3 Activities to Help You Teach During the Holidays
December can be a crazy time because kids and teachers alike are ready for winter break. You want to lean into the holiday magic but also want to continue the routines of learning that took…
5 Classroom Management Strategies For Whole Group Math and Literacy Activities
Do you feel like pulling your hair out when doing whole group math and literacy activities? It’s time to implement some classroom management strategies that will make your math activities and games engaging and fun.…
5 Things To Do During Back-to-School to Help Your Classroom Management All Year
It’s crucial to have a plan for classroom management during back-to-school season. A well-managed classroom sets the tone for a productive and fun learning environment, where our students can grow both academically and socially. Today…
Ideas for Teaching the 5 Types of Context Clues
Context clues instruction is something that should be taught all year. Kids need lots of practice not only identifying the different types of context clues but knowing how to figure out word meanings within a…
Easy Things to Assign For Substitute Teacher Lesson Plans
***To listen to the audio version of this blog post, scroll to the end of the post. One of the reasons it’s difficult to take days off as a teacher is because of the time…
How to Get Kids to Read Independently
Let's talk about how to get kids to do real independent reading. Independent reading is an important part of the literacy block. Kids need time to read on their own so they can apply the…
How to Make State Test Practice Engaging
It's that time of year again. Time to do some state test practice. Sound boring? Well, it can be if you just give kids test prep review packets, have them complete them and turn them…
3 Independent Reading Activities Your Kids Can Do While You Teach in Small Groups
What do the rest of the kids do while you teach reading in small groups or one-on-one? Today I'm sharing 3 activities your students can do independently. Let them choose their books. One activity for…
How to Easily Teach The Schwa Sound in Words
The schwa sound in words is one of the most common in the English language and yet it’s the trickiest to teach. The schwa sound is a weak unstressed sound that occurs in multisyllabic words.…
How to Deal with Makeup Work for Students That Are Out for an Extended Amount of Time
When students are out for an extended amount of time, it can be overwhelming to figure out how to handle makeup work. Here are 3 ideas for how to deal with makeup work when kids…