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Professional Development

How to Use Loom Recording for Online Teaching

Step-by-step tutorial to use Loom for online teaching. Many teachers near and far are using Zoom to meet with their students face-to-face. Even my own daughter had a meeting this week and seeing a class full of 6 and 7-year-olds get together was the cutest thing! Their excitement to see each other was so genuine! […]

How to Use Zoom for Online Teaching

Step-by-step tutorial to use Zoom for online teaching. Have you found yourself in a sea of technology overwhelm as you are trying to figure out how to deliver online teaching? Are you being asked to implement distance learning with your young students? With all that is changing so quickly, we all feel overwhelmed by how […]

Christmas Around the World: Gone Digital

How does teaching Christmas around the world make you feel? Does it make you overwhelmed with the thought of researching a bunch of different countries’ cultures and traditions? I know I was always so busy this time of year that it was hard to teach these things in a meaningful way. I wanted to come […]

The Best Holiday Resources for Primary Teachers

This time of year can be hectic. Between the celebrations, grades due, and sugared-up students, I know it can be hard to write lesson plans and include meaningful activities. So I wanted to put together an ultimate list of holiday resources that are perfect for kindergarten, first, and second grade to make lesson planning as […]

Black History Month Activities

Are you looking for resources to start teaching about Black history all year? I have some great read alouds and simple engaging activities for your students as you talk about how beautiful the Black race and African culture is! Get started in your kindergarten and first grade classroom with these black history activities.

February is Black History Month, a wonderful time to celebrate the amazing contributions African Americans have made to history through these Black History Month activities. I love that we have a specific month to celebrate the Black race.  As a parent of a black little girl, we talk about race often.  Even if we don’t […]

Celebrating Family Traditions in the Classroom

Celebrating families and family traditions in the classroom is incredibly valuable for our students. Use these ideas to celebrate families in your kindergarten and first grade classroom.

This time of year is perfect for celebrating family traditions in the classroom! Celebrating family traditions is a fantastic way to make sure all students get to share about their families. It’s also a great way to show how families are alike and different, all at the same time. When our students get a peek […]

3 Favorite Lesson Hooks

Hooks for lessons are important! Be creative with them and check out these 3 simple, free, lesson hooks!

Hooking students at the beginning of a lesson can be a make or break moment.   It’s the time that you truly create buy in for the topic you are teaching. I would do my best every day to make the hook of my lesson engaging and to truly capture the attention of every child. Here […]

Favorite Thanksgiving and Turkey Activities for Little Learners

Fall is definitely here and that means it’s time to hit the ground running with more fun thematic lessons. No matter where you are in your curriculum, learning about relevant topics will always increase your classroom engagement. In the fall, I like to fill our lessons with Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, and turkey activities! There are […]

5 Fire Prevention Week Activities for the K-2 Classroom

Did you know that October 4-10 is National Fire Prevention Week? It would always creep up on me, and I would have to rush to find something to squeeze it in.  As a child, I remember this week being a total blast at school!  The firetruck would come and the firefighters would do a demonstration. […]

Groundhog Day Fun!

Groundhog Day is an exciting time for little learners! Teach them about why we celebrate this day, what a groundhog is, and the history behind the holiday!

This year Groundhog Day is on a Monday.  As a classroom teacher, I always loved Groundhog Day during the week.  It’s just a fun little day to talk about traditions with the kiddos!  The excitement is just grand for them. This year I created a little Groundhog Day unit to learn about the holiday! You can make […]

6 Powerful Presidents Day Activities in Kindergarten

Presidents' Day Activities for Kindergarten and First Grade--LOVE the timeline activity!

President’s Day lines up PERFECTLY with our curriculum.  It’s not every day that a holiday is included in our standards.  We spent some time on both Abraham Lincoln and George Washington.   Here is a peek at our Presidents’ Day activities! We started off our Presidents’ Day activities by reading several non-fiction books throughout the […]

Kwanzaa Activities for the Classroom [+Christmas Freebies!]

As we approach the holidays, one unit we always get to do is Holidays Around the World. To get started, we’re going to dive into all about Kwanzaa. I love getting to expose my students to holidays that they may not be familiar with. Plus, it helps build a strong, solid classroom community with empathy […]

It’s Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas!

WARNING…this first part is NOT teaching related! 🙂 I can officially play my Christmas music without my hubs saying, “ugh…again? Poor Thanksgiving…” Here’s the obvious truth. I love it. I love every bit of it. The crazy shopping. The hustle and bustle. The red Starbucks cups. The music. The decorations. The extra kindness that people […]

Constitution Day FREEBIE

Constitution Day is September 17th every year. Teaching about this important time in American history shouldn't be missed! Grab these teaching ideas, the freebie, and you will be set for Constitution Day!

September 17th is Constitution Day.  This year Constitution Day happens to fall on a teaching day so I have been working on just a few ways to integrate it.   **Amazon affiliate links are used below at no cost to you. We will start with a poem.  I wrote this little poem with rhyming words […]