Telling time is a difficult skill for second and third graders. When students get to third grade, teachers will focus on telling time to the minute and solving elapsed time problems. To complete these challenging tasks, students need to have mastered the basics of time. Below is a list of ideas and resources you can use […]

How to Make 1 Left (M1L) and Make 1 Right (M1R) I’m going to show you how to M1L and M1R. These are increases made on the knitted side of your work. Not sure what I mean by “knitted s…

Have you ever had to use a district curriculum that doesn’t really fit the levels or needs of your special needs student? It can be hard to make a purchased program work for our students, but it IS possible! To do so, though, we need to be flexible and creative….We totally rock flexible and creative, […]

Along with all my other usual Valentine's activities I do this time of year.. I like to do a mini unit on magnets! Here are a few awesome resources I found that are perfect to use when teaching about magnets to little learners. First of all, I just LOVE brainpopjr!!! There almost always seems to be the perfect little video to go with my lesson (especially science and social studies). This magnet video helps little ones to better understand the simple concept of a magnet. Next, you have to allow your students to be hands on. So, I found this little freebie online to help them conduct an experiment and record their findings! Click the picture to grab it. And, I don't know about you.. but I love to play fun little videos or songs while my students are working or even to wrap up a lesson. This one is short and simple, but pretty cute! And, I had never seen this guy before.. but if you don't have brainpop and want a short, kid-friendly explanation of magnets- this one is pretty good too! After conducting an experiment, I always like to do a project or activity where they have free reign. I found this adorable little project from gingersnapcrafts. You know the boys would be all over this one!!! This is also another fun activity to let your kiddos explore magnets. I like to do this activity with a hypothesis before. Many of my kiddos would guess wrong. I loved seeing their shocked little faces! At the end of every science unit, activity, etc.. We always open up those science journals and do an assessment. This is included in my Interactive Science Journals for Young Learners. Click the picture to check it out!

The kids will have a blast and learn such a powerful lesson with this "Making Good Choices Object Lesson & Family Discussion Outline." Such a cool idea!!

What can you do to help children learn to listen to a lesson without interrupting? How can you give a lesson without allowing children...

Have you ever thought about using wordless videos in your speech therapy lessons? It increases engagement! Start with these videos...

Technology & Physical Education

Science should be engaging and exciting. Here are my ten favorite ways of teaching ecosystems with this ecosystems project.

When consumed regularly this tea may help reduce pain and inflammation.

Here is an amazing vegan version of a Tempeh Reuben sandwich. And not a "cold cut" in sight!

Designed by Hans Tseng and colored by him and Efrain Farias for Natasha Allegri's Bee and PuppyCat, premiering on Cartoon Hangover in the fall of 2014.

activities for teaching slope free

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) frequently employs the idea of an organized therapeutic setting, which is referred to as a DBT house. DBT is a form of psychotherapy created by psychologist Marsha M.

A new school year usually means a new teacher, new expectations, and new routines, so our students sometimes don't respond as we'd hoped when we try to get

This grouping approach comes in handy when your assessment results show student understanding of the skill(s) being introduced is scattered. To group by skill level, begin by determining the number of groups you will have.

A background from "The Jiggler", an episode of Pendleton Ward's Adventure Time.

Magnet Antibodies Science Project: Investigate how memory cells (white blood cells) help the immune system (and the human body) fight off an infection.

Scheduling for special education is a DAUNTING task. Just like our kids we THRIVE on schedules (( and pretty much need them to survive)). One tip that I’m going to drive home throughout this post is that we HAVE TO be ok with CHANGE. Why? Because change is completely inevitable. It WILL happen. and […]

Find a scripture hero for your family to admire

Here is a quick reference list/chart if you want to quickly refer just before the PM interview. As a BA, you should also know these terms. Here are the Top 22 Project Management Terms every aspiring…

Get this free magnet worksheet to use when you test the magnetism of everyday objects. Perfect for kids ages 4-6!

Develop a thinking child with this Wonder Wall technique

Here’s a collection of ideas and resources for teaching everything from genetic mutation to cloning mice, just in time for Jeans for Genes Day

Build a Heart Model - STEM activity about heart rates and how blood flows through the body. Engineer a functioning model of a beating heart.

I’ve decided to focus this post on a topic that is extremely difficult for our 3rd-grade babies to understand… FRACTIONS! Besides elapsed time, year after year I find my students having a difficult time mastering fractions. It’s also a topic that we need to make they understand because it is the foundation for future math concepts. In other words, if our kiddos leave us with a weak fraction foundation, they’ll be doomed forever… they’ll be forced to spend the rest of their lives without being able to share pizzas or brownies with friends You know I’m just kidding, LOL… BUT the truth is that without knowledge of fractions, students will NOT be able to do algebra or percents… So here are a few tips you can use to make fractions fun! Tip #1: When teaching students about fractions it is important that we try to stay away from simply presenting them with a set of rules to follow. Try to stay away from teaching them “tricks” such as “if the denominator gets bigger, the pieces get smaller”. I know how hard this can be at times, trust me I’m guilty of it as well. Especially when pressured […]

Beautiful Montessori 3-part cards featuring 24 different constellations. Select from white stars on blue background or grey stars on white background.

With the beginning of our geometry units in 6th grade math, it has been all about angles and triangles this past week! Thanks to some creative (and cheap!) angle ideas I found on social media, I was able to incorporate some new things in my classroom this year as we start geometry! First off, this fun idea to reinforce a basic understanding of angles! With some leftover fun tape from Office Depot, a little card stock to write the angles, and about ten minutes, I made this fun entryway into the classroom. I can't take credit for the idea, but am happy to share it! It definitely caught the students attention and had them thinking about different angles! The second fun idea I found (again... can't take credit for this one) I was able to use with my math intervention groups this week. After we had learned about different angle relationships (vertical angles, supplementary angles, and complementary angles), I covered our front dry-erase table with table at various angles. I then went through and measure the minimum number of angles they would need to be able to find all of the missing angles without a protractor. This turned out to be a great problem solving challenge and really promoted teamwork and working together. I could also see this working out great as a math center during math workshop. UPDATE: I recently added a full set of Angle Relationships Task Cards to my TpT store! It currently includes over 70 challenging angle problems and 4 different levels of difficulty! With the start of geometry, I was also able to try out one of my newest units of Math Task Cards: Triangles, Quadrilaterals, and Transformations. I now have two sets of task cards up in my store. A set of Math Task Cards, which are a little more basic problems. Then, for students that finish these quickly, I have them try the Math Enrichment Task Cards. Having these more challenging task cards makes it easy to push my higher students and keep them challenged! Here are a couple shots of the prep and final product of some of these task cards. I always print out six cards for each topic, which is what I need for my math workshop front table group. If I have time I corner round the corners and laminate to help them last! Geometry has also allowed me to finally get to what is probably my favorite Challenge of the Week problem! I recently updated this freebie with five more questions that could be used, so be sure to re-download it if you have already grabbed this one from my store in the past! So that's what we have been up to in 6th grade math recently. I'd love to hear what you have all been working on in your classrooms! And how about some humor to get everyone on their way? Who knew that One Direction is now a swear word?

There are definite benefits to eating spelt, an ancient grain. Here is a quick primer on spelt flour, what it is and how to bake with it.

I wanted to share this great activity I have been doing for years at the very beginning of each year. It is a Self-Portrait activity where students get to draw themselves, compare themselves with another student, and present to the class. I love to tell students they are drawing “Selfies” because it makes it more […]

When you have a story idea in mind, there can be nothing more exciting. There is so much possibility ahead, so many different ways you can envision your story coming together, that it can be difficult to sit down and outline the story, especially if you don't like traditional outlining. That's why

This is "zoetrope making of" by M P on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

Polish illustrator Pawel Kuczynski's grim and sharply satirical works, which we've featured before here, are a perfect example of art that speaks volumes. Kuczynski's images are so powerful because they force us to face some of the worst realities of our times. It's beautiful – not in a flowers-and-sunlight kind of way, but in a brutally truthful way. He addresses war, political manipulation and hypocrisy, environmental damage, economic disparity and many other ills facing mankind today.