Here we are again - another month of AMAZING bloggers getting together to share some Bright Ideas. This time I'd like to share some ideas for those wiggly, bouncy, chatty, energetic, wonderful, kinesthetic learners. We all know 'em. We all have 'em. I think kinesthetic learners would pretty much describe almost every child in my class in 1st grade. Maybe it's the age, or maybe it's just my group of lovelies this year - but either way, I think all primary teachers can agree that it pays to have some strategies in your back pocket to break out when you see the wiggles start kicking in. Not to mention that most children learn best by doing. All of the ideas I'm going to share are ones I use in my classroom. I'm not claiming to have created these ideas, and I'm sure many teachers use the same ones, but I just wanted to share what I do. I hope you will see something that inspires you and you can try out in your own classroom. I named these ideas just to help explain, but if there is another name for them that maybe I don't know about or if there is an original creator, please feel free to let me know. I will always give credit where credit is due. So let's start with some ELA ideas: Whole Body Spelling is using your whole body to form letters to spell a word. You could do this with sight words or other spelling words. You can do it in the classroom, but my students love going outside to do this. We even go out in the winter and do this in the snow. Write in the air is just a quick way to practice spelling. We use our fingers in the air as if we are writing and spell words out loud together. This is a hard one to capture in a picture, but here is my attempt. Maybe you can tell that they are spelling the word again. :) Listen and Jump is something we do when reviewing sight words, rhyming words, or vocabulary words. In this picture all the kids have sight words and when I say a word that they have, they jump up in the air. They LOVE this one! Sometimes I will give them other words and say if your word rhymes with "cat" then jump up or if your word starts with a "b" sound jump up. This is also fun because a couple kids might jump up at the same time. Again - simple, but gets 'em moving. Lifesize Making Words - We use letter cards to spell words. As we stretch out the sounds the kids will either stand up or hold up their letter. Sometimes we have vowel teams and those kids link up their arms and say their sound together or we put a Super E at the end of the word and have him/her flip the vowel sound. The person holding the vowel turns around in a circle and says the long vowel sound instead. Acting out phonics is something that really helps my lower readers. They seem to remember things like flipping the vowel and linking arms and so on. Great visual for the whole class. Finally, and probably our MOST favorite, is a variation of the game Hullabaloo. This is such a cute game and my 3 and 5 year old girls really love playing this at home. In the actual game there are rubber mats that have pictures and words with things like animals, food, instruments, etc. You spread these out on the floor randomly. Then you turn on the "announcer". The announcer says things like "Slither over to a yellow mat" or "Hop over to a food". The kids move around and find the mats he's talking about. Then he will say something like, "If you are standing on the elephant you win - take a bow." It's super cute! So I decided to make this into a classroom game to practice word families and as we learn new spelling patterns. I use these pack of foam shapes that I got from the Dollar Tree. Then I write words on them using a sharpie. Right now we are working on long vowels so the pack of words I'm using has CVCe words, vowel teams, and also includes blends and digraphs. But in the beginning of the year I just use CVC words and slowly add in blends. We spread out the words on the floor and I will give directions like, "Tiptoe over to a word that rhymes with feet" or "Crawl over to a word that has a long e sound." We just stand next to the word instead of on them and then I have them read the words they chose. I play this with small groups of children so it is more manageable and because I don't have a ton of room, but it could be played as a class too. In the actual game kids can share mats, so sometimes we do that too. I also use these same cards at our reading table with fun fly swatter to swat the words if we don't have time to spread them all out on the floor. This is also a class favorite and super quick to set up when I don't have the time for the full thing. Now for some kinesthetic ideas to use in math: First up is skip counting. We use numeral cards that I quickly printed on the computer and laminated and each child has a number. We sit in a line or a circle. If we are counting by 2s for example, we will count around the circle and whisper the odd numbers and then shout (not too loud) the even numbers while those children stand up. Then we switch it up and count by other numbers. If we're counting by 3s, we would whisper 1,2 and shout 3, whisper 4,5, and shout 6, and so on. For Greater than/Less than we use the same numeral cards. We make numbers between 0 and 120 (first grade common core standards). Then I have a student stand in the middle and hold their arms like the sign. We practice reading it together. For example: 57 is greater than 46. We will also make numbers and put them in order from least to greatest or vice versa. Sometimes we turn the numeral cards into necklaces using sheet protectors and string and they don't have to hold up the numbers. This next one is something I am planning on getting when I have the money, but wanted to share it with you. In my classroom I have made a Lifesize Tens Frame out of a dollar store plastic tablecloth and washi tape for the lines (sorry no picture). We have kids stand in the tens frame to practice counting, adding, and subtracting using our bodies. But I also just found online this giant 120 chart and blow up dice that I think I will HAVE to get. I also saw another one that was even bigger where the kids move around on it. How fun! Finally is my version of Math Hullabaloo. This is the same idea as the reading version, only using numbers. Again, I write a bunch of numbers between 0 and 120 on the foam shapes using sharpie. Then we spread them all out. I give clues such as, "Dance over to a number with 6 tens" or "Slide over to a number greater than 30." Super fun! Thanks so much for stopping by and checking out my Bright Ideas for Kinesthetic Learners. If you enjoyed these ideas, please consider following my blog on Bloglovin' over on the side or following me on Facebook or Instagram.

What’s one thing I can do for student behavior that I can see almost an immediate response? Incorporating quick and easy preventive strategies into your

I love using poetry in the classroom. How about adding a few raps about being respectful and behaving to your discussions about class behavior expectations? Here’s one of the raps. Just click on the Respect Rap below to download your freebies. Thanks for all you do to make a difference for your students. You Might ... Read More about Behaving is Cool Raps for the Beginning of School

Happy Sunday! Did you miss that hour of sleep this morning? I didn’t, because I overslept anyway! 😛 I want to share a fun math book with you that we used this week: Sir Cumference and the Great Knight of Angleland! The author, Cindy Neuschwander, has a bunch of these math adventure books. This one […]

This FREE metaphor match-up activity is a great way to introduce and practice figurative language in your classoom! Grab it FREE

Team-Building in a Student-Led Classroom

How often are you observed by your principal? I have taught in different districts in different states. It seems like each district has a different policy when it comes to teacher observations. One thing that all of these observations shared was the ability to induce anxiety in even the most experienced teacher. Whether you are a first year teacher or a seasoned teacher, rest assured that we all feel a few butterflies when it is our turn to be observed. There have been a few things through the years that I have found that helped me feel a little more comfortable when it was my turn in the hot seat. This is probably just a personal quirk of mine, but I find it relaxing to clean. Odd quirk, I know, but when I am stressed I like to dig in and clean. I once had a very intuitive custodian that noticed that I rearranged my classroom when my class had a bad week. My thought was, a new student to sit next to, might solve the chatting issue or other classroom management problems. Most of the time this did solve many problems. I wouldn't change the seating chart the day before an observation, but it can be very helpful to do it a few days before. A clean and tidy room also makes a nice impression, too. It is much easier to find all of your supplies when everything is in the right place. I have also found that when I'm cleaning, I find these activities, resources, and manipulatives that I forgot that I owned. Thankfully, I've never had a principal look in my closet. (Because that becomes my dumping ground if I run out of time!) Differentiation is part of all evaluations. One way to enrich your bright students is with your questions during your lessons. Asking higher order level questions and extending your lesson this way is easy to do and models great thinking for all of your students. I student taught in a self-contained gifted and talented classroom. One of the things I noticed in the GT classrooms was some type of poster or bulletin board with Bloom's Taxonomy. I made my own version with the flower pots you see in the picture above. On the leaves are words that remind me how I should use this with my lessons. I usually hang these on the wall that I face when I teach. The visual reminder is helpful during all lessons and especially evaluations when you might be a little anxious and forget to do something. You want your students to be engaged and doing high quality work with the assignment you give them at the end of your lesson, right? The best way I have found to do this is to give my class a new freshly sharpened pencil to complete the assignment. There is nothing like a new sharp pencil to get everyone's attention. Make sure all of the pencils are the same or it will cause a distraction. One time I bought a new packet of pencils that had different colors which caused a squabble because some students wanted a certain color. Have a few extras in case one or two of your students break the lead. Everyone has their own favorite way of managing things. For me, clipboards was my "go to" tool. I had different colored clipboards that I used for different things. I had clipboards for: Behavior management - if I had a challenging class or a student that was on a discipline plan, this clipboard went with my class to specials and lunch. Attendance/lunch count: even though many districts now do this electronically, I still like a paper copy. Misc.: This is for all of those extra things a teacher has to deal with like book orders, field trip, PTA fundraisers. I keep extra class charts on this clipboard so I can document who brought in their paperwork. This is much quicker than digging through a pile of envelopes of stack of paperwork. Groups: each group has their own clipboard I keep track of testing, notes, observations on the clipboard until I am either no longer need the information and can file it or can throw it away. ***MY BRAIN***: I keep an outline of my plans, schedule, and other important information. This clipboard is usually full of post its because there are usually changes like assemblies, pullouts, staffings, change in how a student goes home and all of the other details we have to keep up with on a daily basis. It is a funny story about how my clipboard called "My Brain" got its name. One day I couldn't find this clipboard. Keep in mind, this is my most important clipboard. It has all of the details that I have to keep track of for the week. You know all of those memos, notes from parents, emails from parents/team leaders/administrators/reading specialist, and calendar of events that we are responsible for on a daily basis. I had tried different methods to keep up with all of those details and eventually I began using the clipboard. It is small, portable and fits anywhere that I need to put it. I had looked everywhere and by the time my students arrived I was getting frantic. I explained to my students that I needed their help to find my very important clipboard. They wanted to know why this was so important. I told them that it helped me remember things. So, one of my little boys asked me if it was my brain. I said yes, at times it feels like it is like my brain, helping me think and remember things. After that, my class always called my red clipboard "My Brain" and it was never lost again! During evaluations, I usually put a more detailed outline of my lesson on "My Brain" which is usually near me when I teach. I look at it as my little insurance policy to make sure I cover all that I want to plan. Do you have any teacher evaluation tips to share? Sources to make my blog post graphics can be found HERE. Click HERE to read my blog's disclosure statement.

Find ideas for K-12 school counseling SEL class lessons and guidance lessons. Includes free resources, videos, and activity ideas.

I am loving all the positive feedback I am getting on my Bright Polka Dot Classroom decor packs! Thank you! Thank you! I actually first made them for my own classroom. Last August, I decided to get rid of the cow print I had for ten years and go to bright polka dots. Selling the packets on TpT has been an added bonus! I thought I would let you know about some updates. As always, feel free to Pin! This picture from my Shutterfly site, is a big hit on Pinterest! The organizer is actually a utensil organizer from CVS. I hot glued ribbon around it and glued my table label to the front. The labels can be found in my Polka Dot Classroom Labels and Signs packet by clicking {here}. Here are a few other Pinterest fan favorites included in my Polka Dot Classroom Labels and Signs packet: These two posters are included for FREE in my sample for the packet! Click {here} to check it out on TpT. Click download the preview to get the FREE posters. This Whole Body Listening FREE poster was inspired by the speech pathologists and ABA teachers at my school. They use a Whole Body Listening Social Story they created through Boardmaker to give the students an idea of what whole body listening looks like. As you know, many students on the spectrum struggle with eye-contact while speaking. I have found that through my years of mainstreaming, the social story worked well for all of my students. So I decided to make a poster instead of social story to remind them. Through a bit more internet searching, I found this book called Whole Body Listening Larry at School!. I think this book would be great to read to your students on the first few days of school. The authors of the book linked the idea to an article written by this New York Speech Pathologist, Susanne Poulette. I had a lot of requests to add more words to my Polka Dot Word Wall Words. I add a ton more words, the packet now has 360 words total. Please, re-download the packet or check it out on TpT by clicking {here}. The Word Wall Labels above (Aa, Bb, etc.), can be found by clicking {here}. The "Word Wall" Punched out letters are from Frog Street Press, they are called "Sassy Fonts." These labels are available in my Leveled Library Label Packet (click {here}). Another request I had, was to add "Look Who's Been Spotted in Pre-K" to my Door Decor Packet. Click {here} to check it out on TpT! I have also made this packet editable. I tried to save myself some ink on this one and did not place a colored background behind or around the jobs. Instead, I cut the jobs and mounted them on bright scrapbook paper. The color circles around the hands match the colors in my other polka dot packets. I had requests to add more numbers to the packet and more jobs. I updated it, so check it out and/or re-download. Click {here} to check out my classroom jobs packet. I am taking inspiration from School Girl Style and trying wrapping paper as bulletin board paper next year. Check out these cool cheap finds. If bright colors are not your thing, hang tight! I am working on a primary colored polka dot line of decor. The primary labels and signs pack is out now, click the picture to check it out. Be sure to follow my TpT store, so you are alerted when the coordinating packs are finished.

I am obsessed with escape rooms! They are so much fun! I wish that I could do one every day. On my spring break trip to Atlanta I was able to do three in one day and it was super exhilarating! Before my state test I decided that I wanted to do a fun review game for my kids and decided to try my hand at an escape room. It took a lot of trial and error, but it was a MASSIVE success. I decided to share my escape room plans with you as best as I can in case you want to try something similar in your classroom. Step 1: The days leading up to the escape room I rolled a suitcase around with me (You will see why) Step 2: I broke the students into four groups Step 3: I created a newspaper article that informed students that I was taking over the world and handed one out to each group. Newspaper Generator Step four: I hid a card in my miniature file cabinet that said, "Don't just stand there in limbo, take a look in the classroom window." Step five: The first set of clues to decipher that opened the Word Lock was hidden behind a book in the window. Figurative Language Word Lock Clues Step six: Inside of Lock #1was the POV clues POV Directional Lock Step seven: Inside of Lock #2 was a set of UV flashlights and 4 pieces of seemingly blank paper. Once the UV lights were turned on students will find a number on each of their pieces of paper. This opened the lockbox. Step eight: Inside the lock box was four ziplock bags with puzzle pieces and a short story for each of the groups. The students need to read the short story and then put together their puzzle. One of the puzzles will have the correct symbol answer written in UV pen, the other three will be distractors with penalties. Symbolism Door Lock Clues Step nine: Each group will get a reading passage with multiple choice questions. Once they finish the passages, if they answered the questions correctly they will get their groups number to contribute to the final lock box. Reading Passages Lock Box Step ten: Students open the suitcase and thwart my takeover! Some pictures of my students completing the tasks Supplies I used (Click on the pictures) (3 boxes)

Display this set of bright and bold posters to establish rules for using iPads in the classroom. ...

I stumbl ed across this idea on Pinterest and thought it would be perfect for m y third and fo urth graders ! I often hear complaints from...

This fun and hilarious madlib engages the students' imagination as they create a fictional story, while sharing fun details about themselves. This is a great get to know you worksheet for the first week of school!

We all know that every child's journey to become a reader is different. What is simple for one may be incredibly difficult for another, some are great with phonics instruction, others seem to sail right through sight words, and others yet can read the words, but have a hard time with understanding what they're reading. How on earth are you supposed to teach a room full of children who are all unique and at different points on their reading journey? You differentiate. You may have 3-4 reading groups, you may have 6-7 reading groups (yes, I did that), you may pull students for 1-1 instruction, or small group instruction with a group that needs to work on a particular concept. Today I thought I'd show you some simple ways to use a single reading resource many ways, that is, to differentiate. I'm going to focus today on emergent readers. UNC defines an emergent reader as: "Child on the path to fluent literacy, before conventional reading and writing skills emerge. Emergent readers demonstrate alphabet knowledge, a concept of what a word is, a sense of story (beginning, middle, end), listening and retelling skills, phonemic awareness, and verbal expression." Here's an example of some text you might use with an emergent reader. It has a limited number of words, uses mostly sight words, and has pictures that clearly match the sentences. You'll notice the text has a repeating pattern, in this case, "I see a red __" The book I took this from has 6 sentences with this pattern, one to a page, plus a final page without the last word on it, for the children to add in their own word and picture. Once children are familiar with the text pattern from the book, you can have them match the sentences and pictures. Start with just a couple, and work your way up. You can also separate the words in a sentence and have students pay close attention to each word in order to put the words in the correct order. This is a great time to point out that sentences start with capital letters (so the word "This" must be first) and end with punctuation (so the word yellow must be last). Children will look at the first letter in each word to help them decode the word, and need to think about what makes sense. They may notice that the first word in each sentence is the same, or point out the pattern the sentences are based on. If they struggle with one of these words, you might want to point out other instances of the word - preferably in a sentence they've already read. I find that children are much more likely to engage with the text if they have the opportunity to "play" with it, so I make word and picture cards large enough for students to manipulate easily. I usually use mine in a pocket chart. Just think of the fun children can have putting the words in the wrong order to create crazy "sentences" - and the reading and thinking about the words necessary to do so! If you are working on skills like this with more than one child, challenge them to work together to make the sentences, or to scramble them up for each other. My students LOVED taking turns scrambling and decoding sentences. You can even have them dictate and illustrate additional sentences that fit the pattern, and let them scramble and decode those! As students gain skills and confidence, you can challenge them with more text at once... ... including multiple scrambled sentences. Here I've combined both of these techniques: several sentences need to be unscrambled, and then the matching picture can be found and placed with each one. Notice that these are still predictable sentences that follow a pattern, and that the pictures still correlate closely to the text. By varying the number of sentences children are working with, whether the words are in order or scrambled, and whether the pictures are with the sentence or scrambled separately, you can manage the difficulty level for different children - or the same child, on different days. This is the most challenging level I've come up with for this kind of text. I've scrambled both the pictures and the words for multiple sentences, and have provided the text in book form for students to refer to as they put everything in order. Look how much more challenging this is than the other ways of differentiating listed above! By the time students can work with the text at this level, they've most likely mastered the sight words used in the text, and will be able to identify those words in other places. (In other words, they're really reading!) When working with children like this, it's important to look at what they CAN do, and to build on the skills already in place. A child who already knows the sight words in a text probably doesn't need to match pictures to sentences, just as a child who is working to put a single sentence in order will only be frustrated if you scramble several at once. You want them to enjoy the experience of working with words, as well as to learn new things! These techniques will work with almost any emergent reader text, but if you are interested in the texts I've used in this post, they are all part of this resource, including the word and picture cards for children to manipulate: I'd love to hear how you differentiate for your emergent readers - share your tips in the comment section below!

I am loving all the positive feedback I am getting on my Bright Polka Dot Classroom decor packs! Thank you! Thank you! I actually first made them for my own classroom. Last August, I decided to get rid of the cow print I had for ten years and go to bright polka dots. Selling the packets on TpT has been an added bonus! I thought I would let you know about some updates. As always, feel free to Pin! This picture from my Shutterfly site, is a big hit on Pinterest! The organizer is actually a utensil organizer from CVS. I hot glued ribbon around it and glued my table label to the front. The labels can be found in my Polka Dot Classroom Labels and Signs packet by clicking {here}. Here are a few other Pinterest fan favorites included in my Polka Dot Classroom Labels and Signs packet: These two posters are included for FREE in my sample for the packet! Click {here} to check it out on TpT. Click download the preview to get the FREE posters. This Whole Body Listening FREE poster was inspired by the speech pathologists and ABA teachers at my school. They use a Whole Body Listening Social Story they created through Boardmaker to give the students an idea of what whole body listening looks like. As you know, many students on the spectrum struggle with eye-contact while speaking. I have found that through my years of mainstreaming, the social story worked well for all of my students. So I decided to make a poster instead of social story to remind them. Through a bit more internet searching, I found this book called Whole Body Listening Larry at School!. I think this book would be great to read to your students on the first few days of school. The authors of the book linked the idea to an article written by this New York Speech Pathologist, Susanne Poulette. I had a lot of requests to add more words to my Polka Dot Word Wall Words. I add a ton more words, the packet now has 360 words total. Please, re-download the packet or check it out on TpT by clicking {here}. The Word Wall Labels above (Aa, Bb, etc.), can be found by clicking {here}. The "Word Wall" Punched out letters are from Frog Street Press, they are called "Sassy Fonts." These labels are available in my Leveled Library Label Packet (click {here}). Another request I had, was to add "Look Who's Been Spotted in Pre-K" to my Door Decor Packet. Click {here} to check it out on TpT! I have also made this packet editable. I tried to save myself some ink on this one and did not place a colored background behind or around the jobs. Instead, I cut the jobs and mounted them on bright scrapbook paper. The color circles around the hands match the colors in my other polka dot packets. I had requests to add more numbers to the packet and more jobs. I updated it, so check it out and/or re-download. Click {here} to check out my classroom jobs packet. I am taking inspiration from School Girl Style and trying wrapping paper as bulletin board paper next year. Check out these cool cheap finds. If bright colors are not your thing, hang tight! I am working on a primary colored polka dot line of decor. The primary labels and signs pack is out now, click the picture to check it out. Be sure to follow my TpT store, so you are alerted when the coordinating packs are finished.

Most of you know that I loved working with ELL (English Language Learners) students. Although different school districts use different l...

Whether you're into bright colors or prefer a more minimalist look, these 20 classroom tours include something for everyone.

It's been a while since I did my last scene-by-scene retelling of an entire Shakespeare play. What with the Michael Fassbender film making ripples in the popular consciousness, I thought it might be a good time to tackle.... MACBETH!!! <&a

“Whoever said money can’t buy happiness simply didn’t know where to go shopping.” —Bo Derek Robert Marzano, a guru of vocabulary instruction, tells us that the bright kids n…

I am obsessed with escape rooms! They are so much fun! I wish that I could do one every day. On my spring break trip to Atlanta I was able to do three in one day and it was super exhilarating! Before my state test I decided that I wanted to do a fun review game for my kids and decided to try my hand at an escape room. It took a lot of trial and error, but it was a MASSIVE success. I decided to share my escape room plans with you as best as I can in case you want to try something similar in your classroom. Step 1: The days leading up to the escape room I rolled a suitcase around with me (You will see why) Step 2: I broke the students into four groups Step 3: I created a newspaper article that informed students that I was taking over the world and handed one out to each group. Newspaper Generator Step four: I hid a card in my miniature file cabinet that said, "Don't just stand there in limbo, take a look in the classroom window." Step five: The first set of clues to decipher that opened the Word Lock was hidden behind a book in the window. Figurative Language Word Lock Clues Step six: Inside of Lock #1was the POV clues POV Directional Lock Step seven: Inside of Lock #2 was a set of UV flashlights and 4 pieces of seemingly blank paper. Once the UV lights were turned on students will find a number on each of their pieces of paper. This opened the lockbox. Step eight: Inside the lock box was four ziplock bags with puzzle pieces and a short story for each of the groups. The students need to read the short story and then put together their puzzle. One of the puzzles will have the correct symbol answer written in UV pen, the other three will be distractors with penalties. Symbolism Door Lock Clues Step nine: Each group will get a reading passage with multiple choice questions. Once they finish the passages, if they answered the questions correctly they will get their groups number to contribute to the final lock box. Reading Passages Lock Box Step ten: Students open the suitcase and thwart my takeover! Some pictures of my students completing the tasks Supplies I used (Click on the pictures) (3 boxes)

The biggest challenge with teaching middle school is the race against the clock! Ideas for how to structure a 60 minute class period.

teachfactory.com/?p=1251

Using a picture as a clue, kids put two words together to make a compound word for each item on this reading worksheet.

If your classroom needs some more engagement, try these 6 high-lift and/or low-lift instructional strategies in your algebra or high school class.

A blog about autism resources and support from a special ed teacher with first-hand experience.

We need the bigger, better deal Every English teacher I know is looking for the bigger, better deal when it comes to assessing novels. We’ve moved WAY beyond the simple book report (I hope), and into the realm of critical thinking, analysis, and synthesis. In recent years I’ve tried the mandala (which you can read… Continue reading The Character Study One Pager- An Assessment for Any Novel

A blog about reading and writing, and sharing ideas about literacy and RTI for your classroom/ reading, writing, & RTI resources

Today I’m teaming up with a slew of other great bloggers to bring you a bunch of fabulous Bright Ideas. For me, I’m always thinking about differentiating. It’s always there in the front of my mind. Somedays I think I do it better than other days, but everyday it’s what I’m aiming for . .…

Upper elementary classroom tips and ideas with a focus on classroom management, student engagement, & cooperative learning.

Hurray! You're here. Let me help you with fun resources for your primary students to keep them excited about learning!

Hi teacher friends, Some of my favorite memories in elementary school were centered around reading novels in the classroom! I’ll always remember making a glittery web with glue and black paper while reading Charlotte’s Web in third grade. (I also remember our teacher scolding us for the giant glittery mess on the

Quadramas are a fantastic way to consolidate learning at the end of a unit. They also work great as a reading response activity. Because each quadrama has four sections, you can have your students represent

Maybe I'm weird. But... as a classroom teacher I LOVED being observed by my administrators. Like LOVE LOVE LOVED it. I never wanted to ...

Revision test on Present Simple Tense and some kinds of hobbies. - ESL worksheets

Through the magic and wonder that is Pinterest, I found this website, Dragonflies in First. The blog author has made lesson plans for the computer that she is selling on Teachers Paying Teachers t…

Our Timbre Poster is a great educational resource that will help you create relevant and engaging Music classrooms.

Engage your math students right from the start! In this post, I share five engaging lesson hooks for math, including resource links to get started.

Adding creativity to the classroom can seem like a daunting task, but it's important for making learning fun, engaging, and memorable!

I've been asked to share my assessments and those that I use. Assessments are snapshots of a child's current ability to perform a certai...

In September and October I'll be writing posts about planning lessons. A well-planned lesson is a joy for both teacher and student. Refining p…