Ways to Celebrate National Poetry Month with Second Graders During Distance Learning April is National Poetry month! Chances are, you had all sorts of fun activities planned for your primary classroom. Even though you may be participating in distance learning right now, you can still bring poetry to your second graders! Try these fun activities to celebrate poetry during April or year-round on or offline! Close Read Poetry Don’t let
Google Classroom FAQ for Elementary Teachers New to Google Classroom? I’ve got you covered! Here is a rundown of the main features of Google Classroom that are indispensable for teachers. What can you post? In essence, just about anything and everything! To begin, Google Classroom allows you to make 5 different kinds of posts: Assignment: posts where students can submit work to you Quiz Assignment: posts where you can create
Google Classroom Help for Parents We’re all learning so much during this time of Distance Learning! For teachers, students, and parents alike, the technology that we are using is brand new. Many teachers may be using Google Classroom to communicate lessons with students, but parents may be unfamiliar with the platform and need an overview on how to use it. Here are some Google Classroom for Parents tips to share
Preparing for Home Learning During Extended Breaks Is your school one of the many that are currently facing closures due to Coronavirus? If so, you likely do not know how long your school will be closed and if expectations like school days and state testing will remain in place. For this reason, it is important to do your best to prepare for home learning by providing your students with some
March is Women’s History Month, and there are so many wonderful books about amazing women in history. Women’s History Month is an excellent time to celebrate important women in history and inspire students to impact the world. It is also a great opportunity to incorporate diversity by sharing the stories of women from various backgrounds, races, and nationalities. Here are some of my favorite books to share with students to
Teaching Critical Thinking through Forming Opinions Teaching students to distinguish opposing viewpoints on a topic, then to determine their own viewpoint is a critical skill. Students need to be able to look at media critically. It’s important they understand that what they see on the news, articles, radio, and television are often swayed by the creator’s thoughts, feelings, and beliefs. Students need to be able to review information critically. It
Tips and Strategies for Closing Testing Gaps We all know that we “should” be using best practices all year that move our students to where they need to be. And we all know we should begin this at the start of the year. But what if you assess your students mid-year only to find your students are nowhere near where they should be? Should you throw in the towel? Or
Teaching about Characters in Literature I LOVE teaching about characters in literature. There are so many excellent mentor texts that help students learn about character traits and character change. Teaching about characters is also a great opportunity to incorporate diverse characters and character education. Here are some tips and strategies for how to teach characters in literature skills effectively. My Favorite Characters in Literature Mentor Texts Here are my favorite
Teaching Context Clues Context clues is one of those skills that it seems like students can never get enough practice with. The skill is vital to overall reading comprehension, so it makes sense to revisit it multiple times. I taught and retaught context clues over-and-over throughout the year. Here are some strategies that can help your students succeed with this important skill and help boost their overall reading comprehension. Introducing
Why are Task Cards so Awesome? Task cards are a great tool to use for skill review. If you’re not using them, you should be! They are super simple to prep, and once you have them ready to go, you can revisit and reuse them over and over, year over year! Here are some ideas for how to use them in your classroom. *This post contains affiliate links. As an
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