I did the research so that you don't have to! Here is a list of 10 free resources that are perfect for distance learning in Kindergarten.

In today's post, I'll share ideas for teaching inferring through a gradual release of responsibility. Make sure to read all the way through the post, because there are several different freebies you can download and use right away!

This blog shares a whole host of resources to help TAs, HLTAs and LSAs get organised and feel prepared for their ever-changing roles in school.

Writing instruction often fits into a small corner of the day. This makes it so challenging to find time to teach grammar, spelling, punctuation, and all the other foundational skills students need to be more effective writers. While working through the writing process is an important piece of writing instruction, many

Let me start by saying that being a relief teacher is tough. Everyday presents new opportunities, but more often than not, it also presents new challenges. At a moments notice, you could be thrust in front of a class you've never met, or you could get lost looking for a building you've never seen. Whether you're a new graduate, or a seasoned veteran, relief teaching can be darn hard! HOWEVER, the purpose of this post is not to vent about the difficulties of relief teaching, but rather acknowledge these hardships and even better, celebrate some of the amazing resources available to us, the modern-day super teachers! So today, i'd like to share my top 3 fuss and preparation free teaching resources! As a relief teacher, one thing you need to have is reliable and engaging activities. To me, 'Just Dance' is just that! Just Dance is a video game series where players dance along copying the moves of onscreen dancers. How can you bring this into ANY classroom without a gaming console? Easy! Simply type 'just dance' into youtube and you'll be met with a whole range of songs for the kids to dance to. Just a tip, make sure you check the songs before hand. Some lyrics and dance moves are more kid-friendly than others! Looking to grab a quiet moment after lunch or provide students with an opportunity to engage with gorgeous literature? Look no further than Storyline Online. Run by the Screen Actors Guild Foundation, Storyline Online provides a beautiful collection of stories read by famous actors. The videos are simplistically animated, and come to life with well known and loved voices. One of my favourites is 'Harry the Dirty Dog' read by Betty White. Literacy resources don't get much better than this. Pobble365 is an incredible website that publishes a new photo each day. Each photo comes with a range of comprehension questions and writing activities so all of the work is done for you - perfection! So there you have it, my top 3 preparation-free resources! Don't forget, my TpT store also has a HUGE range of relief teaching resources and freebies! And, if you're looking for an all inclusive pack, with over 100 pages of my best selling resources as well as a teachers diary and subpack templates, look no further than my HUGE sub pack bundle! All the best and happy teaching!

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

We are halfway through Fairtrade Fortnight in the UK – with World Fairtrade Day being in May – and the kids and I have been talking about Fairtrade and what it’s purpose and value is. There’s a wealth of information around Fairtrade online, so I’ve worked through it and pulled out the bits that my …

Auditory Learners: How to discover your child's learning style and the top ten resources to help teach an auditory learner!

Hey, friends! I’m teaming up with my good friend Elyse from Proud to be Primary to bring you a whole slew of classroom management tips and tricks… plus, a bunch of classroom management freebies! This

Want a fun way to teach measurement that can be adapted for all students? Let me introduce MEASUREMENT TAG!

Long list of free Montessori materials found online; perfect resource for classroom teachers and homeschoolers; free materials for a variety of levels, especially preschoolers through early elementary!

Hey, everyone! It's Deanna from A Primary Owl, are y'all gearing up for the end of the year? It's closing in on us really fast! Packing up, end of the year checklists, grades....all of this just piles up so quick! Plus I don't know about you but if you have your own children you also have chorus performances, dance recitals, coach's gifts and teacher gifts, etc of your own to get. So I thought I would put together some ideas of things we all could do now at the end of April (almost May) to help get a jump start on things and maybe, just maybe we can get ahead???? CLEAN OUT YOUR COPIES So this is a huge clutter area for me, my team sends so many copies and frankly I just don't do all of them. So last week, I organized. I figured out what I still needed to do before the end of the year. I also decided what might be saved for next year and then with all the left overs I asked a parent volunteer to make review packets for my kids to take home for the summer. Not all of them will do it, but I do have parents that appreciate a little work over the summer and I don't feel bad for wasting all that paper. START TAKING THINGS HOME I collect junk from home around my desk! Like coffee mugs, water tumblers, lunchboxes, sweaters, gifts from parents, you name it! Plus I always leave one winter coat at school just in case I forget my coat, so last week I took home a great big bag of all that stuff.....a more few things that I won't have to drag home the last week of school. What do you have around that you could take home now? CHECKLIST/SUMMER PROJECTS Start your checklist now! Or at least get ready to start it! Designate a basket for special projects that you want to work on over the summer. When you come across something as you are cleaning or organizing, throw it in there. I already got my school's end of the year checklist, so I put it on one of my special clipboards so I don't loose it. I also keep my own checklist of things I need to get done around my room. I love printing these off and putting them on my clipboard to keep me on track! {click the picture to get your FREEBIE!} INVENTORY ITEMS Does your school do a huge inventory? We do, so I've already started finding some bar coded things I know are going to be on the inventory list and put them aside on a shelf. I also started returning items to the media center that I have checked out that I no longer need. I also ask my media specialist for a list of things I have checked out that I need to start looking for. At least then, if I am missing something I can start looking for it now and not later! GRADING This one is huge! I start getting so burned out on grading papers! But if I get too behind then I can't catch up when grades are due. Make the important grades a priority (like I have stack of opinion writing that I keep shoving to the bottom of my pile) and figure out what papers you can just put some stickers on and call it a day! How do I keep my papers organized? I love my IKEA cart! MOVING Are you moving to a new classroom or a new school next year? Start looking for boxes NOW! I am moving a new school next year and I already asked our copy lady and our cafeteria manager to save me some boxes. Organize as much as you can before you start packing and it will make unpacking so much easier! END OF THE YEAR GIFTS This is the best time to start thinking of all those gifts you need to get, room moms, volunteers, the teachers on your team....and your own children's teachers! Starting early means hopefully you won't be rushing around at the last minute and forget anyone. Need some more end of the year ideas? Follow our Pinterest board! And pin this post for later:

You’ve taught them the new song for the month…. now you need to REPEAT aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand REPEAT it!!! Children (and adults) learn best with repetition so we thought we’d compile a list of ways to repeat a song without the children hearing, “One more time” and “Play it again” or “From the top”. The best kind of Singing Time when repeating and reviewing a new Primary Song is the one where the kids don’t realize they’re singing the same song over and over again! This is also great for them the repeat the words again and again, learn and melody, and feel/understand the message of the song. So you wanna know the ways to do this for your Primary? We came come up with this list as a resource for you to draw from!!! Alright, here is the list, “from the top” : 1-Play Hot Potato. Pass an object around the Primary room as they sing the song to review. The child that ends up with the object gets to say something they love about Primary. Hot Potato Option 2 – Have the Piano play and children sing and pass the “hot potato”. Arrange for the pianist to stop suddenly during the song at different times. The child who has the potato when the music stops says the next word or line to the song (they can get help from the Primary, if needed). 2-Voice Changer. Let the children pick a different voice to sing the song. For example, have them change their voice to sound like: -Computer Robot (staccato) -Baby Voice (sweet and lispy) -Underwater (plug nose, or move pointer finger up and down in lips) -Grandma Voice (pinch a small piece of your neck and move away and then back toward your neck really fast) -Opera (self-explanatory - use hand actions too!) -Feather Voice (whisper) -Bee Voice (Hum) -Chipmunk Voice (sing high, tighten neck and show teeth) -Ninja Movie Voice (move mouth in between words and pauses) -Giant Voice (sing deep and low) -Cowboy Voice (like a country singer) These voices can be chosen from paper strips on the chalkboard, punch out board, rolling a dice (each number represents a way to sing), spinner wheel, or any of our holiday/seasonal pick-and-choose activity. For our Ultimate list of Different Ways to Sing (over 50 ideas) CLICK HERE. 3-Singing Meters. Most kids love a challenge. They like to see how well they’re doing, so Singing Meters are perfect for that. Singing Meters can control their speed, volume, and overall how well they all are singing. A helium balloon as a meter or Eddie Spaghetti, Billy Bubblegum are great for this. Also our Racecar Singing Meter. 4-Stop/Go, ooooo ahhh, boys sing/girls sing Signs. Hold up a sign that tells the children who or how to sing. Switch them during the song so they have to pay attention. 5-Different Lead Sticks. Bring a variety of leading wands/sticks and display them on the table. Choose a child to pick one and lead the song. Tell the children you will be watching to see who is singing their best, and you will pick another child to pick a wand and lead. 6-Hot N Cold. Choose 2 children. One is the hider and the other is the seeker. Have the seeker go into the hall. Have the seeker hide a small object in the Primary room. Call the seeker back into the room and have the children start singing the song. The closer the seeker is to the object the LOUDER the children should sing. The farther away from the object, the QUIETER. If they find the object before the song is over, KEEP SINGING! My Primary children never get sick of this activity! 7-Silent Singer. One child goes out in the hall. Another child is chosen to be the “Silent Singer” meaning that child “lip sings” the song. Have the child in the hall come back in and all children sing – except for the silent singer who is lip singing. See if the child that was in the hall can guess who the “Silent Singer” is. Finish singing the song even if they guess before it’s over! 8-Rubberband Primary Band. Have some recycled instruments displayed on the table. Pick a child for each instrument. Sing that song as those children with their instrument keep the beat. At the end of the song, have them pass their instrument onto another child. Sing the song until each child has had a turn. Some examples of instruments are, oatmeal tube as a drum, egg carton and stick as a Guiro, 2 paper plates as cymbals, comb (scratch fingers across), spoons back to back (hit knee and hand), tap 2 wood spoon together on the stick part, large and wide rubber band around an open box or Tupperware bowl, etc. You could also use bells, shakers, etc. and to finish the song, have a special helper be the finishing cymbal and clap two chalkboard erasers together!!! 9-Hat Review. Display different hats on the table. Sing the song and whichever class sung the best gets to pick a hat from the table and have their teacher wear it! You could also have different categories such as: The class who is sitting up the straightest and folding arms. The class that is smiling the most. The class that is the loudest. The class that is singing the most enthusiastically. Which class know the song the best without the visual? The class that is overall the best in all categories. 10-Missing Mystery. Send a child in the hall. Pick another child to be the “missing mystery” – meaning they hide behind the chalkboard (or piano) for the song. Call the child back out from the hall and have the children start sing the song. See if the child from the hall can guess who’s missing before the song’s end. If they guess who it is, too soon, keep singing until the end of the song! 11-Headbands. Choose some words that are sung in the song and write them on an index card size paper. Call up a child who is up for a challenge. Put a headband (like a basketball sweatband) around their forehead. Clip the index card with the written word to the band. The child should not be able to see the word. Have the Primary children start singing the song. When the word on the card is to be sung, have them skip over it (don’t sing that word). Have the child with the headband try to guess what word is on their forehead. If they don’t guess it the first time, sing the song again and this time have the children sing that word LOUD and obvious, make sure they sing all the way to the end of the song. 12-Musical Measles. All you need for this one is some small round dot stickers. Be careful the measles are contagious! Original post HERE. 13-Guess the Leader. Have one of the members of the Primary Presidency go out in the hall with a child (or by themselves, depending on the child). Choose another child from the Primary to be the “leader”. The “leader’s” job is the have the other Primary children follow their actions during the song. Have the child in the hall come back in and all start singing. The leader starts doing different actions such as clapping, rolling arms, pat head – all the children follow. Have the child who was in the hall try to guess who the “leader” is before the end of the song. 14-Class action. Each class is assigned a secret word (such as the, am, I, etc.) from the song. As a class, they decide on an action to do or sound to make when this secret word is sung in the song. Examples of actions are, jump up off their chair, clap, dab, meow like a cat, etc. Sing the song until all secret words are figured out for each class. Option 2 – Pick some different words that get repeated a few times in the song such as “I or to”. Tell the children NOT to sing that word but to replace it with an action or sound (examples are above). You can replace a different word every time, or have them build on each other each time to make it a fun challenge! 15-Mindful Singing. First, start by having the kids rub their temples on the head to get their “minds ready.” Next, have the children sing the song - to refresh their minds. Then, have the pianist play the song and tell the children to sing the song in their head (mind). Have the pianist stop suddenly and see if the children can say what the next word or line of the song. Have them raise their hand if they think they know it. Sing the song out loud again all together, then play mindful singing. Make sure to give your pianist a heads up on this singing activity before it starts! 16- Heads or Thumbs. Before you sing the song to review, have the children stand up and either put their hands on their head or give a thumbs up – whichever one they want to choose. Sing the song, after the song is sung, flip a coin. If the coin lands on heads, those with their thumbs up, sit down. If the coin lands on Tails, those touching their head, sit down. Start over with those still standing. ALL children sing. Flip the coin at the end of the song. Repeat and sing until there is one child standing! 17-Switching Seats. Have one child go out in the hall. Have another 2 children from the Primary switch seats. Have the child in the hall come back, primary start singing the song, and before the songs end, see if the child that was in the hall can guess who switched seats! Well, now there you go!!!! You have 17 ways to REPEAT a song in a fun way! We hope this helps you feel empowered to help the Primary children review any song. Keep in mind that not every one of these work for every song. Some songs are longer than others and may not work, or some songs are to be sung more reverent than others. Thanks for visiting our site and be sure to check out our other pick and choose review ideas and following our Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook pages!!! -iheartprimarymusic

Learn about five different biomes as you color and read key facts about with free printable Biome Coloring Pages for Prek-4th graders.

Do you want your students to learn about hyperbole? They embellish reality in a fun and exciting way to engage students while they learn. This literary element will help with your students’ creative writing and you can use it when discussing the author’s craft in their reading. Read on

Who has time for drama?I have so much stuff I need to teach that I can’t afford to spend time letting the kids act out goofy little skits.Have you heard these excuses before? Have you used t

Want students to express ideas and collaborate digitally with each other? This post goes over how to use padlet for collaborating digitally

FREE Call Backs and attention getters for the kindergarten classroom! Great classroom management tool!

I mean...why WOULDN'T you use cootie catchers in your reading block? It makes perfect sense. Ok - remember last week how I was talking about doing a little spring cleaning with some of my TpT resources? Well, I did a little spring cleaning in my file folders on my computer as well. Yikes. Now THAT'S a bit of a rabbit hole. I got in a little deeper than I wanted to, but I figured I might as well finish the job. I got rid of a lot (a LOT) of cringe worthy products that just didn't make the cut anymore, and I got some major organizing done as well. BUT - you know what I found? THIS >>> It's a reading comprehension cootie catcher that I TOTALLY forgot I made! And since it resurfaced for me - I thought I'd resurface it for you! I'm sure I made it for you guys in the first place, but I can't for the life of me find it anywhere on the blog. There's actually 3 different versions. They have different comprehension questions that can be used with any fictional book. They work great as a quick partner review game. You can download them here! Find any long-lost things in your spring cleaning, lately? Pin and Share this freebie:

Free sheet music of traditional nursery rhymes and children's songs and free fun and easy music theory printable worksheets for kids.

Preschoolers will LOVE learning about animal habitats with these lesson plans! Full of easy-prep, engaging, & hands-on activities for all subjects.

We are starting our unit on Bears! Last week we read many versions of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Part of our work on the story included this story map. It is made for kindergarten students, but would be appropriate for first grade too. They drew pictures to show their ideas and then I labeled the drawing or wrote the dictation about what what happening in each part of the story. First, the kiddos worked on the setting and characters. I love this colorful busy picture that includes all sorts of details. She put the beds outside the house because she wanted to include some of the items from inside the house in the picture. This little boy drew just the house, but added the different sized bowls and had me label them. This was a great characters picture. So darn cute! Then on another day, students did pictures for the beginning, middle, and end of the story. First, we did an activity together where we ordered picture cards and talked about different parts of the story. It was great to hear the kids verbally retelling the story in their own words. That is one of the things that is great about doing an activity like this - a great way to really listen carefully to the oral language of students. I love the picture of Goldilocks in this one. Her hair is great! I was so excited when this little sweetie used the word "discovered" in her dictation to me. Woo hoo! Great language! I thought my sweet little students did a great job with this activity! And I was happy with how much they were enjoying the many versions of the 3 bears stories. And, now that they have done a complete story map with a very familiar story, I can start doing these with more challenging literature. OK, here is your freebie, just click on the link under this image to go grab it in my TpT store: Story Map FREEBIE by Katie Byrd I hope it is a big help in your classroom! Please leave some love in the comments if you are using it with your class. Happy Teaching!

Rubrics include success criteria and learning goals. This can be modified to fit any grade. ...

Grammar instruction doesn't mean worksheets and sentence fixing. In this post, I share what the research shows to be best practices for teaching grammar!

The basic official resources for this calling include: Faith in God for Girls – the section entitled “Information for Parents and Leaders” outlines how the activity days program s…

Do you struggle to plan P.E. games for your students? Here are a few resources that elementary teachers might find useful when planning P.E.

Christopher Colombus Lapbook and Notebook Study

Get helpful tips for how to manage data folders in the primary classroom. Download the free student data folders kit to get started!

In today's post I'll cover how to teach decoding strategies to struggling readers. I'll share some ideas for teaching decoding strategies, provide free strategy menus and cards, and discuss how we can use text-based teaching conversations to support our students.

Here is a list of some of the Free French Resources found in my TPT store. Click on the title of each resource for a direct link!

We had another class Monday night with our new dual/ELL staff members, and this time we focused on differentiation and what that may look like across the subject areas. As we have done in the past, we had the teachers participate in a gallery walk and thus rotate around with their groups to add to a series of posters focused on this topic of differentiation. Yet again, our wonderful staff did not disappoint and came up with a wide assortment of ideas as to how instruction can be differentiated for our students! I typed up their ideas on a nice one page spread for them, and thought you all may find it useful as well! Click on it to grab a copy for yourself or a friend. Graphics/Fonts: Scrappin' Doodles, Rowdy Fonts, My Cute Graphics Also, (as if you haven't already heard ;)), I wanted to let you all in on the big secret. TpT will be hosting a "3 Million Teachers Strong" sale February 27-28th. In using promo code TPT3, you can get up to 28% off at my store along with so many more! How exciting is it to see this community of teachers growing and working together :)!

This week we made our mini books! Literally... I photocopied them 4/page so we had teeny tiny books! This was a selling point for my grade 1s, as they thought mini books were very exciting. The mini books followed the same pattern as the book I have read to them for the past few weeks. We practiced the vocabulary many different ways before I had them write their own book. The dot at the end of each sentence is for the colour: "Dans ma salle de classe, il y a 4 gommes roses", "Dans ma salle de classe il y a 3 crayons oranges". So... I came back from Thanksgiving weekend to find my classroom covered in mouse droppings. We had a few visitors move into our hallway of the school!!! Some of my students wrote this into their books! They thought it was quite funny! Technically, it was in our classroom... My students are REALLY excited to read their books to some of the older French Immersion students at our school!

An elementary teaching blog sharing K-3 curriculum resources, teacher tips, fun activities, and inspiration for the lower elementary primary grades.

Teaching about our communities can include a wide range of language. For example, we often teach Spanish city vocabulary with means of transportation, giving directions or professions and community helpers. The resources below focus on places in the cities and are useful in combination with any of those topics.

Lots of easy ideas for learning about materials and their properties, perfect for key stage 1 science for kids.

Are you teaching writing in Spanish? If so, I've got a BIG freebie for you!

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 speed.( here and here.) I LOVE how engaged and excited my students are when we play Kahoot. I LOVE that my students do amazing on my tests if we play Kahoot to review. But...what I don't love is how off-the-chains-crazy they get! I know they're having fun but it gets insane! I also don't enjoy the technology issues that go along with any lesson like this, students get kicked out in the middle of the game, it takes too long to log in, and not everyone has a device in my classroom. Unless you are a 1:1 school (I'm so jealous!) then it is hard to have devices for everyone to play along. Sometimes I really just want to use Kahoot as a formative assessment to see what my students actually know about a topic we have been studying, and not have them act like crazy people. So I came up with the paper Kahoot response system. All you have to do is use the game pin and log on with one student device (I actually just use my phone!) Then pass out the templates. If you already have them folded it works best. Then demonstrate to students how they will show you their answer. I love doing it that this way, the student can kind of cup the answer and not show it around to everyone but you. By playing Kahoot like this, it's actually a little calmer because they are trying to get the correct answer, not just just trying to be first. And you actually can scan the room to see who has it correct. Click on the template (on the right) and you can download it for FREE! I usually try to change things up in my room and not do it the same way every time. Sometimes, I just let them be crazy people! Do you love Kahoot? Pin for later....

A mystery unit is perfect for a classroom of curious kids! There’s excitement in the suspense, significance in every detail…. and spooky thrills to keep students engaged throughout the class’ mystery literature studies. Mystery units can work in amazing ways by integrating problem-solving and close-reading skills in a painless

Do you want to get started with project based learning, but you’re not sure how? Maybe project based learning sounds too complicated, in-depth, and overwhelming to you? That’s how I felt when I first delved into PBL. But now I know there is nothing to be afraid of! In this post, I will give a quick explanation of project-based learning and then give you some tips and ideas to begin to implement it in your own classroom. What is Project Based Learning? Project based learning, simply stated, is an authentic learning experience

The Printable Lined Handwriting Paper Template is a helpful tool for individuals of all ages looking to improve their handwriting skills. This template provides an organized and easy-to-follow structure for practicing letter formation, spacing, and alignment. Whether you are a student learning to write in cursive or an adult wanting to refine your penmanship, this template will assist you in achieving neat and legible handwriting.

Do you struggle with finding interesting ways to teach ESL listening skills? Maybe you have an activity or two already but you want to be able to mix it up and keep things interesting. By the end of…

Even though I have been teaching for several years, I'm always on the search for Free French back to school activities. Here are my favourites!