Some of our little ones come to our classes without ever having held a pencil, and suddenly, they are expected to show what they know and practice what we teach with grace and fluidity using a pencil. But those little muscles don't always have it in them to perform … [Read more...]
Hurray for Basketball Sight Word Champs!
I can honestly say, I've never been the cheerleader type of gal. Not that there is anything wrong with that. We all have our interests and our gifts. It was just never one of mine . . . until I became a teacher. Little did I realize as I sat through all those education … [Read more...]
Nonsense Word Play for a Rainy Day
"The sun would not shine. It was too wet to play. So we sat in our class on that cold wet wet day . . ." Or not! I feel your pain Dr. S, and that's why we were hopping flowers and puddles down the kindergarten hall today. If you teach kindergarten, you know that a … [Read more...]
Game Play, Freebies and Worksheets Don’t Grow Dendrites Chapter 4
I’m a bit late but back to hook up to the Worksheets Don’t Grow Dendrites Book Study and Strategy 4 is all about games. I love that research supports what parents and teachers have known for so long. Game play builds cooperative relationships, allows students to … [Read more...]
A New Spin On Morning Work and a Freebie to Get You Organized.
Morning Work! Yuck! Seriously . . . yuck! We feel like we need to have something for our kiddos to do while they file into our room haphazardly in the morning. Most of them are on time, but many are 5, 10 or 15 minutes or more late for class. I hate starting a new lesson … [Read more...]
Sparkle Snowmen and A Sale
Confession time . . . I am a longtime stalker and gawker of Deep Space Sparkle’s blog. I think Patty walks on water and must have rainbow colored blood churning through her veins. I am NOT an artsy person, but man she makes me want to be one. And more importantly, when … [Read more...]
Trick and Treat Freebielicious Blog Hop – Come Fill Your Bags
Fall is upon is and that means it's time for some Teaching Trick & Treating! That's right - I have teamed up with my Freebielicious friends again to share some teaching tricks and special free treats for you! For my trick, I've had ton's of people write … [Read more...]
Ingredients For Successful Word Family Instruction
It’s the thirty-second day of school. Over half my kinders are ‘Top Bananas,’ I’ve introduced and we’ve reviewed over half the letters of the alphabet, they are showing signs of segmenting and blending, they totally ‘get’ patterns, and I’m feeling like it’s time to introduce … [Read more...]
Engaging and Extending Skills With Familiar Differentiated Stations
I love it when stations start humming along on their own engines with very little need for intervention or instruction from me. I changed over new stations for math this week and Daily 5 in order to accommodate some October/Autumn/Halloween-ish themes and was delighted to see … [Read more...]
Differentiated October Sensory Fun in Kindergarten
What do you get when you mix the most beautiful time of the year with a kindergarten classroom? Sensory table fun! I know many of you have told me that you are no longer allowed to have sensory tables in your classroom because they have been deemed . . . 'unacademic.' … [Read more...]
Differentiated Spinners Revisited and a Giveaway!
Wow! Apparently, spinners are a hot topic. I’ve had so many inquiries as to "where" and "how" lately that I thought I had better revisit the subject to see if I can shed some light on using spinners to differentiate instruction. Spinners are a great motivator for … [Read more...]
Daily 5-2nd Edition Chapter 7: Houston We Have Lift Off . . .and a FREEBIE
You’ve started Read To Self. You’re setting your foundation lessons and your kiddos are building stamina. So now what? We may build our read to self-stamina by practicing a couple of times a day, but since that only takes a small portion of our ELA block, … [Read more...]
