Blog - Primary Planet

Build a Love of Reading with Mentor Texts! Using Context Clues with Baloney (Henry P.).

Using Context Clues. It’s a very important skill for reading students to have! Using context clues to infer the meanings of unknown words! Where do you even start? I have two great books to help you to teach Using Context Clues to infer the meaning of unknown words. Baloney (Henry P.) So, when I first introduce this skill my to kiddos, I use Baloney (Henry P.) by Jon Scieszka. Poor Henry is a little alien late for szkola again. His teacher is going to give him lifelong detention unless he can come up with very good, very believable excuse. Do

#1 First Day of School Activity that your students will LOVE! (It will also make the whole day a little easier!)

Ah! I hate to break it to you, but the first day of school is coming, and there is nothing we can do to stop it! That being said, I have a super fun, engaging first day of school activity that will help make the whole day just a little bit easier! First Day of School Activity! Wow! The first day of school is a real whirlwind. I don’t know about you, but I like the first day to be as relaxing and fun as possible. So, I start out the first day with …Play Dough! When the kiddos come

Shhh…I have the secret to printing in color…affordably!

You really don’t want to miss out on this! Do you like printing in color? Oh, come on, who doesn’t right? Now you can print in color without breaking the bank! How? Have you heard of HP Instant Ink? This is seriously a game changer! Note: This post contains affiliate links. I am a teacher, I have an HP printer and I use Instant Ink! This post is my honest opinion of both. Here is how it works! First, you have to have a printer that is HP Instant Ink Compatible!Click HERE to find a list of eligible printers: I

Read aloud for character traits with freebie

Book Talk Tuesday: Describing Character Traits using The Legend of Rock, Paper, Scissors by Drew Daywalt

Welcome Back! I have a wonderful new book to share with you today! It is perfect for teaching Character Traits! The Legend of Rock, Paper, Scissors by Drew Daywalt! He is the author of The Day the Crayons Quit, and The Day the Crayons Came Home! Of course, there is a freebie for you at the end! I hope you are wearing your battle pants! Rock, from the Kingdom of Backyard, is looking for a fight. He has yet to find a challenge. Paper, from the Empire of Mom’s Home Office, and Scissors, from the tiny village of Junk Drawer,

Special Book Talk Tuesday: My FAVORITE Children’s Book!

Hello everyone! Thank you so much for visiting me again. This is a special Book Talk Tuesday Post for me. It’s about my FAVORITE children’s book of ALL TIME!I know, you are thinking “How in the world do you choose? There are so many great books out there?” But, this one is special. Mrs. Beggs and the Wizard by Mercer Mayer has been my favorite since I was a little girl. When I was in college, I discovered it again at a Half-Price Bookstore. It was the first children’s book that I bought for my future classroom. Every time I

Spring Teaching Ideas

Ah, Spring! It’s in in the air. Looking for some fun Spring Teaching Ideas? Keep Reading! I don’t know about you, but my students are READY for Spring! There is a definite air of Spring Fever in our classroom! So, I needed some fun Spring Teaching Ideas, and I figured that you might too! Spring Teaching Idea 1:Digital Sequence and Write Here are a few Digital activities that I created for working on sequencing. This first item is fully interactive. Your students move the pictures into the correct order, then write the sequence using the transition

Book Talk Tuesday: Reading, and Science and Magic! Oh my! Zoey and Sassafras: Dragons and Marshmallows.

Hello again! Welcome to another Book Talk Tuesday! Today I am going to be talking about a fun new book called: Zoey and Sassafras: Dragons and Marshmallows written by Asia Citro, illustrated by Marion Lindsey! Wow! Is this a fun book! It has everything: Magic, Science, adventure, experiments, and more! This is an adorable story of a little girl who discovers that her mom has been helping magical creatures since she was little. Mom needs to go on a business trip and leaves Zoey in charge to help any creatures that may show up needing help! With the

Let Them Do it! Fostering Independence in the Classroom!

We all want our students to be independent. We want them to figure out a solution to the problem, to get their work done, to make sure that they put their things away, and not lose their homework. Check out some ways that I am fostering independence in the classroom! So, I figured out the other day that I have been teaching for 17 years. Sheesh, that seems like such a long time, but it has really flown by! One of the things that I have always had some trouble with is being a control freak, perfectionist, little reluctant to relinquish

Book Talk Tuesday: Ideas are All Around by Philip C. Stead

It’s Book Talk Tuesday! My favorite day of the week!Today I want to talk to you about: Ideas are All Around by Philip C. Stead! My kiddos loved this book! They thought that the combination of illustrations and photographs was really neat! They loved the cloud pics! The main character is an author who has to write a story, but is out of ideas, so he goes for a walk with his dog Wednesday. They have some fun adventures, conversations, and thoughts on their walk through their neighborhood. It is a great book for talking about where ideas

Fundraising Ideas that do not involve selling things.

Elementary School Fundraising Idea that Doesn’t Include Selling

Hello all! If your school is anything like ours, you are always looking for ways to raise a little money to help the kiddos out with something or another. Our school is no exception! One of our brilliant teachers came up with a way to make a little extra money that the kiddos LOVE! We have a team of kiddos at our school who are currently raising funds for St. Baldrick’s. They are shaving their heads to raise money to help defeat childhood cancer. Here is what we are doing to help them meet their goal. Each Friday until

Once Upon an Alphabet! Another Book Talk Tuesday (with a freebie of course!)

Welcome back to another Book Talk Tuesday! This week, I am talking about an Alphabet book! Once Upon an Alphabet by Oliver Jeffers!This book is a fun way to get your kiddo writing their own alphabet stories! I LOVE this book! It has a short story for each letter of the alphabet! They are fun, silly, and sure to spark the interest of your students! I have to say, I am so excited about finding book trailers on You Tube! Isn’t that awesome? Book trailers! (Maybe I am seriously behind the times, but I love them!) As

Fun Word Work Idea!

Ah, sight words. They need to be taught, and retaught, then taught again. It is so well worth the time when your kiddos are reading fluently, but not much fun to teach all the time. I have a fun word work idea to share about something new I started in my classroom the other day. So far, so good! Fun Word Work Idea! So, this year we decided to forgo weekly spelling tests and focus more on Word Work. We have five sight words a week, then focus on a chunk or chunks of those words for word work for

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