Whimsy Workshop Teaching

Whimsy Workshop Teaching

Teacher Clip Art, Literary Resources, Classroom Ideas

New Year’s Resolutions Writing

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Have you ever noticed that, after New Year’s celebrations, when students come back to school after winter break, they act like they’ve never been in a classroom before? Sometimes it seems like they’ve forgotten everything you’ve taught them in the past months!

Of course they haven’t forgotten…but it’s a good time for a refresher! Take some time to remind and re-establish routines and expectations with your students. Review your class rules and even some of the academic goals you reached [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…]

Writing In Primary – 12 Simple Book Projects

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As teachers and parents of beginning writers we want to encourage our students to see themselves as authors. This can be so challenging when working with emergent writers. Students can be overwhelmed by a blank page. The idea of “sounding out” all those hard words can prevent them from enjoying the creative process and instead fill them with anxiety! This is NOT how we want students to feel during writing time!

SUPPORTING NEW WRITERS
Here are some examples of how I support [Read More…]

Math Doodles: First Grade Math Skills + Fun!

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Here’s an easy way to make math time more fun!
Integrate math, art and writing to practice ANY math skill through the whole year!

HOW DOES IT WORK?
Here’s how it works:

Choose a math skill to practice. (ie: Addition Doubles)
Use the built-in spinner to choose a number to double. (ie: Spin a 2)
Write the equation in one of the spaces provided. Find the answer. (ie: 2+2=4)
Use the answer (4) to choose which doodle design to use on the Doodle Chart.
Use that design to [Read More…]

Social Skills Poetry

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I’m always looking for new ways to integrate social skills into my teaching.
Poetry is a fun new way to teach social skills!

This year, we decided to integrate social skills in our teaching with our Poem of the Week! Each week we focus on a different social skill and use it to read, write, discuss, sort, and so much more!
Here are some of our poetry topics:
For Carpet Time:
Hands In My Lap, I Can Raise My Hand,  Meet At The Carpet, Ready To [Read More…]

Teaching Reading with Phonics Centers

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Phonics centers are the core of my teaching when it comes to emergent readers. As an early literacy teacher for over 25 years, I’ve learned a thing or two about how children successfully acquire and practice reading skills. In Kindergarten, our focus is letter sounds. That is the foundation of decoding letters as symbols for sounds we hear in language.
Once students can tell you which letter makes which sound, we are ready to move on to isolating those sounds. The [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…]

Online Stories for Book Companions

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WHY USE BOOK COMPANIONS?
Book companions allow teachers to use one story to practice a number of core reading and writing skills.
In my classroom, it ensures that I continue to use literature to explore things like story structure, sequencing, character traits, letter writing formats, comprehension and more. We can also have fun with stories using partner plays, comic book writing, and art projects.
Using book companions keeps all the lessons focused and organized, makes my planning easier, and makes assessment simple because [Read More…]

Directed Drawing Videos – Reindeer

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Do your students love directed drawing? Mine do!
Read all about how I use directed drawing and writing prompts, and even directed drawing VIDEOS with my class!

DIRECTED DRAWING VIDEOS
Using Directed Drawing videos is a fun new way to practice drawing with your students! It saves a lot of teacher time by being no-prep – just give students some paper and pencils, press PLAY, and students draw along with the video! You can pause whenever you like, and replay the video at [Read More…]

Animal Writing Flap Books

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Do your students love animal research projects?
It’s a great way to introduce non-fiction writing, and it can be a source of pride for students who feel very “grown up” because they are doing research! However, this enthusiasm can be dampened if emergent writers are not supported with reading materials at their level, and so long as the information sources are not too overwhelming.

This is why differentiating your non-fiction materials for emergent writers is so important.
Here are some tips for implementing your [Read More…]

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