Need to practice or revise the Future Perfect tense? Here's our new reference poster from the 'Grammar' series that contains short, but oh so useful activities that you'll love! Click the i

Learn About the 7 Continents! Exploring the 7 Continents has never been more exciting! It’s a Small World Continent Study is filled with over 35 activities to help your students gain a greater understanding of the seven continents. This 130+ page unit is filled with great resources, posters, printables, activities, and projects that will open […]

Fun and engaging ESL activities, games and worksheets in printable PDF format with full teacher's notes and answers for English teachers to use in class.

Your ESL students have to write sentences following the example in the

Some time back, I noticed posters like this in our school hallways. I found out from learning support that they were to help the children learn self-regulation. The posters were based on a con…

Verb tenses explained for primary-school parents: present, past and future simple and continuous forms, with examples of use.

Music class is an active, engaging, and joyful experience! This is especially true when our musical activities are grounded in creative and intentional teaching strategies. One of the most important teaching strategies has to do with teaching the difference between steady beat and the rhythm of

A lot of times our students do not know how to communicate what they need in the moment. We can get to know our students by giving them a menu of options regarding things they need when they become upset, angry, nervous, worried, overwhelmed, and confused. Social emotional learning and coping strate...

Today I wanted to stop by and share some strategies for teaching vowel teams and diphthongs in our classroom! It’s always challenging to teach spelling patterns that aren’t easily decodable! […]

Grab a set of printable contraction puzzles to use in your next grammar lesson for kids! There are 84 awesome grammar contraction puzzles in the set!

The simple formula that will turn your child into a lifelong learner.

Every English language arts teacher needs a variety of successful, student led discussion strategies that will provide opportunities for student learning.

Find more education infographics on e-Learning Infographics Lev Vygotsky According to Vygotsky (1978) the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) relates to the difference between what a child can achie…

Students have to be able to choose the correct future form will or going to. Review the correct usage of each form prior to completion of the worksheet. There is a B&W and a key. 3 pages in all. - ESL worksheets

This introduction to poetry gives teachers ideas on teaching poetry minlessons that make a difference in how your students think about poems.

This is the second part of a mini series about songs for teaching parts of speech. If you missed the first post about nouns and verbs, you can find it here. Click on any picture

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.

My new obsession this year has been making and using anchor charts for my lessons. Here are just some of the anchor charts I have made this year. Some of these charts are original ideas but many are ideas I have seen and used from other teachers. I am not good at drawing so I use clipart from my computer to add pictures to my anchor charts. I print them out and glue them onto the chart! It’s so much easier and looks so much better than what I could draw! I also laminate my anchor charts so I can use them year to year. By laminating the charts I can easily write and erase on them by using an Expo marker. Click HERE to download the worksheet writing templates for opinion writing, informative writing, step writing, personal narrative writing, fictional narrative writing, and postcard writing that match these anchor charts from my TpT store! Click HERE to download the files needed to make the Sequence of Events and Transitional Word Examples anchor charts from my TpT store! Click HERE to download the file needed to make the Fiction/Non-Fiction Sort anchor chart from my TpT store! Click HERE to download the words I used on these anchor charts on my TpT store!

I so remember my first year as a new teacher! I wondered why I was even hired! (Did they not know that I didn't have a clue how to do ‘this teacher thing'?!) Yes, I had graduated with a degree, a teaching certificate, and had an idealistic philosophy of education (that had no basis in research […]

This blog post brings you tips for teaching verb tenses. It includes anchor charts, verb tense activities, and more for elementary grades.

Do you struggle with classroom management? Here are four strategies that you can add to your toolkit that will make it just a little bit more effective.

Take a G and an E and O, And add a little R-G-E, To a W-A-S-H, I...N...G If you add 2,000 pounds, That makes a ton, So what have you got? You've got a lot!

As Early Childhood Educators would agree, observing and documenting children’s learning and development makes up a large part of the job. Too much paper work and documentation is one complain…

Children need the experience of feeling emotions and practice tolerating them to develop self-control and emotional intelligence.

This FREE parallel lines cut by a transversal coloring activity doubles as a colorful reference poster or student notebook reference. Now includes a link to an interactive GOOGLE Slides version for online learning and teaching.

Le futur proche exprime une action qui aura lieu dans peu de temps. ACTIVITÉS Futur proche Complète les phrases en choisissant la forme correcte du verbe aller Clique sur les verbes qui sont au futur proche Hier ou demain? LIENS FUTUR SIMPLE

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

As Early Childhood Educators would agree, observing and documenting children’s learning and development makes up a large part of the job. Too much paper work and documentation is one complain…

Past, present, and future.

Making anchor charts has always been hard work for me. In fact, I never liked making anchor charts for the classroom. I did it because it helps the kids, but I am not a fan of my handwriting, my drawing is even worse, and let's not even talk about the time it takes to make nice looking anchor charts. As teachers, we do not possess much of that thing called, "time." I mean really, I found myself shoving down carrots and ranch dressing (because I want to be healthy) then devouring allll the chocolate (because I really don't care about healthy anymore) while making anchor charts. 30 minutes later, lunch was done, anchor chart almost complete...and oops...I misspelled the title. I mean really? Rip it off the chart paper pad, throw it in the trash, and rush out the door. Unfortunately, I didn't wise up for a long time. 8 years of teaching...and a light bulb goes off. Pre-make the anchor charts. In the comfort of my own home...I make the anchor chart...on the computer. Then print, and glue! Done, done...and done. Now...I still eat all the chocolate, but now I get lunch and I am no longer in the need of anger management courses over misspelled words. I may sound like a crazy person to you...but I know you have been there too. Honesty is the best policy. :) Now, I KNOW I am not the first one that has ever pre-made anchor charts, or printed items off of the computer for an anchor chart. I am in NO way claiming to be the first to do this. But, I have been a TpT seller for a few years now and the idea just popped into my head..."if I make all of my centers, lessons plans, etc...why not anchor charts?" And there you have it. Below are a few of the anchor charts I have made and so far I love them and other teachers are loving them. I waited to do this post until I knew others found a need for these too! And yes! I was not alone! It was confirmed I was not crazy and other teachers, in fact, DO have anger problems when it comes to making hand-made anchor charts. Many people have asked what products are needed to make these. I purchased my chart paper and Astrobrights paper from Amazon. Those two things (well, with scissors and glue) are all you need! Each Anchor Chart also comes with a student journal chart as well! The students can glue these in their journals for an easy reference later! I have also completed my Writing and Grammar Anchor Chart Bundles. And newly added, I have completed Classroom Management Anchor Charts! These are also included in the big bundle...if you have purchased that, just redownload it from the My Purchases tab on TpT. I figured these would be very beneficial to make at the beginning of the year with our students then either hang them up all year as a reminder...or just pull them out to review from time to time. Just depends on the students. :) There are many more but I won't bore you with all of the pictures. I feel like Classroom Management must be explained from the beginning and reinforced often. I know these anchor charts will help keep that process streamlined in your classroom! Making these are fun and easy! Most importantly, it saves time and SANITY. Want these for your classroom? Click Here to grab them in my shop! (affiliate links are provided for your convenience)

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Financially savvy kids are future leaders!

As much as I love to read, sometimes I dreaded teaching reading. I was reading by four and everything in language arts came easily to me – it just clicked. When I had students that didn’t improve their reading with my strategies, I didn’t understand why. Now that I am working with my son, I […]

Research based teaching strategies you can use today with a free printable chart.

Learn how to use the first conditional in English. Includes grammar rules and example sentences with the first conditional, also known as Type 1 conditionals.

Go beyond think-pair-share with ten discussion strategies that will engage your students in meaningful paired and small group discussions.

Hello again friends! I am back from my trip to Africa and can't wait to share my experiences training these wonderful teachers with you all!! This was one of the BEST groups of teachers I have ever had the pleasure of working with! 2. To open teachers' minds to a different way of teaching that

Thanks to Jackie at Room 213 for organizing this blog hop! It's so true, right? When I think about my own experiences as a learner, the times that I made the most profound instructional gains were when I felt that my teacher truly knew me and believed in me as a student. That's why I believe that the best learning always occurs when students feel a connection with their teacher...when they know that their teacher cares about them as a person. If you're reading this, then you already know that students don't care a bit about what they are being taught until they know that their teacher cares a bit about them. Any teacher checking out a blog about learning and instruction is one who is invested in their profession. So, the ideas that I'm about to share are probably not new...in fact, I bet you have a few ways that you build caring and compassion into your own instruction that I'd love to read about! However, I hope that these ideas remind us all about why we became teachers in the first place. We love learning. We love students. And showing them both each day is what matters. How often do you hand back a piece of student work to see them quickly scan for the grade and then toss it into a folder...or worse the garbage? That's why I love writing students fun notes on their papers. Instead of "good job," I like to write comments that show I know and care about them, like "Wow, use figurative language in your writing as well as you shoot 3-pointers!" I'm a huge fan of making positive phone calls home. They're such a wonderful way to build positive relationships with students and their families. You can read all about it HERE. I love watching my students excel in the classroom, but for many of them their true talents are on display at the band concert, or on the soccer field, or during the school play. That's why I try to reserve at least one night a month to attend students' extracurricular activities. There's nothing better than the connection between that student and I the next day in class! I've always heard that the best way to get your own children to listen is to whisper your message within their earshot to someone else. I like applying the same technique with students. When talking with colleagues I love to brag about individual students within earshot of them. Spreading the word about the great things kids are doing is super important! When the bell rings at the start of each class, I'm at the door to greet my students. I love giving them the impression that I can't wait to see them. It sets the tone for a caring classroom before the class even begins! On the first day of school I let my students know that I will be holding them to the highest behavior and academic standards. I want them to achieve beyond anything they have ever done before. That means that there are classroom management procedures in place. It also means that they might be redoing their work to meet my standards. This is the "tough love" part of showing them that I care. OK, this may be obvious, but I'll never forget when I was student teaching and my supervising teacher kept telling her students day-after-day how much she loved them. I was in awe of this. I've followed her lead and tell my students how much I care about them and my profession all the time...even when I'm stressed and tired and overwhelmed. I love creating homework and classwork with students' actual names in the assignments. I'm careful to make sure that their names are associated with positive things and connected to activities and hobbies they care about. It's not hard to do and kids love seeing their names in print. Celebrating students' learning and achievements is super important. I love to do it in little ways like hanging their work around the classroom and in big ways like planning events to celebrate their learning. As you know, teachers are human, too. One of the ways that I show students that I care about them is by trusting them with stories from my own life. I share information about my family, my life successes, and times when I have struggled. Sharing builds important connections. At the end of the (school) day, teaching is not about standardized tests, curriculum requirements, paperwork, data, and reports. I think it's about creating an environment where students want to learn because they know that their teachers care about their profession...and most importantly each of them. I love learning about my students through their own work as well. Units like this MEMOIR Writing Unit and this NARRATIVE Writing Unit are an awesome way to engage students in their learning and gain insight into their lives at the same time! Oh, and click HERE for a printable of the 'Teachers Care' poster (prints on legal-sized paper) and HERE for a printable of the 'Learning' poster (prints on standard-sized paper). Thanks for stopping by!