sprinkletoppedteacher

State testing season is upon us. Whether we like it our not. Luckily, I have found there are so many ways to provide testing motivation for students! The best thing we can do for our students is to make them think of testing as a super fun time! They should walk into standardized test days feeling encouraged and excited to show all that they've learned! One of my favorite testing treats to have ready for students is a letter of encouragement waiting on each of their desks! Motivate Students[...]

Confession time. The idea of teaching my students a STEM activity in my elementary classroom used to sound anything but easy. I didn't take any college classes on teaching STEM. My school didn't provide STEM curriclulum. As a new teacher, I wasn't really sure where to begin. It's also no secret that STEM is a growing industry. As teachers, it's our job to prepare our students for the real world. Plus, there's no down side to adding STEM activities to the classroom. It only increases student's cr[...]

What if I told you that free cursive handwriting practice worksheets could make your class better in other subject areas? I've got great news... It's true! Research has proven that there is a positive correlation between better handwriting skills and increased academic performance in reading and writing. A study published in the Journal of Early Childhood Education and Development looked at 1,000 students when they were in pre-K and then later in second grade. They found that pre-K students with goo[...]

St. Patrick's Day is almost here! I'm always looking for an easy St. Patrick's Day activity to do with my students. Something that includes a fun craft, but is still academic. And if I'm telling the truth, I don't love classroom parties. They get chaotic. The class usually forgets every classroom rule, and I leave feeling exhausted. A few years back I made the switch to more themed activities and review centers on holidays instead of full blow parties and cupcakes. The class still has a blas[...]

It's 3am. You wake up with a 102 fever and it hits you. You are going to have to write sub plans and have no template prepped. Ugh. I used to have that "I think I can make it through the day" attitude until I finally realized, I only end up even more sick and probably pass that nasty bug to everyone else. The more years I taught, the more I realized the importance of having a solid sub plans template prepped and ready to go so that when I did get sick, I can quickly finish my plans in 20 minutes and[...]

Handwriting matters. The problem is that it's difficult to find fun handwriting worksheets for older kids. It seems like each year, students are spending more and more time using technology. Technology is great and I'm all here for it, but fine motor skills matter too. Dr. William Klemm from Psychology Today explains, “The benefits to brain development are similar to what you get with learning to play a musical instrument.” Yet handwriting is one of the first activities that gets pushe[...]

Typical math fact worksheets for 2nd grade are boring. There I said it. Passing out a stack of addition problems all lined up in rows is not engaging. Very few kids actually enjoy practicing math facts this way. Yet we do it anyways. I'll be the first to admit, I'm just as guilty as the next teacher. I had my students practice their math facts on boring worksheets every day for years. Finally it dawned on me that there HAD to be a better way to teach math facts to my second grade students.[...]