How do you feel when you hear the words main idea or main topic? Do you cringe or do you get excited? If I’m being honest, I used to completely tense up when this unit was up next because it’s a HARD concept for students. Not only was it really difficult for students to understand at times, it often felt… Read More
Easy Tips to Create a Calm Down Corner
Are you having elevated behaviors in your classroom and want to support the emotional well being of your students? Or maybe you simply want to learn more about what a calm down corner is and why they are effective? Well this is the post for you! I am going to teach you all about the what, why, and how. By… Read More
Why Decodable Readers are so Powerful
Have you ever taught students a phonics skill that they totally rocked in isolation, but then dove into the text and couldn’t decode words that presented that same skill? It’s so frustrating right?! Well this is where the power of decodable readers comes in! Students will not only get great practice rocking those decoding skills in text, but they’ll also… Read More
3 Simple Ways to Stop the Overwhelm and Begin Creating Systems that Help Your Classroom (Almost) Run Itself!
Let’s face it. Teaching is an extremely rewarding profession, but we all know that it can get VERY overwhelming at times. Maybe it’s a few weeks into the school year, possibly a few months, but at some point that state of overwhelm creeps in. It’s totally normal, but it’s also important to make sure you take time to destress and… Read More
How to Teach Informative Writing
Teaching informative writing to students is one of the most important types of writing. Why you might ask? Think about the last thing you wrote. Was it a story to entertain? Was it trying to persuade someone of something? Or was it to teach about something? Most often when we write as we get older, it’s to share information. In… Read More
5 Engaging Winter Literacy Activities
Do you ever feel like the months between winter and spring break are extra long and grueling?? It may seem like time is ticking slow, but that might only be because you aren’t having enough FUN! I decided to forget the winter blues and really ICE things up with these engaging, hands on, winter themed literacy activities! In this post,… Read More