Come peek inside PATINA LIVING by Brooke Giannetti and Steve Giannetti who have created inspiring gardens and interiors at Patina Farm in Ojai, CA.

Create your own DIY Little Free Library with these step-by-step instructions. You'll love feeling part of your community this way!

Pinay Homeschooler is a blog that shares homeschool and afterschool activity of kids from babies to elementary level.

Here is a fun printmaking project inspired by artist Paul Klee and his painting Castle and Sun. Do your kids watch Little Einsteins? My little girl loves them and was watching them the other day. If you do watch them, you know that they feature an artist and a composer each episode. Paul Klee was […]

This is a fun worksheet to practice the Past Simple or the Past Continuous. Students look at the pictures and fill in the gaps with one of the linking words in the box in order to complete the story.

Free International Dot Day Activity (Creativity Challenges) Teachers, are you looking for some free resources for International Dot Day? Dot Day takes place on September 15th. The inspiration for the day comes from the book, The Dot , by Peter H. Reynolds. In the story, the main charac

As Spring Break approaches, I find that my fifth graders are in need of some reminders as to what it means to be kind to each other. In general, they are sweet kids, but at times the words they use and actions they take, particularly on the playground, aren't the kindest. Our read aloud for the month is Wonder by RJ Palacio so the theme of kindness fit right into our room. It just so happens that a new book, We're All Wonders by RJ Palacio, a picture book intended for younger readers to access the story, came out this week as well. So the timing was perfect. (the two links above are my affiliate links and will take you to Amazon to buy the books.) I began by asking the students what kindness is. We brainstormed a list of ideas and created an anchor chart. Then I read the picture book to the students. Because we had just finished Wonder, they were so excited to read this new version. When we finished, I asked the kids to think of all the ways, in both the picture book and the novel, that people were not very kind to Auggie (the main character). The kids were able to fill our entire circle map in no time. It was easy to recall how people would scream in his face, recoiling at the way he looked. They remembered the names Auggie was called and the no-touching game that was played. The instantly told me about all the awful things that happened to him. I then asked the kids to brainstorm ways that, if they were in the novel with Auggie, they could be kinder to him. Again, they had no problem thinking of ways they could be kind to Auggie. Next, I asked the students to think about their own real life. I asked them to reflect upon how they personally treat others and how they personally could make better choices when speaking to others. Here is where things got a little challenging. You see, when students are talking about fictional characters, or reading news stories about OTHER kids they don't know being treated unfairly or unkindly, they know exactly what they would do if they were there. Because they aren't there. They know they never will be there. But when confronted with their own lives, and real possibilities for what they would have to do to step in or change situations, it is a bit harder for them. So I asked them to brainstorm 15 different ways they PERSONALLY could show kindness to our classmates. (I drew a lot of inspiration for this next part from Study All Knight's FREE Kindness unit, which you can grab here.) The students then used tempra paint and painted 15 (or so) rainbow sunshine rays. They also drew their own Wonder-Inspired portrait. (I have previously done this before, but had them focus on precepts and writing....if you would like to do that, click here. It is one of my fav lessons too!) The students then glued their Wonder portraits into the middle of the rays, used Sharpie to outline and write the 15 ways they could show real kindness in their lives (one way per ray) and were done. They came out amazing. (See the picture at the top of the post!) What is better though, is that the past two days, my students are actively trying to be kinder to each other. They are watching their words. I have seen people purposefully go up to those who tend to wander during group time and invite them into the group. I have seen students smile at others just a bit more. It truly has been a Wonder. Right now, for a limited time, Amazon has the book available for $3.99!!! Snag up to 4 copies at that price. Use my affiliate link here to get your copy ASAP before they are all gone!! SaveSave

I want to try all of these.

Planning to tutor over the summer? Here are tips for quick and easy planning! Hi there! It's Sarah! I've been tutoring kiddos for the last year and have developed a routine that makes my planning easy and my session flow smoothly. All of the kiddos I tutor are grades K-2 and in need of a boost in their reading skills...fluency, comprehension, and phonics. Warm-up I like to start with some reading that is simple or familiar. I'll either have the kiddo re-read a text from the previous session or read fluency sentences. I have my kiddos keep a composition notebook with past passages to go back and re-read. I use lots of guided reader books to find the just right text for my kiddos to read. These are also great books to leave for kiddos to practice between sessions. Fluency sentence strips from The Moffatt Girls are a GREAT help to boost fluency and confidence! They are also super easy to leave for practice between sessions. Fluency Reading Practice My kiddos have all had good sight word recognition and really need fluency work. I switch between leveled readers and text passages. I usually have kiddos read the text themselves first. After reading, we go back through the text and find words that were tricky and read them. Next, I have the kiddo read through the text with me or by themselves if they are confident. Using a leveled reader Using fluency passages and recording words read per minute (the kiddos love to see their growth!) Find these fluency passages HERE! Using text evidence passages. Grab these passages HERE! Comprehension After some fluency practice with the selected text, I move into comprehension work. In our district, kiddos need to do a written response comprehension question as part of their reading assessment. I have my kiddos practice a written response question with every text and in every session. Comprehension with level reader I use these question stems to develop questions based on the text. Grab the question stems HERE! Completed written response, kiddos write in their composition journal Comprehension with text evidence passages. Grab these passages HERE! Here I use a reading passage with several comprehension tasks for a 2nd grade kiddo. Find these reading passage + comprehension packets HERE! Phonics After the reading and comprehension tasks are complete, I work on some phonics task with my kiddos. One of my favorite tasks is doing a word family word splash. I select a word from our text. I like how this tasks shows kiddos that if they can spell a work like bat, they can also spell cat, mat, sat, etc. Writing short sentences with words from the Word Family Splash Word building and sounding out Extras I like to use phonics poems as an additional fluency tool. The kiddos glue them into their composition notebook so they can go back and re-read between sessions, continuing to build fluency with familiar texts. These phonics poems are from Susan Jones. I use our Literacy Bags in between reading tasks. Literacy Bags break up the rigorous reading and fluency practice we do for much of the session. You can find Literacy Bags HERE! I'm working with a few Kindergartners who need sight word practice. I use the K version of our Differentiated Reading Fluency passages. In K, the passages start as reading letters, then sight words fluently. It perfect support for my K kiddos! You can grab these HERE! Additionally, our Print a Standard packs have been a great support for targeting specific skills students need to work on. Each pack contains tasks for one standard and has several activities for that standard, so there are a lot of opportunities to help the student learn, practice, and master standards based skills. You can grab Print a Standard packs for ELA AND MATH HERE! Connecting with students and parents on a more personal level is the best part of tutoring. I love giving kiddos instant feedback and celebrating their successes! I also love that I can give them more choices to foster a love of reading. In the picture above, I'm showing several text selections. The kiddos I'm working with is able to choose the book he'll read with me for the session. I also love being able to help parents foster learning at home. I've found most all of my parents did not really know about their kiddo's reading level or reading abilities. This makes it difficult for parents to find the best "just right" books for reading at home. After I work with a kiddo, I leave the text piece we worked on for that session (a passage or a book) so the kiddo can re-read it with parents. I leave their composition notebooks with phonics poems for the kiddos to go back a re-read. I also leave the fluency sentence strips for practice between sessions.

Teach EVERY reading literature and reading informational text common core state standard using inspirational and engaging short films and video clips! For an entire year of highly engaging, no prep…

(Part 3 of 4) What’s a great way to show off your craftsmanship? Historically accurate moldings that are properly proportioned. The team at Hull Historical restored the moldings throughout the Willing House with the help of WindsorONE S4SSE Trim Boards and The Classic American Molding Collection, designed by Brent Hull. Too often we see builders […]

Winston Churchill was not only a great leader and statesman,

By Fausto Gilberti A clever, quirky book about one of the world's most beloved contemporary artists. Yayoi Kusama covers her paintings in hundreds and hundreds of dots. Her dots come off her canvases to cover dresses, tables, walls, and more! She creates mirrored rooms and fills them with glittering balls and lights, u

Hi everyone, My little learners have been working SO hard on their reading these past few months and I am VERY excited to show what what they have been up to!

Abuse is not always straightforward and in-your-face, however, quiet verbal abuse can have the same impact on your psych nevertheless, maybe even more.

I asked my Instagram followers,“What are some signs of amateurish writing, in your opinion?” Here are the results!

There's no shortage of beautiful places to visit in Peru. The only real question is, which mind-blowing destination will you go to first!

If you are a young fashion photographer or stylist trying to break into the fashion industry, you’re likely feeling frustrated right about now. For all artists out there the path to success and

Amazing classroom decoration ideas including how to add a class fireplace, a beautiful teacher space, a classroom fridge and more!

This blackwork embroidery tutorial will teach you the basic blackwork stitches.

Looking for service projects ideas for your group, your family or yourself. I've compiled a list of 60 ideas. Check them out!

A month by month guide of chapter book read-alouds for 2nd grade. Includes a printable book list.

Learn about famous art and create your own sculpture with this fun lesson about Giacometti.

Looking for inspiration for teaching middle school reading skills? Read on to see how I teach the essential elements in a 6th-grade classroom.

I’m so happy to announce that I have another quilt published in a major quilting magazine! My Color Catcher pattern is in the January/February issue of McCall’s Quilting! Color Catcher is a quilt I whipped up from my scrap stash. It is a very quick make – with the help of my AccuQuilt Go! I … Continue reading Color Catcher Quilt

Here's my guide to the best virtual museums you can visit online at home from the comfort of your couch or computer. If you can't travel for any reason, this is a splendid time to travel virtually to a museum of your choice. There's an almost dizzying array of virtual options. It's not quite like walking through a museum. But it has its own strange pleasures.

Gentlemen - click here to discover how to dress for your specific body type. Most men screw this up - don't be like them!

Ready to start making changes that will transform your life this year? Here are 10 of the best self-improvement books to read in 2024.

We’ve all been in a situation where we’ve made a fist, either as an expression of anger or right before hitting something (or an unfortunate someone).