Spring is almost here and I can't wait! I enjoyed making our new Spring Math and Literacy Packet for Kindergarten! This packet is filled with FUN,
A round up of over 15 great STEAM projects – where math concepts are used to make pieces of art!
Have you ever really learned how to READ A TAPE MEASURE? I have broken it down for you and given you a visual so you don't have to "count the little lines" any more!
Read about how the orca capture industry started and ended in the United States.
Y’all…. I survived the first three days of school!!! It went something like this… 4:00 AM… I’m wide awake? WHY? Who knows… I would like to blame it on my huge pr…
Well, in my 14 years at Zamo we never had rain to contend with during our Celebration of Art festivities... until last night, that is. I m...
Today’s Wednesday, and that means it’s one day closer to being break for me. And for the rest of you, only three more days ’til the weekend! Today’s post offers you another …
Help your students become multiplication masters.
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If you’d like to customize your own road trip, I've released the Python code I used in this project.
We started lesson 14, Isaac, the Son of Promise, by talking about the promises God had made to Abraham. (You can read about Lesson 13 here.) We then had a brief discussion about how sometimes we have to wait to receive the things promised to us. Perhaps we are promised a holiday or a special […]
Have you ever had to use a district curriculum that doesn’t really fit the levels or needs of your special needs student? It can be hard to make a purchased program work for our students, but it IS possible! To do so, though, we need to be flexible and creative….We totally rock flexible and creative, ... Read More about Modifying Curriculum For The Special Needs Student
Read for the Record Day features Not Norman. Enjoy these Not Norman activities to build literacy skills for a fun filled day.
Read Word by word picture dictionary new by SONIHOPE on Issuu and browse thousands of other publications on our platform. Start here!
When I observe teachers, I see this problem more than anything else. If they fixed it, they would notice an instant difference in how well their classes go.
I can't believe back-to-school time is coming up so quickly! I've been thinking about my classroom decor and decided to go a little different route this year. I want to try and use as many actual photos as possible to make things super clear for my students and help with explicitly teaching classroom procedures. I've made some new visual posters and wanted to share them with all of you. My first change was with my class rules posters. I have used a modified version of the Whole Brain Teaching rules for the last several years. I also wanted explicit Voice Level posters for my students. If you haven't checked out A Day in First Grade's blog post about her morning meeting, it's a must read {here}. I loved how she gave her students three choices for sitting on the carpet. Last year, I had a lot of students who didn't want to sit criss-cross applesauce. I think my students will be much happier with these options. If you're interested in any of these visuals, you can download them all below for free by clicking on the pictures! I hope these are helpful in your classrooms!
Kids absolutely love these snap cube number and pattern activity cards! They are such a great idea to use to help teach numbers and patterns, as well as gross motor skills. Snap cubes make an excellent addition to all centers, and are fantastic boredom busters!
I love learning about arrays because they are so visual which allows for a lot of really fun rectangular arrays activities and practice! I l...
Social-emotional activities have never been more important for younger kids.
This post may contain affiliate links.I have posted about Q-tip painting before, but another therapist has a different twist on it. She has made some templates to do the q-tip painting, which requires more precision in the painting. This is a guest post by a therapist, Tova Stulberger, who made some templates to use when...
Hi everyone! It's Bex from Reading and Writing Redhead. Before my school vacation started, I had been thinking a lot about movement. In New England we had a VERY long winter in which we rarely went outside for recess. I had come up with new ways to get my kids moving and new brain breaks, but I had been thinking of ways to get movement involved during the academic blocks. Why save it just for breaks? Today I have compiled a resource of some activities that will get your kiddos moving while they are working on their reading skills. Sometimes it is just a little movement, but if you want to really go all out, some of them require you actually going outside to the playground! Most of the ideas are not mine - many have been around for years, so I have no idea who came up with the ideas originally. Some I found recently so I will share with you where and give you a link and a few I thought up myself, although I am sure the idea came from somewhere - someone did something similar or with the same material but I am using it in a different way. You also may have your own great ideas or ones that are not here so please comment and let us know! Phonemic Awareness and Phonics Catch it! For this, students stand in a circle (or sit) and the teacher says a one syllable word. She tosses a bean bag or small soft ball to a student, who catches it and says the initial sound, tosses it to another student who says the medial sound, and tosses it to another student who says the final sound. The whole group says the whole word again as the bag gets tossed back to the teacher and she picks a new word to try. Dribble the Sound or Syllable: Dribble a ball (and say each phoneme in a word or each syllable in a word. Dribble ball, switch from left to right hand, as say phonemes in a word or syllables in a word for extra challenge and brain work, switch hands as you say each sound or syllable). I'm Going on a Camping Trip: You know the song! Sit in a circle and clap with a steady beat. Go around the circle and everyone repeats the sentence - "I am going on a camping trip and I am going to bring (fill in blank)". At each student's turn, he says the word of what he is bringing. Each student could think of a word with the same initial, medial or final sound as a word you are working on, or a rhyming word. Twister with Blends: I have found phonics and other reading games for Twister all around the web, but this is a new "twist" (haha!) on it. Head over to Apples 4 Bookworms to get the simple and easy (and really fun) directions! Walk this Way: The teacher says a simple sentence like"The lion roars". Students repeat it and take one step forward for each word in the sentence. Then, students say how many words or steps there are in the sentence. It might help for students to hold up a finger for each word to help them count the number of steps/words. A variation is that students can also walk backwards or sideways for this activity. Sight Words Move, Groove, and read: This game is from the blog Mom to 2 Posh Lil' Divas. She has some terrific, creative ideas for learning games. Head over to her blog for details but it involves target words, music, and lots of moving. I want to play this one! Word Family Slam: This one was spotted over at the blog Toddler Approved, but I think kids well into elementary school would enjoy it. You could even do it indoors with a free wall and a soft ball. Head over to get the info. Twister Sight Words: A variation on the Twister game I mentioned that would work well for phonics skills. You use sight words instead. I am not claiming this idea either - A Year as a Reading Teacher has a great post on it. Head over to her blog to read it. Beach Ball Sight Words: You probably have seen or heard of this idea before, but grab a beach ball, a permanent marker, and write your target words. Toss the ball and read whichever word your finger (or thumb - choose one in advance) lands on! Hopscotch: Have hopscotch on the playground? Why not use chalk and on each spot, write a sight word, then toss a pebble, read the word it lands on, and hop away, skipping that space. Bean Bag Toss: If you have bean bags and one of those bean bag toss goals with the holes in it, try labeling each hole (with a taped on sticky or index card) with a target word and kids have to read the word they are aiming for and then read the word (it might be a different one!) that they actually toss the bag into. What else could you use if you don't have something with holes in it already? I bet someone has a creative and easy idea - let us know! Sight Word Bowling - use dry erase markers to write sight words on an indoor bowling set, and after knocking pins down, students read the words on the pins they have to stand back up for the next player. Grammar Jump Roping Rhymes: With your group, create a jump rope rhyme with antonyms, synonyms, homophones etc. (or words from a word family you are working on), then go outside and try it. Kids can teach their classmates at recess, too! Step Forward/Back: Group could line up and students could suggest antonym pairs (students would take one step forward and one step back for each word in the pair) or synonyms (2 steps forward) Syllables Sound Marching: Teacher says, "We are going to say some words that have more than one syllable. We will march as we say each part of the word." Model by saying the whole word, such as "doorknob" , marching first with your right foot as you say "door" and then with your left foot as you say "knob." Practice together and then try some words with students. After each ask them "How many marching steps did you take for the word? That is the number of syllables." Raise Up: Teacher says a two (or more) syllable word. Students repeat the word as they raise both their arms above their heads. Students drop one arm as they say each syllable. Vocabulary and Comprehension Students move like the animals in the story they are reading Teaching prepositions using movement Using body language to show how characters are feeling in the story Playing charades to review main ideas Role play or pantomime to retell important story parts Letter Recognition Alphabet Hunt on the Go: With clipboards, pencils and papers walk around the school looking for examples of each letter of the alphabet. Kids could write the letters as they see them or you could provide them with a checklist. Also, any of the Read the Room and Write the Room activities you see all over the web, at TPT and so on are great for getting students up and moving. Here are a few other resources I found with some terrific ideas: RMC Health - great post on the importance of exercise and movement based learning opportunities in schools Reading.org - useing movement andmusic to improve insttuction Ascd.org - resources on movement and learning Pbs.org - lesson plan resources that involve movement Dr. Martha Eddy's resources for incorporating movement in the classroom Please comment and let us know how you use movement in your language arts lessons. The more ideas we have, the better our instruction can be!
Stitching up a simple throw pillow is a fast, low effort way to spruce up any space. Our amazingly creative friend Lia Griffith shares a simple video on how to […]
Here are TEN great strategies to help improve reading comprehension for beginning readers in Kindergarten and first grade! These should be ...
Incorporating reading into your math lessons can be a great way to engage kids in math learning! Here are 5 simple ways to teach with math story books!
Fichas con actividades descargables para niños. Descubre nuevas fichas educativas con ejercicios y actividades para los niños.
I could never say enough positive things about using a work box system in the classroom-- for any child. I've used them with typically developing peers in the classroom as well and it's an amazing way to in-bed practice and skill maintenance, all while working on attending to a task as well. Over the summer I did a whole post on how I structure this system in my classroom. You can check it out {here}. But one thing I've never done is actually post photos of the activities I have in my boxes. My boxes have grown since I last posted a photo this summer. I have 83 work boxes available in my classroom at all times. I know that sounds like the only thing that make up the shelves in my classroom are work boxes, but I promise it's not. It might be close, but it's not! I don't have a lot of remaining storage in my classroom. So to constantly be changing out activities and finding a storage system for previous activities is a little challenging for me. So I prefer to just have a lot of boxes available. We also need a high number of boxes to complete each day. Let's break it down. I have 10 students total, 8 of whom complete work boxes at some point doing the day. Children complete anywhere between 1-10 boxes a day. Right now, as a class, we are completing 28 boxes a day. We come to school 4 days a week, so that's completing 112 boxes a week. And planning so strategically that a child doesn't repeat a box during the week. It's a huge planning challenge. And my paras are awesome at catching my goofs! I'm hoping to come across some appropriate shelving between now and the end of the year to expand our boxes even more. Sounds crazy I know, but it will make the planning challenge so much easier when there is a larger amount to pick from. So the whole point of this post-- what's in the boxes?! I use a combination of handmade activities, printable activities, and existing manipulatives from my classroom to make up my boxes. Our lowest tasks are simple "put-in" activities and our higher tasks include activities like capital and lowercase matching using clothespins and sight word matching mats. I've been trying to come up with more and more put-in activities so that's what I'm going to share with you today. In another post I'll share another category. For this activity I saved a small peanut can from the grocery store. (Yes I washed it out) I simply cut slits in the lid--these lids are super easy to cut into which is nice. It's the perfect height for dropping these mini popsicle sticks into. This activity is another saved container- an almond one. I have saved a ton of these! They are a great size and again, the lids are easy to cut into. This one has a circle in the middle of the lid and heart erasers to put into the container. This activity I found on pinterest. I simply saved a Parmesan cheese shaker, washed it out and added q-tips. When students open the box the cheese shaker is already open. (It would be too challenging for my little guys to get open independently- it's tough!) This task I clearly didn't make. It is courtesy of Lakeshore Learning. Students simply place the buttons in. This jar is one of three included in the pack and can be purchased by clicking {here}. If you wanted to make a more challenging task for a student you could place two jars into one task box so the student has to sort as well. This is the second jar included in the Lakeshore pack. I used another almond container for the activity. And obviously a hole punch to put the holes in the lid. Students have to put the beads into the container through the holes. I saw someone else blog about these small paint containers they found at the Dollar Store. They really are great! I bought four of them and used one for this work box. Students simply push the pom-poms into the container. This activity is similar to the Lakeshore bucket with buttons. I found the small yellow containers at the Dollar Tree in the baby section. They come in a multi-pack which is nice, BUT, they are a pain to cut holes in the top. It's a much harder plastic than I thought, and it cracked in the corners. If I hadn't gone through so much trouble to cut the slot in, I probably would have used another almond container. This was one of the first work box activities I made. I recycled a cookie dough container and cut holes in the lid. Then students just have to put pom-poms into the holes. I'd like to re-do this container at some point because most students catch on that the middle hole is big enough to just drop the pom-pom in versus pushing it through the hole. I don't know if you would call this a "put in" task, but I do. They're putting pegs in a peg board! I can also guarantee you that this peg board is older than I am. For this activity students push down the lever on the gumball machine to get a stone out, then they have to place the stone in the container. I liked the idea of students using their index finger to get the lever done-- additional fine motor practice. Sometimes more than one stone may come out, but that's okay. So there you have it. Those are our current "put in" activities. I hope you get some new ideas for your own work boxes from these. Next I'll share our sorting activities.
These reading logs will give you a range of choices for your students to track their reading at home.
How to adapt Reading A-Z books (or other leveled readers) to use during your Guided Reading instruction in self contained. Learn more at Mrs. D's Corner.
WOW Wonders of Water is part of It's Your Planet-Love It series. 1. Explore the wonders of water by finding out more about its importance and how it's used around the world. 2. Plan a Take Action project, such as making informative posters, promoting recycling at school, or planting low-water gardens. 3. Earn 4 leadership awards: The LOVE Water Award, the SAVE Water Award, the SHARE Water Award, and the WOW! Award. If you're a Girl Scout volunteer, go to Volunteer Toolkit for complete meeting pl
Read READIN & WORDS by ประพันธ์ เวารัมย์ แบ่งปันความรู้สู่ความก้าวหน้า on Issuu and browse thousands of other publications on our platform. Start h...
How to Think Visually Using Visual Analogies infographic from Anna Vital gives a great variety of examples for anyone to use when you create your own graphics. It begins with the most recognizable visuals, circle graphs and diagrams. Further down are abstract analogies. They are
Do you use visuals in your classroom? Visuals support students understand what you are trying to teach them. They encourage students to associate pieces of information with visuals. Visual learning helps you to store information for a longer period of time. It is said that videos and images are directly processed by long term memory. The visual ... Read More about Classroom Visuals
The Quebrada de Humahuaca is a beautiful valley in the Andes Mountains of Argentina. It is known for its colorful mountains, which are the r...
The eighth-graders have received with great enthusiasm the proposal to write their name in graffiti style, even though at the beginning they did not think to get results so beautiful! The process i…