Teacher Clip Art, Literary Resources, Classroom Ideas
One of the most engaging activities in my classroom over the last 20+ year has been Secret Sentences. Students LOVE to solve a secret mystery, and even better when they are practicing their letter sound knowledge at the same time!
WHERE TO BEGIN: SIMPLE WORDS
We begin with simple words. We use word tiles, scrabble tiles, or homemade tiles with n
As shown, student place tiles to match the FIRST SOUND of each little picture. They can also use dry erase marker on [Read More…]
Directed Drawing is a fun and engaging way to integrate art and writing.
Here are some ways that I use art in my classroom to encourage more writing!
WRITING COMPLIMENTS
After your whole class directed drawing lessons, invite students to do a “gallery walk” around the room to see other students’ work. Then, leave a post-it note beside each picture and assign secret partners. Students study their partner’s drawing and write a compliment on the post-it note. Students love to return to their [Read More…]
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.
This post is about simple ways to guide students to growth [Read More…]
Looking for something super simple for your first grade writing centers?
Check out these FREE seasonal writing templates for your writing center!
These fun writing topper templates are a great way to offer differentiation and interest in your writing centers!
I created a set to use through the school year for seasonal topics.
They are free to download and try with your students!
TEACHER PREP DIRECTIONS:
These centers require very little prep! Just copy the topper and writing template you’ve chosen for each student. Students will [Read More…]
We reserve time each day for story writing.
There are so many ways to encourage students to write, even when they are just at the emergent level.
Two things that I focus on the most in my primary classroom are:
-Students feel confident in their ability to express ideas through writing.
-Students have the opportunity to share their written ideas in a supportive environment.
Explore Different Kinds of Writing
Many students have no strategies for finding a topic, so we spend time discussing different forms of writing and [Read More…]
I am constantly trying to find new ways to integrate different subject areas in my classroom. We have LOTS of activities that integrate math, art and writing, but because it’s that time of year to start studying life cycles, we’ve now incorporated science into the mix! Here’s how we do it:
Our caterpillars arrived last week and my students are completely engaged in learning about their life cycle. We used color by numbers templates to create the round life cycle pictures [Read More…]
How do you handle differentiation when it comes to non-fiction writing?
Over the last 20 years, I’ve learned that when teaching in my multi-age classroom, differentiation is a MUST. There are many different ways to accomplish this, and I have found that getting this right can make students feel very successful, which makes it a big deal!
MODIFY THE CONTENT
When we are working on non-fiction, for example, I offer students information in many different ways. I prefer to allow them to choose the materials [Read More…]
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 the end. It also makes a fun independent activity if you have access to smaller devices during center time or for early finishers. As with [Read More…]
This year I will be using this cute All About Me writing template with my new students!
It’s not too overwhelming for my reluctant writers, and it’s a great way to get to know them. I find this format is more engaging for my emergent writers. The only rule I have is that they must complete some writing before they can color. And they WANT to color all the cute pictures very badly!
It is also allowing me to collect valuable information about [Read More…]
10 Apps for Encouraging Reluctant Writers
Do you have ipads in your classroom this year? Are you looking for ways to encourage your reluctant writers? I am always on the lookout for fun new activities for my young writers.
Each year, I have students in my class who just LOVE to write. When I ask them to write one sentence, they write five. If I give them a few scraps of paper, they’ll staple it and create their own fully illustrated [Read More…]
