Fantastic First Week of School: Teach Your Writes with Free Sentence a Day Image

Fantastic First Week of School: Teach Your Writers with Free Sentence a Day

Sentence a day is a great getting to know you activity and helps you to set up your writing block is easily! Ah! The fun, fantastic, exhausting first week of school! It’s always filled with SO MUCH! Of course, setting up your classroom procedures and routines are at the top of the list, but you also want to get to know your new little classroom family and you want them to get to know each other! Let me help you do a little of both! Teach Your Writers: First Week of School Activities My writing block is always my favorite

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STEM Ideas for Fast Finishers Cover

3 Fun STEM Activities to Engage Your Fast Finishers

STEM Activities for Fast Finishers: Maker Space or STEM Center This is one of my student’s favorite ideas for fast finishers! Before we start with our Maker Space and/or STEM Center we talk a lot about what it is, what it’s not, and how to use it. One thing that we talk about is what we are making. If we make something that looks like trash and we take it home, what will the grown-up at home do with it? Throw it away. So, when we are working in this space, we should be creating something that we can use,

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Math Activities for Early Finishers with Free Pattern Block Challenge Mats

4 Fun Math Activities for Early Finishers

Math Activities for Early Finishers 1: Flashcards I don’t know about your kiddos, but mine always need extra practice with their basic math facts! A super simple way to practice their math facts is with flashcards! They don’t need to be fancy, in fact, you could have the kiddos make their own with index cards, or you could buy a few sets to have in your classroom like these: (This post does contain affiliate links to Amazon.  If you do purchase something through my links I receive a small commission at no cost to you!) When the kiddos are done

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5 Fun Writing Activities for Early Finishers

So, the rule during our Writer’s Workshop is “When you think you’re done, you’ve just begun!” But what does that mean for those students who finish early? Read on to find some of our favorite writing activities for early finishers! Writing Activities for Early Finishers: Writing Center I love my writing center! I did an entire post dedicated to my writing center. You can find it here. A writing center can also be SUPER simple. Really all you need for a writing center is paper. A super basic writing center could have just lined paper and blank paper. Trust me,

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6 Easy Reading Activities for Fast Finishers Cover Image

6 Easy Reading Activities for Fast Finishers

Looking for some fun, meaningful activities for fast finishers? This blog post is full of ideas for early finishers that are reading-related! There is also a freebie for you! Thanks for reading! Reading Activities for Fast Finshers: 1 Reading itself is a favorite activity for early finishers in my room. I have a ton of children’s books, and they are just too tempting. My room is surrounded by great books! My students store 2-3 books in their book boxes that they are welcome to read or look at when they are done with their work, eating snacks (if they are

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reading conferencing with students

Reading Conferencing with Students

What are Reading Conferences? I LOVE doing reading conferences. Reading conferencing with students is a quick, one on one conversation that you have with your students about what they are reading and how they can become better readers. It’s that simple. Why do Reading Conferencing with Students? Reading conferences help you as the teacher get to better know your students! This precious one-on-one time with your students to help you with differentiating your reading instruction, getting to know your individual students better, and helping them along with their reading! These conferences are short, sweet, and to the point, but so

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Fun and Low Prep STEM Playdough Activities Image

Fun and Low-Prep STEM Playdough Activities

STEM Playdough Activities are a huge hit in my classroom! Read on to learn more about STEM/STEAM and easy and fun ways that you can incorporate STEM/STEAM into your classroom! This post does contain affiliate links to Amazon.  If you do purchase something through my links I receive a small commission at no cost to you! What is STEM/STEAM? What is STEM/STEAM? STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. STEAM adds in the A for Art. These fields all share an emphasis on creative thinking, problem solving, innovating, and critical thinking, all the things that we would like our

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back to school teaching ideas

Fun Back to School Teaching Ideas. Back to School Made Easy!

It’s that time of year….Back to School! The Reading Crew is here with some back to school teaching ideas! Stick around to find some amazing back-to-school teaching ideas, freebies, and a giveaway! Back to school Teaching Ideas: 1st Day Keepsake Mini-Book! The first day is always so exciting and filled with activity! One of the first writing activities that I like to do is a first day of school mini-book. This is so super easy. You print, copy, and give each kiddo a mini-book. If you would like, you could add a picture of yourself or your bitmoji (I don’t

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How to add details to writing Mini-Lessons

How to Add Details to Writing Mini-Lessons

How to add details to writing is one of the things that I work on teaching my students ALL YEAR LONG! Read on to get more details (see what I did there…)? How to add details to writing Lesson 1: Sensory Details Objectives: I can add details to my writing. I can add sensory details to my writing. First of all, students need to understand what detail is. A detail is something that you add to your writing to make it easier for your reader to understand, or to make your writing more interesting for your writer. Discuss different types

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5 Easy Responding to Reading Ideas!

As a primary teacher one of my favorite classroom activities is Responding to Reading! It is so important to let students express their thoughts and ideas about what you are reading and what they are reading! Read on for 5 Responding to Reading Ideas! Responding to Reading Idea #1 Let them talk! The easiest and my favorite responding to reading idea is to let your students talk! The procedure in my classroom is if the book is facing me, we are listening intently. If the book is facing you (the students), you can make a quick comment to your partner

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5 Ways to use Writing Prompts with Pictures

Teaching writing can be difficult, but today I am going to share with you five fun ways to use writing prompts with pictures to enhance your writing instruction! Read on… My second graders LOVE using writing prompts with pictures! I try to use them in my writing instruction as much as possible.  Picture writing prompts are such a fun, visual way to help your students write!  Here are 5 ways that you can use Picture Writing Prompts in your classroom! 1. Use Writing Prompts with Pictures in your Writing Lessons Writing lessons are always more fun when you use writing

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Back to School 2020-2021: 5 Things I am doing to get started!

Well, now we know the plan for going back to school in 2020.  Read on to see what is happening in my neck of the woods! This post contains affiliate links to Amazon.  That means if you purchase anything through Amazon using the links provided, I will receive a small commission at no cost to you.  Thank you for your support!   The schools that I teach for are offering 2 choices.  1. Distance Learning:  All instruction will be provided via the computer.  2. In-Class Learning.     So, for our in-class learners, we are going back to school this year on

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