Basic vocabulary, like knowing prepositions, is necessary for beginning readers. Teach prepositions with this simple game.
Is grammar outdated or still necessary for a homeschool education? Learn the pros and cons and find some great, free resources for teaching this often maligned topic.
Telling time past the hour can be challenging for primary kids but it doesn’t have to be a struggle for you or your students. Learn simple ways and effective strategies to make telling time easier for primary kids.
I-statements (I-messages): Examples and fun worksheets to help your family develop an assertive communication style and improve conflict resolution
Sentence sticks work great to teach parts of speech: verbs, nouns, adjectives etc. Use it to make silly sentences or real sentences too!
Need a creative idea for teaching money to kids? The Money Game is a fun hands-on way! Inspired by the Beth Kobliner Book- Make Your Kids a Money Genius
I read that basic money habits are set by 7 years old and even as small as 3 year olds can grasp financial concepts. So it's never too early to start. And ...
In this blog post, read about my best teaching strategies to teach writing narrative endings. Grab all the freebies to help you teach.
Being mindful and teaching your students how to be responsible for their own learning and well-being in the classroom is so important.
Whether your little one is a new reader or into their own chapter books, starting your own book club for kids is easy with these tips and tricks!
Navigating worries is a life skill. As someone who struggles with anxiety, I am especially aware that I always want my children to feel validated when they are worrying. I long for them to know that they are not alone with their worries. I also want to give them as many tools as I can to he
Help your primary grade students explore, learn, and write about landforms. See our hands-on landforms activities plus our culminating writing project!
This is a fun worksheet to practice pronouns with your EFL students.
Working with kids and young adults who are oppositional can be challenging. Being oppositional might mean refusing to do work, breaking rules, and engaging in other challenging behaviors. The truth is, many kids can be oppositional from time to time, so many of these strategies work with all learner
This 7 minute animal themed HIIT workout for kids improves emotional regulation and reduces meltdowns. Loved by OTs, teachers, and parents alike!
Sentence sticks work great to teach parts of speech: verbs, nouns, adjectives etc. Use it to make silly sentences or real sentences too!
Click here for the new blog post!
Teaching English online has become more and more popular in recent years. Through the following courses below, we will show you how to adapt your existing skills and knowledge to suit this specific area of the teaching world.
Working on helping kids understand big deal/little deal? Check out my size of the problem lesson and see if it'll work for you!
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 […]
Throughout my years teaching middle school, I have had the experience of seeing many "work refusals". These are the situations when kids, for a variety of reasons, just refuse to start the work you give them. They might shut down and rest their head on their desk or lash out in anger, shouting about
Getting started with coding in the classroom doesn’t have to be scary or intimidating! You don’t have to have a background in computer science to teach it, and you don’t even need expensive robots or technology to get started! WHY Teach Coding?
So you want to teach your kids Spanish? Welcome. Starting at a young age is the best gift you can give them - and it's never too late! This page gives you everything you need to get started: Spanish lessons organized by theme, free printables, and advice on teaching a second language. You can start today! How Can I Help You?1. I Want to Teach My Kids at Home:Free Spanish Lessons for Kids (6 PDF Units)2. I Want to Find a Spanish Teacher:The Best Online Spanish Class for Kids3. I Want More Spanish ResourcesApps, Games, Songs, and More4. I'm Teaching
Have you ever had a class that just tried your patience day after day? Have you ever felt like you could walk away from teaching forever tom...
Check out these effective ways of teaching kids conflict resolution skills at home & school with these easy-to-implement ideas & strategies.
Some newcomers arrive with no English at all and need to focus on basic classroom English first. This pack will help.
We are a Leader In Me School and talk a lot about using the 7 Habits of Happy Kids in our everyday lives. I love the idea of encouraging kids to act as leaders in the classroom and beyond. What I have noticed, however, is that sometimes "leadership" comes off as "bossypants" and that is not the route we want to take! I know you've probably heard of Sheryl Sandberg (of Facebook fame) and her campaign to end the word "bossy" (read or listen to an NPR story HERE), but I was hesitant to come straight out and use that word in our class. Instead, I wanted them to think on terms of "boss" and "leader" to recognize the differences between the two and to think about their own language choices in the classroom, in small groups, on their sports teams, and more. We first looked at this picture and talked about what we noticed: (source) This led to some discussion about leadership versus boss behavior. While the kids were discussing, I was passing out example cards to their table spots. Before I dismissed them, I shared this leadership quote from John Quincy Adams: They were then given instructions about our activity. I had printed example cards on two colors: blue for boss and green for leader (although they didn't know that yet) and they needed to read their card and find someone with an opposite color card and opposite example (good time to incorporate the word antonym, too!). I dismissed them to their tables and first had them converse with students in their table group to ensure they understood the word or phrase on their card. When they gave me the thumbs up, I told them to find their match and them meet to discuss why they went together and be able to give examples. We then began assembling our Anchor Chart. Each pair would come to the front of the class and would explain which card was descriptive of a "boss" and which was descriptive of a "leader" and why. They gave examples and I elicited a lot of help from the classroom for additional examples and language that both a boss and leader may use during that example. I would tape the cards to the Anchor Chart and we continued through each pair. There were two groups of three (with two leaders to one boss) and that worked out perfectly with my class (definitely feel free to adjust if you have lower numbers). Our completed anchor chart looked like: It was so powerful to see how often kids may think they are helping, but instead find themselves on the "boss" side of the chart instead of the "leader." I know several of the examples are repetitive, but we really talked through these and used examples from our own lives to recount when using "leader" words and language set us up for success. I also explained the "me vs. you" mentality of bosses versus the "we and us" mentality of leaders. Overall, it was a very powerful lesson and I look forward to referring back to this Anchor Chart this year, especially when "bossypants" behavior leads to conflict. I think these concrete examples can help guide the naturally strong leaders in my class to make better language decisions that can help grow them as leaders and really inspire others, just like the Adams quote! If you'd like a copy of these cards and quote, you can download this as a *freebie* HERE. How do you address bossy vs. leader behavior in your class? Share in the comments, I would love to build on this lesson!
12 interactive and fun games to teach self-control and build self-regulation skills for kids and teens. Strong skills for self-control are the foundation for success in and outside of the classroom.
The 5 Best Methods & Specific Tips on HOW to Incorporate Each in Your Own Classroom Being a teacher is a tough business. It can be hard to navigate the classroom and know if your teaching methods are
I LOVE saving figurative language until June - it's such a fun language unit ... and perfect for our "dreaming of summer brains". We finished up our EQAO testing mid week, and this onomatopoeia activity was the perfect break from testing. How fun is that??? Students chose two contrasting colours - one for the background and one for the word and border "bursting out of the page". They also needed newspaper (cut just a fraction smaller that the "bursting out of the page border" and glued the newspaper on top. They glued their word on top of that (we had brainstormed a lot of onomatopoeia words, but for some reason most of them chose SPLAT for their word). I also had them do a little shading under their letters for that little extra POP (see, I know some onomatopoeia words, too). ;) I had seen this awesome idea on Pinterest and followed it back to Artisan des Arts. Her examples are FANTASTIC!! We also wrote simile poems this week. I found a little template HERE for the students to use for their rough copies. When students were finished their templates, I had them write out their good copies, and illustrate a few lines with a small image. I hung these up, too ... LOVING our bulletin board switch up ... even this late in the school year!!! (I have two of these "smART class" bulletin boards side by side in the classroom. 15 more school days left ... I think I can ... I think I can ... Happy Friday!!!
This post will include several activities and ideas including free printables you might wish to try for teaching prefixes.
Teaching students about modal auxiliary verbs can be so tricky! Check out this blog post that contains an anchor chart and four free posters!
feature art Emotion Sensation Wheel: A new kind of feeling wheel. A therapist-designed resource designed to help make connections between our brains and bodies. Unlike a traditional feelings wheel (first published in 1982 by Gloria
Plot is not my favorite thing to teach, or it hasn’t been in the past. However, that changed this week. I think I never liked teaching it because I felt I didn’t have a solid, engaging way of teaching the concept. Now, I have a great way of teaching it! The kids loved it, I […]
What are your methods for teaching vocabulary? Drills? Flashcards? Yuck! Boring! While these can certainly be effective, they can be a quick way to lose your student’s attention if you spend too much…
Cultivate lifelong reading skills.
This model and template will help college, high school, and middle school teachers put together a syllabus that sets you and your students up for a great year.
A teaching resource that includes dozens of free printables and helpful website links to use in the classroom for elementary and middle school students.
This is a fun worksheet to practice jobs and professions as well as
Teaching empathy is important. In the simplest of terms, empathy is the ability to notice, understand, and share the emotions of others. It is a critical social skill for all people to have. In many ways, empathy is the social skill that paves the way for all other social skills. It helps us to take
Your new favorite teaching strategy: This pared-down version of learning stations keeps the movement, interactivity and variety while minimizing the prep work.
Teaching students to use a variety of sentence structures or different ways to start sentences will improve their writing.
Hello, everybody! And happy summer! In this post, I am going to show you how to teach some basic critical thinking skills to young ch...
Is your child ready to read 2-syllable words? Great! Here are teaching tips for the most common early reading problems and fun activity ideas to keep your child engaged!
