Mastering math skills in the early grades is crucial to our students’ success. Digital math warm ups only take about ten minutes at the beginning of class and make for the perfect spiral review to get student’s math brains turned on and ready to go for your lesson! I used to use paper copies and they were great and all, but I really don’t want to make a lot of copies for something students will complete in a matter of minutes before the lesson even begins. That’s why I developed my Dig[...]
It’s no secret that teachers are missing the traditional classroom. Many of you have had to completely adapt your classrooms to incorporate some form of distance learning this school year and it’s been tricky. And as teachers, you are flexible. You adapt to whatever setting you are in and continue to teach your students the best you can. Teachers are resilient. You will work through the obstacles and continue marching toward our student’s learning goals. But it’s no secret that the tra[...]
Any time is a great time for a fun apple volcano experiment! That’s how I feel about it in my classroom anyway! The funny thing I’ve learned is that if it’s boring to me – it’s got to be boring for my students too, right? That’s why I came up with this fun and engaging experiment to help students learn the scientific method and so much more. This science experiment is fun and engaging and your students won’t even know they are practicing the scientific method unless you tell them. I[...]
Winter is such a fun time in the classroom! I always love our unit on polar bears and arctic animals because there are so many fun winter opinion writing activities you can do in the classroom! One of my all time favorites is this silly Winter Opinion Writing Activity: Adopt an Arctic Animal for A Class Pet! It combines writing an opinion with the excitement of studying arctic animals. I mean, who doesn’t have an opinion, right? Students get the opportunity of convincing their principal to let[...]
Things seem to slow down in winter. There’s no outdoor recess and not as many things to do. Kids even seem to get bored faster during the colder months, especially when it comes to learning and mastering new concepts. For grades first through third, place value can be one of those difficult topics for teachers and students. But, what if I told you that it doesn’t have to be boring? What if I told you that a simple game could help reinforce place value skills? That’s right! Mix in some[...]
I don’t know about you, but for me, winter can easily just be blah! But the good thing is, thanks to polar bears, snow and the holidays, classroom lessons don’t have to be boring or blah. They can be fun and exciting. Don’t believe me? You’re going to want to check out this Winter Activity Bundle designed for second grade. (HINT: You might find a discount code in this post) When you grab this bundle, you’ll get six complete lessons all at once. These lessons, games, puzzles, and han[...]
Teaching time in elementary school can be a bit tricky! And if it wasn’t difficult enough, they need to learn to tell time on both analog and digital devices. Many teachers find teaching time in elementary school a difficult, but necessary part of their jobs. It’s kind of like teaching two languages at once! It can be enough to make a teacher want to pull their hair out. Repetition and reteaching the concepts over and over is the key to mastering this essential skill. But doing the same thing ov[...]
Just when we thought teaching Language Arts to second graders couldn’t possibly be any more difficult. Most of us have had to switch our classes to ELA distance learning environments. What? How in the world are we supposed to teach writing, grammar, reading, and all the finer components via computer? 3rd grade is much more language based and we have to get them ready, right? I mean really, how do you share and check worksheets through the computer screen? As teachers, I think we have adapted well[...]
Nothing but polar bears can be cuddly and humongous at the same time. Really, we’ve fallen in love with them! But honestly, as a teacher, just teaching facts about anything, even polar bears can be tough. The key to good teaching is getting students to learn their facts – without boring them to death. So, let’s talk about building a unit on polar bears that involve fun hands-on activities in the classroom. Facts About Polar Bears Did you know that polar bears are not actually whit[...]
The students we are teaching today are growing up with a smartphone in their hand and the world at their fingertips. But I still find myself falling into the rut of the traditional classroom at times. As teachers, we have the world at our fingertips too – even our educational world. Why not use it? Right? This last year has at least taught us that we need to be able to accommodate learning in a variety of settings. That’s exactly what I’ve done with my Rainbow Milk Experiment. It is now[...]