We’ve been working on letter blends in our classroom, and I got a new set of Letter Buddies Blends books from Hameray Publishing to use with the class.
Here’s what we did this week:
The first thing we did was take some time to look through the books together. The students quickly noticed that each book had words with the same beginning blends. The clear pictures and simple text made even my lower readers feel confident.
Next, I passed out one book to [Read More…]
I’m a big fan of good memes or quotations, and love to share and discuss them.
If a quotation is educationally meaningful, I often will share it with my students. They are perfect for inspiring meaningful discussions and higher level thinking! Sometimes we use these quotations or sayings as a springboard for journal writing.
While collecting quotations for students, I thought: Why not add them to my writing center choices?
Because I teach primary students, I created templates to support student writing by [Read More…]
I am always searching for fun new ways to teach core skills: phonics, phonological awareness, spelling patterns, etc. One day, one of my students brought it a pop-up book, and I saw students’ eyes light up with interest. How do they work? Are they magic? Can we make some?
With this in mind, the newest addition to our writing center is a class favorite: Pop Up Phonics booklets!
Each booklet is made with just one page, folded twice, and cut once on [Read More…]
Increasingly, integrated learning is becoming fundamental to teaching. Many schools are moving away from the traditional “single subject blocks” model to a multi-subject, project-based model.
Here’s a quick video from Edutopia to explain the benefits of this approach.
Click for Introduction Video
Project-based learning is perfect for this kind of approach. Why? Within each project there are multiple problems to solve. Each problem is drawing from knowledge of various subject areas.
Our school adopted Genius Hour as another way to facilitate project-based integrated learning. [Read More…]
Assessment can be difficult for both teachers and students, depending on how it’s done.
Here’s a super simple little trick for assessment that I call Hop Across the Pond. It can be used for a lot of different things, but I use it mostly for assessment of students’ sight word knowledge.
I used to ask my students to read through a list of sight words and tick off the ones they knew; I’d use this for reporting and to know which words to [Read More…]
When I taught Kindergarten, we always took time to do our daily math board as part of our Calendar routine. This was a way to practice so many essential math skills every day. We covered how a calendar worked, place value, basic addition and a lot of work with a 100’s board.
When I moved to teach grade 2, I created a Daily Math Board for our class to use for older students.
The idea of a daily routine is the same, [Read More…]
The first days back at school after the winter holidays can be hard to plan for. Everyone is thinking about goals for the new year, and this is a great topic for writing and reflection with students. Don’t be afraid to model that kind of goal setting with them!
First, we reflect back on the year that past.
We write the highlights, and think about things we’ve learned or experienced for the first time.
Next, we think ahead to the future with goals [Read More…]
You know how some students (especially in the first weeks of school) just sigh when you give them writing or math jobs because what they really want to do is play with blocks or Lego all day?
Here’s how I got those students excited to do some writing and math (while still letting them build and use their imaginations.)
Just add a writing or counting task after they build! Create a recording page similar to those pictured below (or you can see [Read More…]
