Sound walls are one of the big changes that elementary teachers are making to their classrooms. This change is happening for very good reasons that are backed up by research, too. (If you want to read more about this change, you can check out this blog post all about word walls vs. sound walls.) One […]
One of my favorite memories is when my first grade teacher introduced me to poetry. She read one of Shel Silverstein’s books aloud to our class, and it captivated me. I loved that poems could be funny, serious, and written in so many different formats. I went to the library after school and checked out […]
The month of October is filled with so many fun themes from spiders to bats to pumpkins to Red Ribbon Week to Halloween! I feel like it kicks off the holiday season that just naturally ramps up the classroom excitement. Anytime you can bring these fun-filled events into the classroom while still giving students ways […]
In my early teaching years, I thought guided writing was just helping a student write. Whether that be helping them stretch out a word, generate an idea for their story, or help with the organization of their story, I thought I was doing guided writing. In reality, I wasn’t. I typically coached them through what […]
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! […]
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 […]
These writer’s workshop tips will take your time from frazzled to smooth! I can’t wait to share them with you! One of my favorite thing about writer’s workshop is seeing that lightbulb moment click for my young writers. You know the one – when a student who has been struggling with something finally gets it. […]
If you see a teacher lurking around the school library piling up books, scouring the latest Scholastic magazine, and raiding the literacy library, you know she’s probably just hunting for more mentor texts for writer’s workshop. For primary teachers, mentor texts play such an important role in our teaching of the youngest authors. A mentor […]
Are you looking for the best kindergarten writer’s workshop tips? That’s exactly what you are going to find! It’s the first day of kindergarten writer’s workshop and your little writers are staring at a blank page. “I can’t write.” “I don’t know how to draw a frog.” “I’m hungry.” Fast-forward to May. “I’m not done, […]
Writing about science can seem difficult, especially in primary grades. However, we know it is so important! With our kindergarten, first grade, and second grade learners, it’s critical that we help set the foundation of learning for them to be successful in writing about science. One way to do that is to make sure students […]
As you dig into writer’s workshop, I hope you’re seeing your writers blossom and make great strides in their writing! One impactful mini-lesson you’ll want to do with writers in kindergarten, first grade, and second grade is writing wow words. “Wow words” are words outside of their regular vocabulary that make the reader or listener […]
Writer’s workshop is such an important part of the balanced literacy approach to teaching. I hope you have a good routine in place and your little writers are loving being authors! One of the most important pieces of writer’s workshop is the conferring time. This is the meat and potatoes of it because you get […]
I don’t know about you, but kindergarten writer’s workshop was one of my favorite ways to see my students blossom throughout the year. It’s amazing to see them start with scribbles and letters to ending the year with full stories and books! But what if you don’t know where to start? Some districts may not […]
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 […]
I have said before how teaching writing was never something I automatically loved. In all honesty, I was asked to be in charge of writing plans during my second year of teaching and again during my third year. It grew me. It stretched me. I became a teacher who loved to teach writing. One thing […]
Writing is a time of our day that often gets squished to the end of the day, especially in kindergarten. So often we think, “Well, they aren’t reading yet so they aren’t ready to write much. They can just draw pictures.” You’re right, they can draw pictures, but have you ever thought about how that is […]
The end of the school year is so close, yet there are days that it just seems so far away! I know I always was looking for the last day of school on the horizon, but I wanted to keep my students engaged in learning all the way until the end. To help make planning […]
Science was, hands down, a favorite time in my class for all of my students year after year! We were not only able to explore fun topics, but we were able to get our hands dirty and carry the topic throughout the day as we learned reading and writing skills. And let’s be honest–with everything […]
