My first grade writers have been working to find small moment stories. We’ve had success using the watermelon analogy, when paired with our own story ideas. To introduce the concept, we took a walk in the woods. Our “big idea”…
A Scrabble Names Wall has been on my “wish list” of ideas for a few years. I finally tackled it this year and am very pleased with the results! Want to create a Scrabble Names Wall in your classroom? Read on for…
Our personal narratives unit is one of my favorites. During this unit, students listen to and read books, discuss books, brainstorm possible topics, write several personal narratives, select one personal narrative to develop into a digital story, share their stories, gather feedback…
One of my favorite things to do is to soak up what happens during Partner Reading. When students Read to Someone, magical things happen! they mentor one another as readers they build their schema they build their stamina they collaborate,…
Last May I let my students rearrange our classroom. Really! I’m not kidding. We had a Guest Teacher in the morning and they worked collaboratively in small groups to rearrange construction paper pieces on large chart paper. Next year when…
The topic of flexible seating in classrooms is everywhere I look! From threads on Twitter and Facebook to blog posts featuring pictures and explanations. For some teachers, flexible seating seems to be a new concept. I’ve even heard of…
I’m revamping the way I do my weekly lesson plans. In an effort to lessen the amount of time it takes me to lesson plan, I’m utilizing something that I already create for my students to create my new lesson…
I was reluctant to get on the GOOGLE Bandwagon. It was mostly Google Drive’s fault. I just couldn’t dream of giving up Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. For two years I missed out on the wonderful opportunities that Google Apps provide…
Before there were blogs there were webmasters. I refer to them as the pioneers of online teacher sites. There weren’t many, but their sites were well visited, and highly revered as places you could go to get fantastic resources. Oh, and…
When we work with poetry, students work with concepts of print and spelling patterns. Punctuation Marks. . . Challenge students to find the punctuation marks. Circle periods, question marks, and exclamation points in red. Red means “STOP” and these marks…
