This blog post explores innovative and engaging lesson plans for any novel unit... ranging from task cards to book instagram pages to a novel podcast project. Student choice is key here, and students can find something they would like to complete in order to convey their reading, comprehension, and

Diagramming sentences helps kids see English grammar at-a-glance. It's easier to practice analyzing English parts of speech on the diagram charts and worksheets.

10 fun and educational ESL activities for busy teachers! Try these games and activities in your classroom (or virtual classroom) today!

Another one for composing with Boomwhackers with the colored dice I mentioned in an earlier post (scroll down to see other uses for these!):

3rd Grade Thoughts: A teaching blog by Stephanie Van Horn

I received a handout at a workshop I recently attended on different factors coaches can look for in classroom observations. Collecting quality evidence during observations and presenting it in a clear manner to teachers is such an important piece of improving teacher practice and student achievement…so this handout really got me thinking about what I look […]

This fun game is perfect for practicing the parts of the body with your ESL students. Have them roll a die and color the body parts in the correct colors.

Basic vocabulary, like knowing prepositions, is necessary for beginning readers. Teach prepositions with this simple game.

Make teaching coins, coin value, and money easy with these kindergarten money activities from a real kindergarten classroom!

A list of ESL websites that have plenty of activities, teaching strategies, worksheets, templates, lesson plans and articles which will help in your work.

We have begun our unit on living systems in science (thank GOSH because Earth and Physical science have quite literally killed me this year...seriously, I feel like the most incompetent teacher when I teach science...but I digress...). Our main focus for the past week before Spring Break was the circulatory and respiratory systems. I thought I would share some of the things we have been doing, in case some of you are in the same unit yourselves. To get us started, we watched a few BrainPOP videos about circulation and blood. I found these in the HEALTH section, not the science section. The kids were very enthralled with these videos (they ALWAYS are really) There was quite a lot of information in them, which got us started on the right foot. The videos mentioned how the circulatory system was the delivery system of the body and that all systems were connected to this one. After some discussion, the students created this Circulation Data Disk from the Easy Make & Learn Projects: Human Body (Grades 2-4) (affiliate link) book. The idea of this circular disk was to show how all of the organs in the body played a very special part in relation to the circulatory system. I purposefully whited out the info on the disk so that the kids could do the research themselves. Using our health and science books, the students discovered the role of each organ in circulatory system. We then used the Easy Make & Learn Projects: Human Body (Grades 2-4) (affiliate link) book and created a model of the heart. The kids diagrammed the model to up the rigor a bit. They then placed these in their science journals. Another great find (that the kids had a blast playing) was the Circulation Game from Ellen McHenry's homeschooling website. This is a free download and I am so glad I found it! It took a while to set up and explain, but once they were going, the kids really were into the game. They learned quite a bit about how blood travels through the body and how it disposes of waste. (just a little note, I printed out 5 of these and had each table play. That way, there weren't as many people playing on one game board) Finally, the kids watched the School House Rock video, "Do the Circulation". (I have the actual DVD Schoolhouse Rock! (Special 30th Anniversary Edition), (affiliate link) but you can get it on YouTube if the school doesn't block it....like mine does) I gave them the words and, combining language arts with science, we looked for all of the facts and opinions (as well as figurative language) in the song. We discussed why the writers would put opinions and figurative language in a song intended to teach us about the Circulatory system. The students decided that it was because without the opinions and figurative language, the song would be B.O.R.I.N.G! We also began working on our Body Systems project on Google Drive. I made a template for each body system and the kids all began filling in the information about the circulatory system. This worked out perfect here because the kids had so much background knowledge at this point. They didn't really need to do as much research since we were learning so much as it was! (click here to get the project for your own class!) This is a screenshot of the slide before the kids actually did any work. I forgot to take pictures of them working! To explore the respiratory system (a bit further, as we really were talking about it all along with the circulatory system), we first diagrammed the organs involved. Then, the students did a little experiment to measure their vital lung capacity (how much air can be forcibly taken in and blown out) and the tidal lung capacity (how much is taken in and out during normal breathing). The kids has SO much fun with this one! They really were surprised at how much air they *couldn't* blow. I think they all thought they would pop the balloons in one breath when, in actuality, they hardly inflated them at all! You can find the exact experiment and printables here. So there you have it. Our basic introduction to the systems of the human body. Up next is the digestive system. Wish me luck ;) What experiments have you conducted in your class to teach your students about the circulatory and respiratory systems? Follow me on Snapchat for even more teaching ideas!

What types of accommodations can help students with dyslexia? Here are some classroom accommodations to talk over with your child’s school.

Hi Everyone! I hope everyone is having a FANTASTIC summer. If you are anything like me, you spent all of June telling yourself summer would last forever, and all of July eyeing everything at the Target Dollar Spot, wondering just HOW much money is too much money to spend there… Well, my classroom is receiving […]

This is a cute activity where ESL students have to draw monsters based on the description of the body parts on the worksheet.

Guest blogger Glenn Whitman, Director of the Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning, suggests a scientific approach to manageable homework: students should do it without interruption, and schools shouldn't assign too much of it.

Hi everyone! Welcome to the next stop on the Bunny Trail. (and if you missed the other stops this week, click on the bunny below to go to the beginning!) This post will be short and sweet, as today is moving day in my household (yay!!!) and my keyboard is packed away (thank goodness for touch screens!) I have a fun little math page for you today. It is a "secret code" page, where the students use order of operations to solve the puzzle. My students always enjoy these, and I thought yours might too. So here you go! I told you, uncharacteristically short and sweet ;) And now on to your next stop, Kim at Finding Joy in 6th Grade. Notice how the button is purple? It matches Kim's blog perfectly! Oh, and for those of you who saw this earlier but were directed to an unfound page...you can thank the touch screen for that mistake ;)

The majority of singular nouns are made plural simply by adding an S on to the end of the word. However, there are many different rules depending on what letter the word ends in.

HOUSE: Interactive Notebook HOUSE: Vocabulary HOUSE: Worksheets

Financially savvy kids are future leaders!

You don't have to give your entire life over to grading.

Children will practice using context clues as they identify the correct homophone in this grammar and spelling worksheet.

This week I tried something new with the vocabulary in the story. I got the idea at a First Grade Conference in December. The student writ...

This is a fun worksheet to practice the Past Simple or the Past Continuous. Students look at the pictures and fill in the gaps with one of the linking words in the box in order to complete the story.

Check out these fun activities from Award Winning Author/Illustrator Jarett Lerner to do at home or in the classsroom. Includes comics, drawing, and more.

Differentiation and scaffolding can help students better understand and learn. Here are teaching ideas and tips to use in class.

Schede didattiche in inglese sul verbo can - can't per la scuola primaria con esercizi di verifica in PDF da stampare e svolgere in classe oppure a casa

Crack the Code – Penguin Facts – Codebreaker Worksheet Going along with the Cold theme, I thought we could learn a little more about some of the animals from the colder regions, specifi…

The students can practise the use of some question words. It's a grammar drill for beginner students. The worksheet contains a fill-in actvity. There isn't a solution. It can be used as a follow-up - ESL worksheets

I love to read in my class. It is just something that brings so much joy to so many, that I feel like it needs a place of honor in my room. And while we do read our fair share of nonfiction, where I find myself (and my students) drawn to is the fiction stories. They are just so full of awesomeness that I can't help myself. With those great reads comes great lessons. Books (in general) have a beginning, middle, and end. They start with introductions, take the reader through many different actions which lead to the climax, that point we have been waiting for, and then solve the problems with a nice, neat ending. (OK, OK...I know not every.single.book does that, but I am talking in general!) So this past week, I wanted to focus on that story structure we call PLOT and bring it to the attention of my students. One thing that I have been doing, and have written a bit about in the past few weeks, is take a large reading topic (character, setting, plot) and teach it to my students over the course of the week. I break the idea into smaller, 20 minute chunks, and teach from there. It is working so very well! This week's chunk lessons all dealt with the idea of plot and how everything we read follows the same basic "formula". We started with an anchor chart describing each part of the plot diagram. What is exposition? Why is rising action the longest part? What does climax do for the story? Falling action and resolution are different? Then, we discussed how There's A Boy in the Girls' Bathroom by Louis Sachar follows this plot structure. I asked them to think-pair-share with a partner to see if they could come up with examples that fall into each of the categories. Then, after a group debrief on their T-P-S, I sent them back to their seats, with a plot diagram I had made and asked them to write down their thoughts. You can grab this diagram here. Day Two and Three had us looking at a story (written by my husband!) and trying to dissect it for plot elements. We read the story aloud, and then color coded the story using our crayons to represent different elements of plot. Deciphering between the exposition and rising action, and then falling action and resolution proved to be quite challenging! Our discussion kept us moving along though and the students were able to do this quite well. On these days, I wanted them to create a little drawing/writing project that would keep them interested in the story and also serve to get their ideas from the oral discussion to a more written, concrete form. So I asked the students to take the color-coded writing and draw a picture for each of the five elements. What picture would represent the exposition? What about the climax? How would the resolution be drawn? For Day Three I asked them to do the same thing, but instead of drawing it, I wanted written EVIDENCE FROM THE TEXT (ahhh....getting some of that testing jargon in there!!) Everything seems to go back to that test, doesn't it? That then lead us into the writing portion of this for the week. I wanted the students to be able to write a clear, coherent paragraph on the subject of plot so for Day Four and Five, I had them choose a picture book that they were familiar with. I guided them towards books that I knew had a clear beginning, middle, and end (ie: Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans or Stellaluna by Janel Cannon ) and gave them an organizer to fill in outlining the plot details of the story. Then, using a paragraph organizer, I asked them to construct a complete paragraph plot summary. This was to tell what happened in the story, from exposition to resolution, without giving everything way. It was to be barebones and focus on the main ideas in the text. Using the organizer really helped the kids to do this. They were forced to only pick a few of the details, and really helped them to be sure they had parts from each plot element. I wish I had a completed one, but I forgot to take pictures of it! So sorry about that!! So that is what we did for our study of Plot in 5 Days. If you would like to have the full lesson plans, standards addressed, organizers, and all, I have complied them for you in my TpT store. I really, really love how these lessons turned out and kept my kids focused. It was great hearing them talk about Plot even out of context of language arts (ie: in theatre or when discussing a movie they had seen.) I also love that I was able to do this, and produce some bulletin board worthy products, in 5 days! Win-win for all! What are some things you do to teach your students about plot?

Plenty of interactive ideas and activities to teach landforms for kids. Find videos, worksheets and even experiments to help.

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.

This is a fun worksheet about food and drinks for ESL students. The students write about what they like and don't like.

We have a lovely school counselor this year who came to visit each of our classrooms and explain a common "Peace Process" for conflict resolution. I loved this for so many reasons and can't wait to share it with you! For one, common language across all grades is invaluable, especially when kids experience conflict at recess, in the lunch room, or even in the hallway when they are away from their classroom teacher and intermixed with other grades. Also, the fact that this process is broken down into such simple and manageable parts gives kids the confidence to go through it themselves, complete with sentence starters and all. I want to share this Peace Process with you in case you are looking for a way to help manage conflict and empower your students to problem-solve with one another. Feel free to download the freebie to share with others in your school, or even send home to parents... this can work with anyone in any situation! Step 1: Breathe The first step is the most important: make sure your body is calm enough to engage in the process of making peace. In the heat of the moment, the "fight or flight" response is in high gear, anger may be driving the show, and there is no way the rest of the process can be successful. By stopping to breathe, everyone can get back into a more calm state. How you breathe is just as important. Start by "smelling a flower" by breathing in through your nose and counting to three slowly. Then, hold for one count, and exhale our your mouth as if you're "blowing out a candle" for four counts. Practice this with your students and see how it changes the feel in the classroom. Some may be silly for the first breath or two, but after practicing for several breaths, the whole tone of the class will be calmer and more subdued. It's a good practice to keep on hand for other times during the day, too! Remind kids to take as many breaths as they need. This process can't be rushed, so even if they need some time alone to compose themselves, that's a-okay. I would still encourage a few common breaths together at the start of the process to be sure there's lots of fresh oxygen in the brain! Step 2: "I" Statements This is the first back-and-forth conversation that takes place. The person who feels harmed begins with a statement about how they felt. The framework of: "I feel ____ because ____" always gives kids a good place to start. During this time, the other person must stay silent and practice listening. This is important, because the second part of this step is to repeat what that person said. When the first person is done with their "I" Statement, the second person repeats what they heard, including all of the important parts, not just generalities. "I heard you say you felt ___ because ___" is a perfect launching point. At the end of their retell, they need to ask if they got it right. Person 1 needs to feel confident enough to say no, if needed, and retell the parts that were left out. This may need to happen a few times, especially at the beginning. The inclusion of "I heard you say..." is also crucial because it reinforces the idea that this is a listening exercise, not just an airing of grievances. Step 3: Repairing the Harm We want to encourage kids repair the harm, and sometimes "sorry" is enough. Other times, they may need an apology and an additional follow-up about what will happen if this occurs again. There may be something that they need or can do for one another, like get an ice pack or take turns with the item in question. There are other alternatives, too, and usually two or three actions are needed to repair the harm that was done. The important part is to make sure they are reasonable, and that both are agreeable to the ideas. Person 1 should feel that the harm is indeed repaired, or on the way to being repaired as best as possible. Step 4: Moving Forward While a physical touch may not always be appropriate, it is often a useful and effective starting point for moving forward. A handshake, high five, or fist bump can be powerful "wrap up" gestures that solidify the discussion and resolutions discussed. The important part, like the rest of the steps, is that both parties agree on the common gesture. Even a thumbs-up or peace sign can work. ... Always be sure to offer your presence and guidance, especially at at the beginning, as kids are working on practicing and internalizing these steps. After a while, you will not need to be as present, although you should always need to be available to help. Some conflicts go beyond the Peace Process and will need additional intervention by you or others to be truly effective and safe. However, I think you will find that this can be an excellent tool for navigating issues throughout the day. * As you introduce this to your classroom, have kids role-play through the Peace Process with common conflicts and/or issues that you have been hearing about. Extend the areas beyond the classroom and onto the playground, bus, neighborhood, and lunchroom. This activity will also get them more familiar with the steps and language in real-life scenarios. * An even more powerful way of incorporating this schoolwide is to have older student be "Peace Aides" and help younger students work through the process. How powerful for all parties involved! If you're interested in the freebie, click HERE to find it in my Teachers Pay Teachers Store. Have you used a process like this at your school? Do you have additional steps or any feedback? Please leave a comment and share your experiences!

Practice makes future perfect!

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