Epic Halloween Fun: 7 Must-Try Activities for Early Elementary October in an early elementary classroom is a whole kind of energy, isn’t it? Between everyone asking “What are you gonna be for Halloween?” and the sugar rushes, trying to keep kindergarten, first, and second-grade students focused on academics can feel
Your Fall Teaching Survival Guide Autumn brings changing leaves, chilly morning bus duty, and a classroom full of energetic students. Plus you are juggling Open House, pacing guides, report card prep, and trying to find engaging ways to keep your class learning. October and November can really test a teacher’s
Daily Heart Word Practice That Takes Less Than 5 Minutes If you have ever watched a student freeze up while trying to read or spell a high-frequency word like “pretty” or “some,” you know how frustrating trying to just memorize sight (or high frequency words) can be. Luckily, the Science
7 Engaging Ways to Teach Cause and Effect in 2nd and 3rd Grade If you have ever listened to a group of seven-year-olds, you already know they are naturally obsessed with the word “why.” Every single thing that happens requires an immediate explanation! Teaching cause and effect in 2nd and
Science of Reading Phonics Activities for Small Groups Are you ready to kick your phonics instruction into high gear and see your students genuinely excited about word work? We have all watched a student stare at a word, skip the letters, and just guess based on the picture or initial
Boost Map Skills Now with 7 Engaging, Hands-on Activities Have you ever handed out a flat, black-and-white worksheet of a map, only to watch your students stare blankly at it like they’ve never seen anything like it before? Let’s be honest, paper-and-pencil fill-in activities aren’t always enough to make geography
How Interactive Notebooks Help Students Retain Learning Have you ever looked at a stack of student writing, spotted the exact same punctuation error you taught yesterday, and wondered if anything is actually sticking in their brains? We have all been there, staring at a sea of student work and wishing
Closing the Gap: 10 Phonemic Awareness Skills That Lead to Reading Success Teachers, we all know that moment when a student suddenly “cracks the code” and reading starts to click, but getting them there requires consistent, targeted daily practice. However, as busy teachers, finding the time to learn about and
Why Students Don’t Catch Their Own Writing Mistakes (And What Helps) You can see it right? That student who can perfectly identify a capital letter on a worksheet turns in a story with lots of writing mistakes – for example, every sentence starts with a lowercase letter. It’s easy to
👉🏻 Must-have Tools For New Second and Third Grade Teachers You know that feeling in the last week of summer when your to-do list is a mile long and you’re pretty sure you’ve forgotten at least five major things? Well, whether you’re a new second or third grade teacher (or