Art History & Seasonal Crafts Phonics & Word Work Sentence Building Kits Fairy Tales Sets Poetry Sets Printing Workbooks Sight Words Sets Writing Prompts Thanks for the wonderful feedback! This best seller is a collection of 12 lessons about art history, ranging from […]
The activities below are available for free download, and are to be used in educational and/or private settings. They may not be used elsewhere or for other purposes (such as for profit) unless exp…
These 25 quick and easy tips for new teachers will help you create a positive, engaging, and effective learning environment for your students.
Do you use rubrics for self-assessment with your students? I developed this rubric based on others I had seen online. I wanted to get my students thinking more about their artwork and writi…
Imagination Workout Printable Click the link above to download Attalie’s Imagination Workout free printable art worksheet.
Choosing a theme for your classroom can be both exciting and challenging. What best represents your personality? What would the students choose? Some teachers choose not to have a theme and may use a color scheme instead. Summer vacation is a perfect time to plan and organize for the upcoming school year. There are so many resources to use online to help you create a classroom that is both inviting and conducive to learning. Listed below are some of my favorite themes with creative sayings to display classroom materials and highlight students. Dog Theme - Students and teachers love dogs! What a wonderful way for students to make personal connections with their classroom. Even for students who are not dog owners, these cute and adorable animals brighten up any classroom. "Barking About ______" is a title that can be used in a variety of ways. Highlight a subject area or activity on a bulletin board. Just add student work and this board will be something to bark about. "Top Dog" can be used to describe a student of the week or month. You can create a bulletin board highlighting students for their accomplishments. "Dog-Gone Good ______" is another title with endless possibilities. You can add words such as students, work, behavior, readers, writers, scientists, etc. This title will fit perfectly on a bulletin board in your dog themed classroom "Paws"itively __________" is a wonderful play on words for a dog theme. You can add so many different words to highlight students, subject areas, and classroom activities. "You've been Spotted ________" can be used for so many different bulletin boards. Ideas include: reading, writing, working, behaving, and following class rules. Click below for a free dog theme poster: If interested in more dog theme decor, click below: Dog Theme Classroom Decor Hollywood Theme - I have used this theme in my classroom for several years. You can actually check out pictures of my Hollywood classroom on my blog. I love the idea of the students becoming stars of their classroom. If you like to coordinate your room with certain colors, then red, white, and black will really stand out in your Hollywood themed classroom. Some ideas that you can use on bulletin boards to spotlight students, activities, and lessons include: "Spotlight on ___________" can be used for almost any idea. Students love to see their work spotlighted and this helps build their self esteem. "Now Featuring/Playing __________" is similar to "Spotlight on _________." You can highlight students, specific lessons and/or activities. "Wall of Fame" can be used to motivate students. If students complete an assigned goal then their name can be added to the Wall of Fame. Students become more motivated when they realize that their hard work will be acknowledged. "Starring ___________" is another idea with endless possibilities. You can add your class name, grade level, or a description such as super students. "A Star is Born" can be used to spotlight a student of the week. Students can bring in baby pictures of themselves to add to this bulletin board. "Meet the Cast and Crew of ___________" is a perfect way to add your teacher name. This board should be displayed at the beginning of the year. "Look Who's Popping in ___________" can also be used at the beginning of the year to introduce the new students of your class. I used it in my classroom for Accelerated Reader. The students "popped" as they earned points. "Hollyword" is a wonderful title for your word wall. I used a wipe off board to display my words and hung the sign above the board. "Stage Crew" can be used as the title of your helpers bulletin board. I labeled the helpers with all Hollywood themed names. Click below for free Hollywood themed homework passes: If interested in more Hollywood Theme decor, click below: Hollywood Theme Classroom Decor Jungle Theme - Another favorite theme that I have used in the past. There are so many possibilities with this theme that it makes it easier to decorate a classroom. I am wild about a jungle themed classroom. "Wild About __________" can be used by adding any subject. Student work can be displayed according to the subject that was chosen. "Roaring About _____________" is very similar to "Wild About ___________." You can add any subject or topic. Add student work and the board is complete. "You've Been Spotted _____________" reading, writing, behaving, and working are just some of the ideas that you can use with this board. "Swinging into _____________" just needs the grade level added to it. You have a perfect bulletin board for the beginning of the school year. "Welcome to the Jungle" can be displayed on your door. Perfect addition to your jungle themed classroom. "Rules of the Jungle" can be included with your classroom rules. It is important for students to be able to read the rules and review them often. "Exploring ____________" is another topic that can be used with any subject, topic, or lesson that you are teaching. Click below for free jungle themed hallway passes: If interested in more jungle themed classroom decor, click below: Jungle Themed Classroom Decor Farm Theme - Love this theme for primary classrooms! The main color of this theme is red and the animals bring along many other colors to brighten up a classroom. Some ideas to include in your farm themed classroom: "Mooooving Along in ________________" can be used to highlight a grade level, teacher's class, or subject area. Just place a drawing of a cow and the board is all set. "You've Been Spotted __________" is a great title for spotlighting a specific activity. Ideas include reading, writing, behaving, following directions, and completing homework "Down on the Farm with ____________" just needs the teacher's name added and you can use this at the beginning of the school year to welcome your students. "Round Up for _____________" is perfect for any subject area or topic taught. Add student work and the board is complete. Click below for a farm themed reading certificate: If interested in more farm themed classroom decor, click below: Farm Themed Classroom Decor Pirate Theme - Students love this theme. The colors include mostly red, black, and white. Where do you mostly find pirates? Sailing on the blue ocean under a blue sky. So blue is also another color that can be added to your pirate theme. Listed below are some suggestions to enhance your classroom: "We ARGH..." is a wonderful starter sentence and the possibilities are endless. We ARGH following the class rules. We ARGH prepared for class. We ARGH excited for school. We ARGH ready for ____ grade. We ARGH readers. We ARGH wishing our classmates a happy birthday. Add your own words to this sentence starter and your pirate themed bulletin boards are all set. "____________ is a real treasure!" is another heading you can use on bulletin boards. Add different subjects in the blank and you can use this to display your students work. "You ARGH top crew!" can be used to highlight the student of the week. Display these words on a bulletin board to showcase one particular student or a group of students. "Sailing into...." can be used for the beginning of the year. Just add the grade level or teacher's name and you have a title ready for your back to school bulletin board or classroom door. "Gold ___________" can be used to spotlight students. "Gold Readers" can be used to motivate students with a reading incentive program. "Gold Mathematicians" can be used to display outstanding math work. You can use this sentence starter to highlight students who are displaying academic success, positive behavior, and/or showing acts of kindness. Click below for a pirate themed top crew certificate: If interested in pirate theme classroom decor, click below: Pirate Theme Classroom Decor Hope these ideas help enhance your classroom! In the comments section would love to hear about your classroom themes and any additional ideas that you have.
Correlative conjunctions... they are fairly easy for students to recognize, but they aren't always the easiest sentences to write! In fact, when it was time to teach a grammar lesson on correlative co
Do you have a newcomer student in your classroom? Here are some strategies for supporting newcomer ELLs in their elementary classroom...
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
Teach word problem types for more accurate problem-solving in the elementary classroom.
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.
Are you interested in getting your upper elementary students to spell more words correctly, understand the meaning behind more words and read more words independently? If so....then code based instruction must continue in the classroom. What is code based instruction?? This is when students are taught phonics skills in an explicit and specific sequence. Research tells us, code based instruction is the most effective way to teach students to read and spell. If a student is taught using this approach they will have the skills needed to apply learned patterns when spelling or encountering the unknown word in text. According to international literacy expert and co-author of LETRS, Dr. Carol Tolman, orthographic learning should continue beyond phonics concepts into morphology and etymology. Morphology is the study of morphemes. Morphemes are units of meaning in language (i.e. prefixes, suffixes and root words). Etymology is study of the historical development of words (i.e. identifying if the morpheme is of Greek, Latin or Anglo Saxon origin). Typically instruction on morphemes and etymology would happen at the end of third grade progressing into middle school and beyond, although younger students can easily learn basic morphemes. Dr. Tolman uses the hourglass figure below to clearly illustrate the multiple layers of direct instruction teachers should provide, progressing from phonological skills all the way into etymology. The video is about 20 minutes in length, but well worth the watch if you want to learn more about all of the layers. There is a sort of natural progression of instruction with morphemes. You will notice the progression goes from easier to understand to more difficult concepts that require background knowledge. One might first start with Anglo Saxon and Latin compounds which are free morphemes. A free morpheme is a morpheme that can stand alone and have meaning (i.e. dog and house alone mean one thing, but combined make doghouse, which means something else). Compounds are a great introduction to illustrate word chunks are meaningful. Next, one might progress to inflectional morphemes. Inflectional morphemes change what a word does, but doesn't change its meaning (i.e. ing, ed, etc.). Then, one might progress to irregular past tense plurals (i.e. catches, catch and caught). After that, one might teach common prefixes (un, re, pre, etc.) and then move to less common prefixes (macro, mono, fore, etc.) Next, one might instruct on derivational suffixes, which are suffixes that make a word change a grammar class. For example this means a word can go from being a noun (ex: pore) to being an adjective (ex: porous) by adding a derivational suffix (in this cause -ous). Finally one might teach Greek and Latin roots. Greek roots are not as common as Latin roots and are more scientific and technical. After a prefix, suffix or root word is explicitly taught there needs to be multiple exposures and chances to engage with the learned morpheme. Some great ways to further explore taught morphemes are by creating word webs, thinking of a visual or action that represents the morpheme, word hunts, graphic organizers, cloze activities or playing games. Ready to better instruct on morphology? Prefix, suffix and root word graphic organizers are a great way to deepen understanding of morphemes! Send me morphology graphic organizers!! We respect your privacy. Unsubscribe at any time. Powered By ConvertKit > Bottom line--the more students understand about the structure of words, the better they will be at reading them independently, understanding their meaning and how to correctly spell.
How to Make an Art History Mini-Golf Course Connections % %
Here are some great grammar games, ideas, and activities that will help early/middle elementary aged kids enjoy grammar just a bit.
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 […]
Teaching grammar and language art skills can be a challenge for anyone. How do you hit all of the skills...effectively? How do you know your students are
Five Fun Activities for Teaching Prepositions. Teaching prepositions through playing games & enjoyable activities for children to learn while having fun.
If you're tired of teaching parts of speech lessons only to have kids forget all about it the next day, try these easy ideas and activities!
