Whimsy Workshop Teaching

Whimsy Workshop Teaching

Teacher Clip Art, Literary Resources, Classroom Ideas

8 Socially-Distanced Learning Activities

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There are many fun teaching activities that we can do while still keeping students socially-distanced! With a bit of creativity there are a lot of adaptations we can make – preferably with very little preparation. I’ve listed eight activities below (and seven more here) that were popular in my classroom when we went back to in-person teaching!

Socially-Distanced OUTSIDE PHONICS

Unless it was pouring rain, we spent as much time outside as possible. A lot of learning happened out there! We made [Read More…]

5 Tips for Free Boom Cards

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Confession time: When I first heard of Boom Cards my thought was, “I can’t learn another new thing right now!” But when distance learning became a reality, I decided to give myself 20 minutes to read and learn, and then decide if it was something I wanted to try.

Guess what? TOTALLY worth my time! And I think there’s a good chance you might agree with me! I’m going to break it all down into a few small steps so [Read More…]

Online Stories for Distance Learning

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As more and more of our teaching involves online learning, I’ve realized that I have to get super organized with my online resources. This includes my huge collection of online stories! Here’s how I’m keeping everything simple and organized this year:

Grab this FREE clickable templates below!

Organizing Online Stories

Google Slides is the perfect way to build a virtual class library, and it’s a fun way to visually store all of the stories you share with students. Each one of the books [Read More…]

Math Videos for Primary Classrooms

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I start my math lessons with math videos almost every day.
They are a great way to warm up and start thinking about numbers. They’re a great review of the concepts we’re working on.

 
Most of all, they are so fun and interactive that my students LOVE math time!
Here are some of our primary favorite videos:
Dancing Monsters Count to 50
This is our absolute favorite for early learners for counting to 50.
The cute monsters dance around to the beat, while students count in groups [Read More…]

Instagram Archive

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Looking for a clickable link for something spotted on my Instagram account?

Click on the links and images below!

See All SOCIAL SKILLS: Click HERE

See All DIRECTED DRAWING VIDEOS: Click HERE

See All SOUND WALL: Click HERE

See All PHONICS CENTERS: Click HERE

See All MATH: Click HERE

See All SENTENCE BUILDING: Click HERE

See All WRITING CENTERS: Click HERE

See All ART: Click HERE

See All POETRY WRITING: Click HERE

See [Read More…]

Guided Spelling Ideas

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It can be tricky to support your emergent writers who are tackling spelling. Early writers may have a delicate confidence when it comes to spelling, and they often don’t realize that guessing and making mistakes is an important part of learning. 
It’s our job as teachers to explain that they are not expected to know how to spell every word! Always take time to let your students know that you’re looking for the effort and the attempt. Our mantra is “Make [Read More…]

Animated Stories for Social Skills

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I’ve recently started to incorporate online read-aloud stories into my daily routine, and have discovered there are so many great books out there online!
Here are three different sources where you can find FREE online stories!

Howard Wigglebottom Stories
My favorite find in the last year is the site dedicated to the Howard Wigglebottom stories. These cute animations focus on character building, social and emotional development, and lots of other essential ingredients for the primary classroom.And guess what? They are all animated on [Read More…]

Reading Lessons and Intervention Made Easy

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This post is all about teaching reading, and it also contains a FREE alphabet printing activity for you to download!
You may have seen my recent post about my HUGE teaching dilemma last year: a new teaching partner who had no experience with teaching primary math!  How could I make sure that my new partner stayed on track without spending HOURS talking about math lessons, planning, intervention and reporting?

My solution? I had the idea to make a whole year of paperless daily [Read More…]

Tips for Teaching Responsibility

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Welcome to the Social Skills Ideas Bank!
The Social Skills Idea Bank is a series of related posts, each dedicated to sharing strategies for teaching a particular social skill.
As teachers, our strength lies in sharing our ideas, experiences and strategies!
This is a growing list, and you are invited to contribute in the comments section. We hope you will, because there’s nothing like a good idea shared between teachers to make our jobs easier.
In this post you will find lots of simple ways to encourage students [Read More…]

Math Videos for Primary Classrooms

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I start my math lessons with math videos almost every day.
They are a great way to warm up and start thinking about numbers. They’re a great review of the concepts we’re working on.

Most of all, they are so fun and interactive that my students LOVE math time!
Here are some of our primary favorite videos:
Dancing Monsters Count to 50
This is our absolute favorite for early learners for counting to 50.
The cute monsters dance around to the beat, while students count in groups [Read More…]

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