When you look at a map of the world, what do you see? Probably the continents and the ocean, right?
Of all the art and science projects that I have done, lemon and watercolor science has been my #1 fave for YEARS! Let's get started.
That’s right, a new free printable worksheet has just been added to the Printables > Worksheets page: Write In the Barlines #1 This worksheet is an one I created a few years ago, and I thought I’d share it here for any of you to use! My students LOVE taking home “extra credit” worksheets (outside… Continue reading Just Added: Write In The Barlines Worksheet #1
Another project that I did two years ago, this dovetails with the 5th-6th study of ancient Greece. The kids viewed some examples of the...
hi just wanted to say you're a huge inspiration for me! Ever since I started found your six animatics a few years ago I've been obsessed with your art! The style is so pretty and unique ^^ Also ca…
A close resemblance to of one of my favorites given that I have moved out of the restaurant's market many years ago.
Sometimes when working with young children on the production of speech sounds, it is helpful to provide the little one’s with a fun label, or name, for the sound(s) you are teaching. Providing a visual cue to go along with the label is also very helpful, to provide multisensory instruction. Several years ago I asked […]
Having developed FUSE Marketing Group’s visual identity years ago, the team approached Jacknife to help reinvigorate their identity once again.
Looking for a new and engaging classroom management system for your classroom? I love Secret Student because all of my students buy into this system...
Crispy Belgian Waffles - Recipes of Holly Is about food that'll make you close your eyes, lean back, and whisper "yessss."
Of all the art and science projects that I have done, lemon and watercolor science has been my #1 fave for YEARS! Let's get started.
Commercial tomato growers use the string method to train their tomatoes. It takes less space is healthier for the tomato and easy for the home grower too.
Parables are a wonderful way to teach children biblical truths in a story format they will understand. We use them in our everyday teachings with "morals of the story" already, so many children are familiar with the parable concept and format. As I began prepping to teach my children some of the parable stories, I realized I wanted more resources. Today I am sharing with you those I have gathered for a handful of the parables in the Bible.
One of the first projects my first graders made were these “All About Me Crayons”. I had seen and taught this lesson probably 10 years ago and decided to revisit it. I can not remember exactly where I saw this idea, but as many lessons are, we get ideas and see projects all over the place. I try to credit when I can, but some of these I have been doing so long! We started the day by reading … Read more... →
Sometimes when I have to get a substitute in my class, I leave a challenge for my students to complete while he/she is there. It keeps them motivated and is a constant reminder to follow the expectations. The very first time I'm absent in the school year, I send my students this video to watch right when they come in! The video isn't mandatory, but it adds an element of excitement! I email the video to the substitute and leave her a laptop from our laptop cart (when we request for a sub, it gives us an option of contacting them via email), but you could also burn it on a DVD or have another teacher quickly show it for you. I made this video in iMovie, but if you don't have an iPhone or a Mac, you can use the app InShot. It's free and simple! So, here's the challenge! If the students follow the expectations, the sub can open up an envelope and get a clue out! As the day goes on, the substitute can keep opening up the envelopes. I have my clues spell out iPad, so I only needed 4 envelopes. I feel like in my classroom that was just enough. The last clue is unlocked at the very end of the day! You'll leave the envelopes hanging on the board so that your students can see them! I leave the substitute direction sheet on my desk with my sub plans so she can fully understand it as well. This freebie comes blank, in case you want to change it up each time you have a sub (different reward). Click here for this freebie!
I have never loved the South of France more than we when we travelled in our campervan along the incredible French Riviera coastline 2 years ago.
I've done dozens of markets; all in different locations and now across two different states. Markets can be very intimidating so I put together a quick list of my favorite hacks & tips!
Sing and learn sight words!
About 10 years ago, I attended a 2-day professional development over the summer for implementing math spiral review. The PD was high-quality, but there was one problem. I wasn’t teaching math that year and desperately needed to be planning for science. While participating in the session, my synapses started firing. I was going to try ... Read more
Hi! Cupcake here to share an improved version of an old freebie! :) Picture directions are a great classroom management tool for little learners! I posted a set of picture directions in my shop two years ago, and decided they needed a facelift… so I made them pretty and added to the set! They will match any bright classroom, and they also coordinate with my chevron decor. Stop by my blog to see a preview of all the included cards, or just go directly to my shop to pick up {or redownload!} your copy. I hope you love them!!
We painted our boys bathroom floor a few years ago and I constantly get asked about how the painted floor tiles have held up. Here's our 2 year review.
Are you trying out a reading workshop model this year with your Kinders or first graders? If so, you might be wondering, how on earth do I set up a reading workshop when my kids can’t even read?! That’s definitely what I was wondering when I first started implementing reading workshop a couple of years ago. I was teaching Kindergarten, and I think I only had one student who knew a few letter names. They didn’t know letter sounds, and I definitely didn’t have any beginning readers. If this is what your situation is like, you can still implement a reading workshop in your classroom! Even if your little ones can’t name a single alphabet letter, there are things you can teach them to begin setting up the reading workshop. Here are some ideas for minilesson topics that you can use when you first start reading workshop with your nonreaders:– Procedures and Routines: Begin with the basics, such as: how students should access their reading materials, where they should sit, how to treat books, how to hold the book correctly and turn the pages, how to read silently and keep their eyes on the book, etc. It will definitely take multiple days (maybe even weeks) to teach all these routines and procedures. Just teach one simple procedure per minilesson. Also, to squeeze more procedures into one day of reading workshop, you can teach a minilesson, have kids read for 5 minutes, teach another minilesson, and have them read for another 5 minutes. This gives you more time to teach important routines, while still taking into account your students’ teeny tiny attention spans!– How to Tell a Story from the Pictures: Teach students that even if they can’t read the words, they can still tell a story to themselves from the pictures! Simply telling kids that they can do this isn’t enough, though – you have to actually model it. What I did was check out a few picture books from the library in languages that I can’t read – Russian, Chinese, Polish, etc. I would show students the book and begin by saying something like, “I found this beautiful book in the library, and I really want to read it. But I have a problem. The book is written in CHINESE! I don’t know how to read Chinese!! But guess what? Even though I can’t read the words, I can still tell the story by reading the pictures. Let me show you what I mean.” Then I would begin paging through the book, telling the story aloud as students listened. I would wrap up by saying something like, “Today I showed you that even if you can’t read the words of a book, you can still use the pictures to tell yourself the story! You can try this out today during reading time.” And then I would dismiss the kids to begin reading. Some of my Kinders were able to do it after I modeled once, but I modeled this skill several more times with different books so that all of the kids eventually “got it.” One note about this – make sure that when you establish guidelines for independent reading, you don’t require students to be completely silent. When kids begin to tell a story by using the pictures, teach them to whisper the story quietly to themselves – most kids won’t be able to silently tell the story in their heads. – How to Retell a Story You Already Know: Spend lots of time in those first few weeks of school reading aloud fairy tales and repetitive books to students. Some books I love using for this are: The Three Billy Goats Gruff, The Three Little Pigs, Brown Bear, and I Went Walking. Then, get as many copies as you can of each of those books. Place them in students’ reading bags (side note: at the beginning of the year, rather than having students check books out, I prepared book baggies for them and had them switch bags amongst themselves each day so they would have new books to read). Then, teach a couple of minilessons about how to tell a story that you already know. You might start by saying something like, “Readers, today I want to teach you that when you are reading a book that you’ve already heard before, you can retell the story using the pictures and what you remember about the story.” Then, take out a story that children are familiar with and model retelling it (without using any of the words). Have students practice this during independent reading time.– How to Read Songs: I loved singing with my Kindergarteners, and I taught them quite a few songs at the beginning of the year (simple, shorter songs are best). I then gave them copies of the lyrics that they could “read” during independent reading time. To make this work, I started by typing up the lyrics to each song. On each page, I put an image that went with the lyrics (for instance, with a song about a frog, I put clipart of a frog on that page, so they would immediately know what song it was). Then, while we sang the song as a class, I projected a copy of the lyrics on my interactive white board. I modeled how to point to the words as we sang. After practicing a song many, many times, I made copies of the lyrics for the kids. I modeled how to sing the song using the lyric sheet, and then gave them the sheets to keep in their bags for independent reading time. It was soooo cute to see them whisper-singing the songs to themselves and attempting to point to the words! They just loved this option for independent reading time. If you teach in Spanish, click HERE for a free copy of the lyrics that I used with my bilingual Kinders. – Partner Reading: Since little ones can’t sustain independent reading for very long at the beginning of the year, mix things up with some
Gelli printing with stencils is an easy way to create beautiful and unique textures for your art journal and creative projects. If you are new to the gel plate, gelli printing with stencils is an easy way to get comfortable with the medium. I discovered gel printing many years ago, but my first experience with
Writing thesis statements strikes fear into many students' hearts. I have developed a way of getting from a broad topic to a thesis stat...
This simple craft uses our solar system coloring pages for kids to color and then transform into an easy blueprint to create their own solar system model.
Want to know how much backpacking Europe costs? Find out all the money saving tips and a detailed breakdown of each cost.
Almost all thyroid conditions stem from an underlying cause of auto-immunity. Here are 5 things your doctor won't tell you about your thyroid. Plus, how to improve your thyroid health and answers your common questions about thyroid.
Don’t we always say this every year? I can’t believe that the year is almost over. And that means it’s almost Christmas. I’ve done several posts about Christmas. You can see them here, here, here, here, here and here. And if you’re looking for sources and even more ideas please check out the new […]
A year ago we profiled Helsinki-based design studio Kokoro & Moi, catching up with co-founders Antti Hinkula and Teemu Suviala right after they’d set up their second location in New York. Founded in 2001, the studio was steadily expanding, putting its colorful, geometric mark on projects around
Learn animal anatomy with these animal skeleton matching cards for kids. A fun science lesson during Halloween time, too!
5 years ago, I created this FOCCACIA recipe that was mediocre, but I enjoyed it. Every year, I would make it better and better. Once I got the perfect measurements & bake time, I felt stagnant. I asked myself how I could possibly make this FOCCACIA better? Well, I found a way and I know all your garlic butter lovers will thank me later!
Look at that bed. Just look at it. It looks so goddamn comfortable. I used to use it all the time but deleted it in a great CC purge years ago and only recently rediscovered it, Armed with my recent skills in SimPE, I set out to make some recolours of it that Id actually use, and this is what…
It's never easy to hear the words, "You have Sjogren's Syndrome," but in my case, having a name for the many uncomfortable symptoms was also a little bit of a relief. Now I had something I could research, study, and become an expert on. Now I had something I could fight against. That was almost
A few years ago, I sat in the middle of a pile of photos, CDs containing photo files, thumb drives of photos, and more — and decided it was time to do something about the photo disaster at my house. But more than just organizing my files, I wanted to find a way to archive our photos so that they could be easily enjoyed
Six years ago I spent a summer in Washington DC. I shared a tiny one-room apartment with three other girls. One of them, Jessie, ended up becoming a good friend of mine, and after I went back to Denma
