This blog post has a link to a table of my favorite Google Fonts to use in resources for my middle school students. Learn how to embed fun fonts into your Google digital resources and grab this freebie table of my favorite fonts!
Nehemiah was an Israelite leader in the days following the Babylonian exile. He was instrumental in the project of rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem. These activities are related to Nehemiah.
I have a confession to make. During my years in the science classroom, I was never able to sustain a long-term warm-up or bell-ringer routine with my
FREE science emergent reader book about the human body systems. Great science activity for preschool and kindergarten.
Organizing your life, school, work and so much more using Microsoft Onenote!
Writing Worksheet – Fixing Plot Holes (PDF) How to Fill a Plot Hole Plot holes are almost inevitable at some stage in any piece of longer writing, and in my experience, fixing them can be the most disheartening job of the writer. Print out this worksheet, pour yourself a drink and sit down to untangle those snags!
I am so excited to launch my first "series" of blog posts! It's making me feel all grown-up and blogger-like :)My first series is going to be on increasing student engagement in the classroom. Over
I'm glad you asked! Talkify is an interactive resource from ABCYa.com that is my new favorite tool for my non-readers.
Just a quick post to share a school counseling documentation form I created to accompany a referral packet to the special education department. It's the week after conferences and spring break, so I'm a bit short on time. There is more I would like to share about documentation and how that plays into organizing and running an elementary counseling program with 1,700+ students and just little ol'me. (Okay, I'm not that little...but I'm getting off the subject.) For the sake of time management, I leave you with a free download of my counseling services documentation form for now. I will
This game is one of my favorite games ever. It’s killer easy and it’s way fun. You can use candy (M&Ms are my favorite) or any other type of marker (I’ve used Cheerios, Goldfi…
Have you ever thought about using wordless videos in your speech therapy lessons? It increases engagement! Start with these videos...
I recently blogged about how I created policies and procedures that incorporated character education in my classroom. My post also includes a checklist of policies and procedures that teachers can use when planning for the new school year. Use this checklist as you review your own policies and procedures for the upcoming school year if ... Read More about Classroom Policies and Procedures Checklist
Help the after school time with your kids go smoothly using these 80 amazing ideas!
If you want your children to learn more about body organs and their functions, these human body printables for kids are just what you need!
Get this free magnet worksheet to use when you test the magnetism of everyday objects. Perfect for kids ages 4-6!
Have you ever thought about using wordless videos in your speech therapy lessons? It increases engagement! Start with these videos...
Help the learning process with these simple strategies for making studennt thinking visible. Perfect for middle and high school English classes.
Learning about the human anotomy is fun and easy for kids with My First Anatomy game. Identify, match, and learn! We are fearfully and wonderfully made!
Two Points: This is MY method, and not necessarily right for you, your teaching or care philosophy, your set-up, or your students. Curriculum participation by my students is VOLUNTARY. I invite them to participate, but if they choose not to, then that is fine. I usually offer them a choice of a few of the activities and let them decide where we start and where we go. An engaged child learns, a dis-engaged child rebels. The 3-year rotating curriculum is theme based. Some times we stick to the plan, but usually I observe what they are interested in learning about, what they are asking questions about, and suggest up to three different themes they can choose from for us to study. I make my own 3-year rotating curriculum for many reasons: Packaged curriculum is often only one year. Since I teach for 3 years, this would be redundant. Most packaged curriculum focuses on skills my students master early. My 2s count to 20, know 11 colors, know most of their phonics, uppercase and lowercase letters, 10 shapes and some of their numbers and I still have 3 years of curriculum to teach them. They often are worksheet intensive. My students usually are cognitively advanced from their fine motor skills. I have 4 year olds that still can't write well. If I had relied on worksheets for the last 2 years, there is no way they would have the skill sets they have. Worksheets are also not considered Developmentally Appropriate Practice [DAP] for children under the age of 8. We use them here for writing practice starting at age 4. [Yes, worksheet-intensive public schools are not using DAP for kindy through 3rd grade!] They can be expensive. If you are purchasing worksheets, why would you spend even $1 a week/$52 a year when you can purchase a 400 page Scholastic preschool workbook from Sam's Club for $8 that covers probably more material, is most likely aligned with the public school expectations, and is colorful. Colored copies are NOT affordable to make from packaged curriculum. Most [ALL!] preschool learning should be interactive. Pinterest is a better source for ideas. My students change every time I do a theme. I have to be able to tweak it to the interests and capabilities of those currently in my care. Plus, I'll find more interesting activities on Pinterest, have an idea for a new game, etc. It's a constant evolution to keep my curriculum relevant to our current group, situation and resources. However, curriculum planning and creation is very time consuming. Even with older curriculum I spend several hours going over it prior to teaching - updating, creating new materials, purchasing and setting new classroom decorations. While I have had my 3 year curriculum, this year I found myself wanting a more specific schedule to focus on specific skill sets for this particular group of children. Most of these skills can be incorporated into our themed curriculum, or they take 5 minute sessions to pop into our day. I have two groups, the younger preschoolers are 2-3 years old and the older ones are 4-5 years old, all at the same developmental and skill set level within their group. This makes it easier, as I can tailor everything to just 2 groups. If I were to have additional levels of children, then it would be tailored to each level. Children here are taught at their developmental level, not age. Asychronastic development is normal, so I may be teaching a child at various levels depending upon the subject matter. For the younger preschoolers, I came up with this structure. For the older pre-k students, I came up with this one. For instance, both of them have Measurement & Comparison on Friday for Reasoning. However, for the younger students, this would be a more/less, longer/shorter, big/little, etc. activity, while the older students would be measuring with rulers, yardsticks, tape measures, measuring cups, unit blocks, foot steps or themed units, and graphing the measurements to compare. Same skill set, differentiated at vastly different levels. Even this needs conditional tweaking. All the pre-k's know how to spell their last names now, so that is no longer a relevant skill activity for music and will be changed out. In another post I'll get into the curriculum components and the importance of each. For instance, how counting on Friday teaches 1-to-1 correspondence and creating method processes for counting groups of objects. CLICK PICTURES TO VIEW LARGER I use this MS Word template, available for FREE on TPT, for curriculum planning. Often, the daily skill sets above are either already incorporated, or can easily be incorporated, into the theme planning. For an example of a completed curriculum unit, check out our Owls Theme. Each monthly theme is broken down into 4 sub-themes. For instance: SPACE Astronauts & Rockets The Universe Our Solar System Aliens & Robots We also have a musical component, often classical, and an art component, often a master, and Spanish vocabulary component that we incorporate. This planning form may not include all games, file folder games, manipulatives, room-set up, etc. that I utilize. For those of you trained in curriculum creation, I do NOT do a full curriculum development for each activity. With having these children usually from infant to school-age, I keep an internal evaluation of progression and plan out only weekly learning objectives. Since I am creating the activities for my personal use, I do not need to create written procedures and evaluations. My curriculum is stored currently in file folders in a large office bookcase unit. I would like to get it into boxes so that I could have EVERY theme-related item, including dress-up, room set-up, manipulatives, etc. together for an easy pull. File boxes will most likely be the easiest, but they do take up a lot of space. In each file some of the things I probably have: Completed planning sheets All the books I own for that theme Flannel board Sentence and word walls File folder games Samples of previous crafts DVDs CDs Coloring pages Mini-book(s) Build-a-[theme item] game Curriculum creation is one of my great joys. I love the research and compilation, the creativity and excitement of bringing something fun and educational to my students. Learning is rarely linear. Children take developmental leaps, sometimes in odd directions. As a teacher, it is important that I keep each one challenged without pushing or inhibiting their growth, and that takes constant evaluation and a good eye for when those leaps happen so that we can move on to a higher level of instruction. When we do an activity, I constantly question if they WANT to do another round, another activity, and I usually cut them off while they are still engaged. I want them wanting more, and they will usually ask if they can continue. One of the most important desires and abilities I can instill in them is that of self-directed learning. So as they choose to go off with their rulers after we've spent several minutes doing a measuring activity, conferring between themselves as to procedures and what to measure next, I step back and let them. They know I am here as a resource, rather than an intrusive director. It is my job to ensure that when I invite my students to learn, they glow with excitement and anticipation of a fun, interactive, playful time. The results, so far, have been astounding. A few of my complete curriculum units are available through my TPT store. Apples Dental Ice Cream Penguins Rainbows St. Patrick's Day Valentine's Follow Connie -'s board Classroom on Pinterest. Tags: preschool, child care, pre-k, curriculum, development, teaching, education, homeschooling, homeschool, home, school, preschool curriculum development, planning
We are currently doing a short study of the human body. We recently finished up our unit on the Brain and Nerves, and here are some of the activities we did and resources we used.
I have plans to do a few sets of printable packs based on social concepts. I've already done two on feelings and emotions, but I wanted to get into other realms as well. So, to
Google Docs for School Counselor Organization As a school counselor, I love using Google Docs to help organize my work life. Last year, as a new school counselor, I began creating docs to organize my schedule, small groups, goals, and more! I referred to the docs often throughout the school year and am thrilled to be able to use them again this year. The best thing about Google Docs is that you can easily make a copy and then tweak them for the following school year. In this post, I will share 6 Google Docs that you can tweak for your own use. How to Use Shared Docs All of the docs below are Shared Docs. Customize them to meet your needs by following these steps: 1) Open the doc by clicking on the image below 2) Click on "Make a Copy" 3) Rename your doc 4) Customize! Classroom Counseling Sign-Up Form Do you schedule monthly lessons with your teachers? The doc below will help you gather quick info to make scheduling a breeze. Before sending this doc to teachers, I type their names on the left side of the doc and color code them by grade level. Then, I share the doc with my staff and ask them to type in their two preferred days and times for me to do my classroom counseling lessons. This form helps SO much with scheduling because I can almost always choose a preferred time for each teacher. Classroom Counseling Schedule Once teachers have chosen their preferred days/times, I schedule classroom lessons for the first semester. On average, I see each classroom once a month. Scheduling lessons for an entire semester allows me to get everything written down in my planner well in advance. Then, I can plan individual check-ins, small groups, and meetings around the classroom lessons. This form is organized the same way as the sign-up form. If you want to create a page for the second semester, simply copy and paste the chart onto the next page. Character Traits Plan Last year, I based my monthly classroom lessons on character traits. This next doc was a lifesaver! On the first page of the doc, I made a chart for all of the traits I planned on teaching about in my classroom lessons. Throughout the school year, when I thought of a great idea, I added them to the chart as a way to collect my ideas. The second page of the doc is where the magic happened. For each character trait, I made a chart of how I planned on teaching the topic in every grade level. This was very helpful because I was able to see how my lessons built upon each other and got more complex in each grade level! Small Group Schedule and Lesson Plans Up next is a doc that I made for scheduling and planning my small groups. The first page of the doc shows you how I organized my small groups. I made a page like this for every grade level. Whenever I went to pick up students for a small group, I took this page with me so I would not forget anyone! I also made a copy of this page for each classroom teacher to give them easy access to the dates, times, and students in their grade level's small groups. I used the second page of the doc to create lesson plans for each small group. At the top of the doc, I wrote measurable goals for the group. On the right side, I typed in each student's name and used an "X" to keep track of their attendance at each group session. The rest of the doc was used for lesson planning. Since I used this as a digital doc, I could easily move items around in my lesson plan if I did not get to them each week. Yearly Counseling Tasks Do you have trouble remember what tasks you need to complete each month? Me too. I made the next doc to help me remember my reoccurring monthly tasks. For example, every August, I will need to prepare my new student folders. In September, I will need to organize my bullying awareness lessons. In October, I will need to plan for Red Ribbon Week. And so on :) Last school year, I used this doc to list each monthly task and then used the strikethrough feature when the task was complete. At the end of the school year, I turned all of the text back to normal and will re-use this form again this school year! Counseling Goals The last doc I am sharing today is my counseling goals doc. At the beginning of the school year, I came up with several long term and short term goals. The long term goals are my "bucket list" items (ex: getting a therapy dog)!! The short term goals are items I planned on accomplishing during the school year. I shared this doc with my administrator so he could see what goals I was working on. Follow the directions on the doc to learn how to turn checkboxes into checkmarks to keep track of your goals! I hope you found all of these docs helpful! Leave a comment with your favorite docs or tell me about what kind of docs you would love me to create. I would be happy to share more docs in the future! Stay Organized this School Year Looking for more ways to stay organized this school year? I love helping other counselors with organization! Check out some of my favorite resources below. Everything you need to document your sessions and stay organized! -Intake & Progress Notes Forms -Check In Form -Student Schedule Form -Small Group Lesson Template -Counseling Referral Forms -Phone Call Log -Meeting Notes & Notes Page -Weekly To Do List -And more! My School Counselor Planner is a practical, ink-saving weekly planner for documenting sessions, lessons, meetings, and more! Each two-page spread contains a weekly view for you to document your daily events. The day is divided into 15 minute intervals (7:00-4:00) with additional space to record events before and after school. My planner has free yearly updates! Interested in the documentation pack AND the planner? Check out my BUNDLE to save $$$. If you love using Google Drive to keep you organized, check out the resource above. It contains 70 Google Slides files to help you organize your school year! If you are new to my blog, please take a moment to follow me for more school counselor organization tips and creative lesson ideas!
Hey there! I’m super excited to share my latest DIY project with you! It has to do with one of my favorite parts of the day… brain breaks! We all get to that point during the day when we just need a BREAK! Students, teacher, moms, we all do! This past year, I remembered that ... Read More about We All Need a Little {Brain Break}!
Do you want to know the secondary classroom procedure I can't live without??
Find out how we are using reflex integration therapy to treat ADHD. My kids are gaining more control over their emotions and improving their focus.
Find short stories difficult to teach? Here are five of my favourites that your students will love to analyze. A free lesson plan will be available, too!
Back in the day when I taught at a public school, I didn’t even think twice about my scope and sequence. This was all provided for me and standardized across
Foster a love for science with these fun experiments perfect for even the youngest scientists .
Our team of therapists created Shape Book Activity Worksheets that target individual occupational therapy goals and incorporate unique learning style.
Is homework stressing you out? Here are my top 6 strategies for simplifying your homework systems.
Have you ever thought about using wordless videos in your speech therapy lessons? It increases engagement! Start with these videos...
Human body activities and free printables for kids.
I love using body percussion in my music classroom. It's an effective way to TEACH Beat too. So, here are my easy body percussion activities.
With so many schools shut down because of the COVID-19 pandemic, educators around the world are scrambling to turn their warm, cheerful classrooms into
After 17 years of homeschooling--I've tried a lot of curriculums! Discover my top 12 homeschool curriculums--old favorites and new treasures!
Let's be honest - there is only so much we can learn in our undergraduate courses, student teaching experiences, and alternative certification programs. At the end of the day, so much that I've learned about being a teacher, and teaching biology specifically, has been through trial and error. If we want to get fancy, we can call it "action research" in my own classroom, like my graduate professors referred to it.
For all my professional ladies, this one's for you! Here are my top tips for how to manage multiple projects at the same time - like a pro!
Keep all of your lesson plans for the whole school year in one streamlined easy-to-access place with a Google Sheets Lesson Plan Template!
Free printable tangrams and tangram pattern cards. These activity sheets are great for preschool math learning centers. Students work on building different animals, objects and shapes.
Find out how we are using reflex integration therapy to treat ADHD. My kids are gaining more control over their emotions and improving their focus.
My Favorite Creation Apps for the Elementary Classroom
