Tips for Primary Teachers.
Discover the perfect All About Me preschool activity designed for young kids! Get a free printable worksheet that's simple, engaging, and ideal for emergent readers. Download now!
Our Kindergarten teachers approached me with a request for an art project for the back cover of their memory books. The kids have filled out pages in their memory books all year and they wanted a colorful back cover. I found a fun and easy way to make fingerprint art on the Frogs Snails and Puppy Dog Tails blog. Then, we used a great end of year poem by Helen H. Moore. We started by dripping water in pans of … Read more... →
This post contains the animated short film "Glued." Download the accompanying handout leveled for upper elementary students to teach theme.
Into the woods ... in the classroom!
Print the cute and free "my little book of opposites" with images to color, cut, and glue! This is a perfect companion to Opposites by Sandra Boynton.
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Wild Thing Book Activities! This unit is fantastic for Maurice Sendak's book Where the Wild Things Are. Writing worksheet and craft included. Perfect for kindergarten or first grade!
This doodle book report is designed to get students reflecting on their reading in a really engaging way! The cinema-themed doodles make this doodle book review super fun! The best part? It’s easy to teach and simple for students to complete…and still, it makes students think! First, students complete a step-by-step planning guide. They’ll reflect on the book’s characters, plot, setting, and theme. In addition, they’ll review the book, identify an important quote, write a summary, describe the book in just three words, and even reflect on major plot moments. Next, they’ll use their insights from their planning pages to design a Doodle Book Review. Using a doodle template, they’ll create a book review like no other! It’s visually appealing and super motivating! This book report is so much fun! This Doodle Book Review includes: Detailed Lesson Plans (2 pages) Step-by-Step Book Review Planning Guide (2 pages) Doodle Book Review Ways to Use this Resource: Have students complete the Doodle Book Review after a whole-class novel study. Assign the book review as a book report project along with an independent reading program. Give to students to complete over a school break. Include the Doodle Book Review as part of a summer reading initiative. Provide as a creative book report option any time during the school year. Other Doodle and Do Resources… Doodle and Do Reading Skills bundle! - Making Inferences, Finding the Main Idea, Fact & Opinion, Sequencing, and Summarizing 5 Nonfiction Text Structure Mini-Units - Problem/Solution, Compare and Contrast, Descriptive, Chronological Order, and Cause and Effect How to Study for a Test Doodle Notes and 5 Learning Stations Writing Responses with Text-Based Evidence Doodle Notes and 5 Learning Stations You may also like: File Folder Book Report Listening Comprehension Unit - Based on a nonfiction passage about Malala Yousafzai 101 Writing Prompts - Students choose which creative prompt they would like to respond to. Following is Fun! Get the inside scoop on all store discounts, free products, and product launches. Just click the green “Follow Me” star under my store name on this page or click the green “Follow Me” star on my store homepage. Let’s Stay in Touch! Blog Pinterest Facebook Instagram *** Click HERE to receive the Brain Waves Instruction Newsletter filled with exclusive FREEBIES and Teaching Tips! Thanks! Brain Waves Instruction
Get ideas for teaching your preschooler from this list of preschool themes.
Haven't tried a book tasting with your students yet? This fun reading activity is an awesome way to introduce genres in your elementary classroom or library!
Practice 2D shapes with this cactus-themed matching game! Simply download, print, & laminate the shape matching game, & you're ready for some hands-on learning.
The Color Monster is the story of a monster who, with the help from a little girl, learns about his emotions through different colors. This book companion is the perfect cross-curricular addition to your classroom for teaching your students about their emotions. What is included? • Visual craft with step-by-step real picture sequencing • Writing activity (to go along with the craft - great for bulletin board displays!) • STEM emotion activity • Visual recipe to make monster cookies • 7 differentiated cut/paste worksheets (errorless included) • Task box emotion clip cards When do you use book companions? Book companions are a great addition to any reading or language arts block. They also serve as a great print-and-go lesson for any substitute binder. PLEASE NOTE * 1. You will need to purchase the book The Color Monster - A Story About Emotions by Anna Llenas to go along with the book companion and craftivity. 2. Part of this book companion is included in the January Mini Lesson Plan Pack. Connect with me: • Newsletter • Blog • Facebook • Instagram • Pinterest • Don't forget about the green ★ to follow my store to get notifications of new resources and freebies! Thanks for Looking and Happy Teaching!
Mo Willems' Book Characters are my inspiration this school year! It took me a week to complete my Mo Willems Inspired Classroom...
Check out these teaching ideas for the novel Wonder by RJ Palacio and grab free Wonder Novel Study samples and discussion questions.
If you're looking for Free Printable Worksheets for Preschool & Kindergarten, then look no further. Check out this list of free printable worksheets that I've created for preschoolers and kindergartners. You'll find math and literacy,
Are you doing some Rs this summer? R is for reflect: Reflect over your past year. What went right? What should be tweaked? No matter how long you've taught, there is always something that needs to be polished a little. R is for relax: Take some me time this summer. Sleep in, read a good book, spend some quality time for friends and family or whatever is your favorite way to relax. You will be a better teacher next year if you take time to relax this summer. One year when I was doing some reflecting after a challenging year, I decided that I needed to make some changes. More and more demands were being placed upon us . . . new curriculum, training to go along with this, and data collection just to name a few. All of this without giving us more prep time to do these extra chores. It is very easy to let all of these extra things stress us out, damage our health, and take away our enthusiasm for our job. I decided that I needed to work smarter, utilize what work time I did have at school wisely. Can you relate? Do you need to do this, too? Do you have so much free time at school that you offer to help your friends with their work? I'm guessing that this isn't the case for you, if you are like most teachers. Do you have a buddy teacher that has a similar philosophy as you? Would you be willing to split some of your teacher chores with this buddy? I've done this different ways through the years. My all time favorite system was when I taught next door to a teacher who hated the paperwork end of teaching but loved being outside. Maybe it's because I'm too hyper, but for me, recess duty is my version of teacher torture. Standing there or walking around watching children play is too sedentary for me. From my very first year, I have hated recess duty. I've done it because it is required and children need the fresh air and exercise. But, I did not enjoy it. Then I began teaching with a teacher who was the yin to my yang. She hated all of the paperwork, lesson planning, copying, and other stuff like that I loved. Luckily, we had similar teaching styles. So, I planned 2 weeks at a time. Organized each week in a big rubbermaid tub. There were six folders in the tub. Monday - Friday folders had all of the things needed for lessons (books, worksheets, etc.) and the sixth folder had all the supplies needed for the centers. I taught with tub A and my buddy used tub B the first week, then we switched tubs the following week. It was perfect! She was perfectly happy doing recess duty every day. I was perfectly happy taking the extra time from not doing recess duty to plan for both of us. Here's the thing . . . I would have made those plans for myself anyway. The only extra work that was involved was to make the copies for her. How hard is it to make an extra class set of copies for a week's worth of work and organize them in a tub? Our principal was happy with our arrangement because he knew that with the extra time I had to plan, I was making better quality lesson plans. My buddy and I were happier and less stressed. Isn't that what every principal wants? So, this summer take the time to come up with a plan to work smarter. There are many ways you can do it. I was thinking about centers. They can be a wonderful addition or they can be a thorn in your side if your students don't understand the directions and are constantly interrupting your small group lesson with questions. Centers have worked both ways for me. One way to work smarter with centers is to have some centers that have the same format week after week. Not that your students will do the exact same lesson, but that the type of activity remains the same so they will know exactly what the expectations are when they go to that center. I have phonics skill books that can be used for this type of center. They are sold in packets with 4 books that will have enough lessons for an entire month. All you will need to do, as far as preparation, is make 4 mini-books/student each month. (Hint: This would be a great thing for a parent volunteer to do for you.) Students will complete 2 pages of their mini-book each day. Turn in the mini-book on Friday. The benefits are: Ask a parent volunteer to come in once a month to make all of the mini-books for entire month. Now you have one center planned and finished for an entire month. Cross one thing off your to do list! Easy to grade because it is all in one neatly stapled booklet. Students seem to lose one booklet less often than when they have to keep up with 4 or 5 individual pages. Less incomplete or missing work means less stress for you and happier students plus parents. Each mini-book is a review of important skills like vowels, digraphs, syllables, and word families that we don't always have time to go over during whole group or small group lessons. Save some of the booklets for their portfolios to show growth over time. Each booklet has a theme so you can use them to enrich your language arts, social studies, or science lessons. Below is a sneak peek of the Camping Book. There is a black and white version of each mini-book and a colored copy so you can also make this a self-checking center. Would you like to try this out? Click HERE to download the black and white version of my Camping mini-book. Click HERE to check Pencil Pals: Camping, Desert, Farm Zoo Click HERE to check out Pencil Pals: Ocean, Garden, Summer & School This one has a mini-book called School Time which is perfect for your Back to School lessons. Are you planning a camping theme for End of the Year, Summer School, or Back to School? This Camping color by code packet is a fun way to review the following skills: homophones plural nouns contractions synonyms antonyms abbreviations long vowels blends I have organized a Pinterest board with themes that you can use for units and classroom decor. Be sure to follow this board because I will be updating this board. Sources to make my blog post graphics can be found HERE. Click HERE to read my blog's disclosure statement.
Engage your students with some this wonderful book study to correlate with the cute book We Don't Eat Our Classmates by Ryan T. Higgins.
FREE printable book activity for toddlers to go along with Eric Carle's Brown Bear book. Great for toddlers and preschoolers who are learning colors and animals!
We love connecting projects to books, and we're always inspired by the amazing group of bloggers who participate in the Virtual Book Club for Kids (you can also check the club out on Facebook) as the group comes up with some great extension activities each month. This month's author was Leo Lionni. We chose to read and do a project using a book we've really been enjoying lately, A Color of His Own. This is the sweet tale of a little chameleon who is looking for one color to stay all the time, but keeps running into that challenge that chameleons change color. In the end, he winds up finding a friend to always be with so they can at least always be the same color together. I've used this book in the past as a primary teacher. It's a great way to talk about friendship and also about what makes us each unique. My boys have been loving the simple tale and the colorful illustrations this spring. For our activity extension we decided to use cray-pas and watercolors. I love how colorful this art technique can be. I sketched several chameleon outlines onto white drawing paper using permanent marker. (I'm including a printable copy here in case you just want to print one out, or use the printable to trace onto thicker paper.) Afterwards the boys and I each colored in a chameleon using the cray-pas. Big Brother and I thought about ways to create different patterns. Little Brother focused on just coloring his in, using mostly one color. After we were done coloring, we watercolored on top of the cray-pas. The watercolor doesn't stick to the cray-pas, and fills all the white spaces around it. We all had different strategies for painting. When they were done I cut the three chameleons out and we hung them in our play room. I love how they are a set but each one unique. That's part of what can also make this project a great classroom activity, especially for the start of a school year. Or turn it into a fun family project, with each family member creating a chameleon to represent themselves. What Leo Lionni books does your family enjoy? Have you read this one yet? This post may also have been shared at some of these terrific link parties.
After Jack and Annie spent an afternoon in the Amazon rainforest dodging mangos and facing perhanas, crocodiles, vampire bats, and army a...
We LOVE activities to go with books! This Free Printable Mouse and Cookie Hat is a fun activity for your kids to recall and retell the story.
Activities Inspired by Ish by Peter Reynolds
Help kids celebrate the end of the year with this super cute FREE Kindergarten Memory Book so you can remember all the special moments as Kindergartners.
I think it is so important for students to take ownership of their learning environment. I want the students to feel at home in our classroom and feel like it is their room. This year, I had the students create our alphabet chart so it was THEIR alphabet chart using their handprints. Students were so excited about this activity. Each student was able to create a letter so it became their letter. I added the little details that were finishing touches to each of the letters. It was such a fun project to complete! The students were so happy to see their handprints hung on the wall and it made them so excited about our alphabet chart since it was created by them. They enjoyed it so much, thay I also created a class handprint alphabet book for our classroom library. Is is such a great way to get students interested in learning the letters of the alphabet. This can also be made into students handprint alphabet books. You can check out this product in my TPT store by clicking on the image below. Included are directions and examples to make each of the letters, the letter and the word for each letter as well as a template for an alphabet book. For the posters, all consonants are in blue and vowels in red to help students learn to identify vowels. It is an editable product so if you have a different picture that you wish to use for one of the pictures, you will be able to! I also made little flashcards to match the handprint pictures. They can be used to help students learn letter names and letter sounds and also learn the vocabulary of the pictures. You can download the flashcards for free by clicking on the image below.
Open House is next week which involves a lot of planning and organizing the art work. This year in Texas, we are celebrating the Arts...
Preschoolers have BIG FEELINGS. Having a preschool emotions sensory bin in the classroom is perfect for the beginning of the school year.
Try one of these Preschool human body activities that are guaranteed to get your child interested in the human body and all the amazing things it does.
Inspiration, tips, and sources for creating a nature themed classroom for your middle school or high school students!
Great for community helper themes and the beginning of school! Space for writing and pictures! Visuals on the bottom for cues and support!
FREE printable All About Me Pack for preschool and kindergarten featuring the child's name, handprint, favorite things, eye and hair color, self-portrait and family portrait.
Art enrichment activity. Create a nighttime scene inspired by the wordless book Flashlight by Lizi Boyd. Camping theme. Story elements. Illustrations.
Use these Spiders FREE Mini-Book and Writing Reflection. I made this reader so my kids could be as excited about learning about spiders as I get excited teaching about spiders.
These book based activities for My Mouth is a Volcano provide great opportunities for talking about self-control and not interrupting.
