This past week I attended a PD session facilitated by Peter Liljedahl entitled Building Thinking Classrooms. Two things I noticed right ...
In the Triangle Sums Puzzle, you are challenged to arrange the numbers 1 to 9 in the squares so that the sum of the numbers in each pair of squares is the
Love this math station I spotted in 5th grade recently. Students use playing cards to find range, median, and mode. Fun and simple activity!
Hi guys! Happy Friday! I’m sitting at Starbucks and wanted to stop by and share some must-haves for every classroom. When these ideas were originally spinning in my brain, I […]
The activities below are available for free download, and are to be used in educational and/or private settings. They may not be used elsewhere or for other purposes (such as for profit) unless exp…
5 Activities to Teach Angles
Bethany from Math Geek Mama is here with us today with a great active math game – puddle jumping! It’s good for all ages and especially for kids who love move around. Puddle Jump: A Get Up and Move Math Game Practicing math facts or learning to count and recognize numbers can be challenging for […]
Kindergarten homework made easy! Find a simple and effective way to do homework in kindergarten with these printable and editable homework calendars.
Telling the Tme Game using cute, free insect printables in a clock activity for learning to tell the time with bug theme activities.
Into the woods ... in the classroom!
Hello Everyone! I hope you're having a great weekend!! It has finally stopped raining here and we were able to get outside for a bit. The sunshine felt so good!! And the dogs....They were so ready to play, play, play!! We finally wore them out, so it's now time to get some school stuff done! We have parent/teacher conferences tomorrow all day, so my first big job was to get ready for that, organizing test scores, writing samples, math notebook samples, etc. I really love meeting with parents and sharing what their little ones are working on. And getting to know my kids better by getting to know their parents is so incredibly helpful!!! I'm very thankful for a full day to meet with everyone! So, with that all organized, I now have time to share my new Matter unit with you. It has a little bit of everything for our young scientists, but there is an emphasis this year on the properties of matter, and not so much the states of matter. Here are some quick pics! I will take some pictures this week of kids working on this. Hopefully I'll have time to share those in a bit! Till then, here's the link to the downloadable unit so you can get started too!!! I hope you and yours have as much fun as my kids have had so far! CLICK HERE for the printable "Matter Matters" unit!! Thanks for stopping by this little blog! If you have any questions, problems, or concerns, please don't hesitate to holler at me! I am not too sure the comment section has been working lately, so just email me! [email protected] Thanks, All!! Joyfully! Nancy
We are on our 4th week of measurement in my class! PTL the rulers are put away this week because we've moved onto learning about area! After 3
These English teacher supplies are must haves for quick ELA lesson plans. Pair your back to school wish list with ideas for English teachers!
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Have fun creatine shapes and images with these Autumn Geoboard Pattern Cards. Geoboards are nut only fun, but great for teaching beginning math skills!
When you walk into an interview for a teaching job, you want to feel confident in your skills but also your ability to show them off! In some careers, a resume’ listing experience might be enough, but in teaching, I think it’s a huge boon to go into an interview with a portfolio that really shows the details of that “elementary teacher” position you’ve had (or student teaching). It’s been awhile since I added my On The Hunt for a Teaching Job series, but I know seeing others’ portfolios really helped me (especially as a new teacher!) so I want to share mine. For my portfolio, I picked up a professional binder. Yes, it’s expensive, but you want the cover to say, “I’m credible and you need to look at me!” I used a pre-made Word template to make a cover page and added a photo of me with my class as well as my contact information. In the pocket, I include a resume, and the inside has a matching cover page that works sort of like an informal cover letter. I started with my favorite teaching quote, and used it as a springboard to describe my passion for teaching. I didn’t rehash my resume’ here- but instead wanted to get them interested in me. (Note: Please feel free to use something similar, but please DON’T copy exactly what I wrote. You want it to be unique to YOU!) Another option is to make a brochure. This is really great to leave after an interview, especially if it has a picture so they remember which face goes with which name! Inside, I use dividers to make it clear where I can find certain things. Notice that I said “I can find,” not “the administrator can find.” Administrators may never ask to see your portfolio or have time to do much with it, but if you happen to be in for an interview, a portfolio can be SO helpful! You can see my dividers here, now that I have a few years of experience: Here, you can see my dividers before my last update, when I hadn’t taught in my own classroom. In the past, I just stuck in pages of things I’d done. Most were printed out worksheets, assessments, parent notes, etc. And that was okay, but this time around I decided to show a little more. One HUGE benefit of blogging is that I take lots more pictures of the things going on in my classroom. So, for instance, when I wanted to show my creative lessons, ta – da! I wanted to showcase classroom management, and again, I already had the photos. It’s a great way to not just tell what I would do, but show it. I want principals to be able to imagine me and my classroom in their school! I still kept examples of work and other things behind each section, but these pages made it look really polished. Even if you’re not going to post them on a blog, I’d recommend finding a cheap point-and-shoot camera (or even a smartphone, if you have one) to take photos of your classroom and projects you do. It really helps when a principal wants to imagine you not in a suit, sitting in the office, but in classroom working with students. What’s really great about these pages is that you can print another copy (or go to FedEx Office for more color copies if you just have way too much money) and leave a mini-portfolio at schools without having to leave your nice binder. I used these mini-portfolios when I dropped off resume’s in person, too! When you consider what to include, make sure you think about the basics (classroom management, reading, math, engaging instruction, differentiation, assessment and data, organization), but don’t forget to include a section with your credentials and any honors/ certificates/ professional development/ licenses you may have! (Page protectors will keep you from having to hole punch those important papers.) Think about what makes you unique as a teacher. When they say, “What are your strengths?,” what will you show them? Don’t be afraid to make it unique and bright! For some other professions, you might not want to add color or any element of cute, but I think as long as it looks professional, colorful works really well for standing out. If you’re new here, be sure you check out the rest of this series and my new teacher tips! Next in the On The Hunt series: How to Stand Out (Even Before a Teaching Interview) Thanks for visiting!
The creativity and generosity of the online teaching community never ceases to amaze me. I have spent a couple of weeks collating resources for my department from my Twitter back catalogue, an…
Free Download of Cover the Camel Puzzle. Can you arrange the given pieces to completely cover the image of the camel?
Exploring matter and energy in kindergarten and first grade is so much fun. Watching little ones see the objects around them scientifically is exciting and a tad bit adorable. But nothing beats the surprise as they see matter change before their eyes. Teaching states of matter may take a lot of preparation and experiments, but
An Elementary Teaching Blog with tips, ideas and freebies for your classroom. For new teachers and seasoned teachers alike!
