy down sentences that exemplify the given rule of the day. That worked well while talking about punctuation, commas, and quotation marks, but subject-verb agreement? Find a {published} sentence where the subject and verb match. Not so much. Besides, I wanted them to hear the rightness and wrongness of certain pairs. Manipulatives to the rescue! I made a list of singular subjects, singular verbs, plural subjects, and plural verbs- copied it on colored paper- cut- and boom! I was ready to turn students loose to learn. (Word to the wise: print each set of manipulatives on a different color of paper. It seriously cuts down on the drama if you find a tiny little piece poking out from under a desk at the end of the day.) After partners placed all their pieces, we reviewed a few tricky ones- each, one, neither. Students drafted three sentences using pairs of words from their chart. The words that I used are loosely based on Divergent. You could require them to write sentences that relate to the book but totally don't have to. You can download the manipulative pieces and mat/board to use with your kiddos. In exchange, I'd like Theo James (Tobias) sitting on my desk in the morning!
I am one of those people who cannot work in silence. I have always incorporated music into my classroom whether it be just for background noise, or to enhance our lesson plan. A few years ago I sub…
Every year in my first year classes (12 year olds) I touch on the principles of perspective, at least in its one point form. We do a little art history, take a look at Masaccio and Mantegna. We mak…
Teach children art history through a variety of fun art projects and lessons. We love using artists as inspiration for our own creations.
Let's Take a Sensory Break Digital Download Classroom Header Print, Cut and Laminate this cute classroom header to put above a sensory area in the classroom!
Our Mondrian Art Project for Kids is perfect to teach art in the classroom. It's easy and free! Kids will love their Mondrian masterpiece & will proudly display their beautiful artwork on glass.
Technology in the classroom constantly changes and so are the classroom tech tools that we use every day with our students.
Are you tired of the morning battle to tame your son's unruly hair before school? Say goodbye to the struggle and hello to effortless style with our guide to the "25 Best Boys Haircuts for
Set a friendly tone in your classroom with these 30 "Get to Know You" games perfect for back to school or when welcoming a new student.
We want to create an environment in our classroom that encourages and teaches empathy. Children tend to be egocentric and need to be explicitly taught to recognize others' feelings and how to respond to those feelings. This will build classroom community and foster an environment of kindness in your elementary classroom. In this unit of mini lessons, we will teach students what empathy is, how to identify and respond to feelings, and why having empathy is important. Each activity is meaningful and engaging, which will lead to a classroom of empathetic students and learners. I use the book Empathy is Your Super Power by Cori Bussolari as the read aloud for the week. I like that it takes students through different scenarios and how to apply empathy to those different situations. You can then model using empathy in different situations throughout your day. When you see students modeling empathy, be sure to point it out to the class. The more you do this, the more these behaviors will be embedded into your classroom community. If you see a situation in which a student could have used empathy, address that with that student. Let them have a do over so that they can build that into their muscle memory! We read the whole text on Monday and Friday, and read only small portions on the other days of the week, much like an interactive read aloud. I include scripted mini daily lesson plans, as well as questions to ask during the read aloud to spark those important discussions. We want to teach students what empathy is, the understanding of the feelings and experiences of another. I like to tell them that it's like putting yourself in someone else's shoes. We make this anchor chart together, and I teach students four questions to ask themselves when they are in a situation in which they can apply sympathy. 1. What emotions is that friend feeling? 2. Why do they feel this way? 3. How would I feel if I were in that situation? 4. What can I say or do to help? Students get their own mini anchor chart to add to their own Social Emotional Learning Notebooks that they can always refer to later. You can also teaching students this Empathy Song. It also helps them to remember the steps of applying empathy. One of the most important skills you can teach your students is being able to recognize others' feelings or emotions. Show students a picture of an emotion and have them name the feeling. You can then ask them to give examples of times when they might have this emotion. Then, have them describe how they could respond if someone else has this feeling. We also make this Empathy Glasses to remind them that we are viewing a situation through another's eyes! They can use these when looking at the emotion on the cards. On Wednesday, we play a game, and this week is the In Your Shoes Empathy Game. You can play this in small groups or divide the class into two teams for a whole group game. The shoes are the game pieces and the cards each contain a scenario. They roll the dice to see how many spaces to move. If they land on draw a card, they choose a card and have to answer the empathy question. This gives students lots of practice responding to situations in which empathy should be applied. Our SEL animal character for the unit is Empathy Elephant. His poem reminds students to see a situation through someone else's eyes. On the last day of the unit, students will apply what they have learned. In the text, the author says that empathy is contagious. They have to explain what that means. Hopefully, their empathetic acts will also be contagious in your classroom! Empathy is one of those skills that can have a major impact on your whole classroom. We need to encourage our students to be empathetic and generous so that they will carry on those acts outside of the classroom and into adulthood. Can you imagine how much better our world would be if everyone showed empathy?! If you are in need of some quick but meaningful activities for teaching empathy, you can grab them HERE or by clicking any of the photos. Thank you so much for reading!
Movement in the classroom is beneficial for many reasons. First and foremost, getting up to move in the classroom might help anxious students relieve stress.
A simple, super smart way to motivate your students to turn in their homework.
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
Fun Friday in the classroom is a great way to celebrate the week of hard work! Find 6 tips and free resources for having your own Fun Friday!
Digestion experiment for kids! An easy science experiment from at-home materials about how the stomach breaks down food. Anatomy science for kids.
This is a digital product. You will receive a pdf document via email to print on completion of your order. Get creative at home with our Pablo Picasso inspired printable art activity sheets. The printable includes 6 pages of creative activities; create a Pablo Picasso inspired cubist portrait, colour a Picasso portrait
The first week of school is exhausting! It doesn’t matter if you are a new or veteran teacher. There is so much to manage in preparing
Ever since I visited the Ron Clark Academy and saw the AMAZING teachers there use a stage to help transform their classrooms, I knew I just HAD TO HAVE ONE! As soon as I got back from RCA last October, I started transforming my classroom. A stage wasn't something I could build overnight, so I finished the school year with a makeshift stage. I lowered a rectangular table to the floor and BAM... a stage. It was amazing and my kiddos LOVED it, but... I knew I wanted a bigger and better one so I counted down until summer break when I my dad could hopefully make my dreams a reality. Since posting my stage on my Instagram account, I have gotten lots and lots of messages asking me just how I my dad made it, so I wanted to take some time to lay out all of the details in one place because YOU need a stage too, and you/your dad/husband can TOTALLY make one! How to build your own stage: Step ONE: Convince your Dad/Husband/Boyfriend/Friend to build it for you! HAHA! Ok... if you haven't caught on yet, it was MY DAD that built the stage, not me. I am blessed with a rockstar Dad who does woodworking in his spare time and he was kind enough to help me out. I painted and assisted in the heavy lifting, but the brains behind the operation was definitely my dad. Ok - Have you grabbed someone to build it for you or at least assist you?! Haha! Although I have utmost faith that you can complete this project yourself, it would still be easier for you if you have a partner to help you do the heavy lifting! As you start gluing/nailing things together, your stage will get really heavy. If you've found your builder/assistant... you are ready for step two. Step TWO: Go to Lowes and grab your items! What you'll need: -three 3/4 inch pieces of plywood -wood glue -large nails -three sets of door hinges (we put three hinges on each door) -paint Step THREE: Alright gang... It's finally time to build! We built two different 4'x4' squares so that the stage would be easier to transport. The two squares together makes my large 8'x4' stage. The entire stage is 9 inches tall. First, grab two pieces of plywood and cut each of them in half. You now have your two tops and two bottoms. The remaining piece of plywood will become your sides and bracing inside the stage. Side/bracing lengths: 4' long/9"tall Once you have all of your pieces cut, glue your bottoms and sides together and reinforce them using nails! You will also need to glue/nail in your bracing inside. The bracing is SO important for safety and support, so don't leave those out! Step THREE B: If you want to get fancy, you can add trimming to the pieces that will go around the top and around them bottom. My dad also cut out hand holes in the sides of the stage to make for easier carrying. Step 4: Paint everything! I chose to paint the outside of my stage yellow, the top black, and the inside white. Stage 5: Once you've gotten everything painted, you can then attach the top of your stage to the bottom using door hinges. We chose to put the hinges INSIDE the stage so that the metal pieces weren't showing on the outside. You can just put them on the outside if that is easiest for you. (Amazon Affilate links are provided in this post for your convenience.) Step 6: Once everything is painted and attached, you are ready to haul your stage to school and MAKE MAGIC HAPPEN! (Super fun lights under my board can be found on Amazon HERE.) If you have any additional questions, please feel free to leave them in my comments and I'll ask my Dad if they are questions I don't know how to answer! I truly believe EVERY classroom should have a stage, so I hope you will get to building! You can do it!
The Feed the Animals activity is Perfect for small group activities, circle time, or even individual use during center time, this activity is sure to be a hit with young learners. To begin, print
