Around here at Second Story Window, there’s not much we love more than Christmas picture books! Today we’re sharing some of our favorite versions of the 12 days of Christmas. Our other Christmas books posts have narrowed our recommendations down to our top 5, but there are just too many good ones for the…
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Christmas Consonant Blends
We’re back again with some adorable Christmas literacy centers. This time we’re tackling consonant blends : s blends, l blends, and r blends. These centers are a fun and seasonal compliment to our phonics program. Word Play Phonics for 1st and 2nd grade is a differentiated word study program that incorporates weekly word sorting, chunk spelling, phonics…
Turkey Digraphs
Isn’t practicing an important concept so much more fun when you can do it with an engaging, seasonal activity? We created this free beginning digraph turkey center as a companion to the phonics program we’ve been working on and we want to share it with all of you! Speaking of our phonics program, we have been…
One Word Theme for the School Year
Agree or Disagree? September is the new January! For me, this is definitely TRUE. I always feel energized and inspired to start fresh come September, even in the years when I haven’t been teaching. It just feels like a fresh start, a perfect time to set goals and make changes. In many ways, I find I’m…
1 Easy Trick to Simplify Word Sorting
Aren’t we all looking for a way to simplify the management of 25+ students and all their little word sort cards each week? A reader told us this tip a few years ago and we couldn’t believe how simple and easy it was. It’s a CRAYON. Here’s what you do… Buy a big box of Crayola Crayons. At…
Join Us on Facebook!
We’ve created a fun community for teachers to gather and collaborate on Facebook. We’d love to have you join us. We have some fun things planned including special daily deals for the month of June! Click here to join the Facebook group.
One Giant Leap (Day)!
There’s something just so fun about leap day. I think it must be the novelty of a day that only happens every 4 years and the feeling that you get a bonus day! My half birthday falls on leap day so I always feel a little extra special that day. We wanted to create a…
Easy Class Parties
CLASS PARTY. The words sometimes strike fear in the heart of a teacher, right? As if we don’t already have enough to do, we have to plan a class party too? Oh the chaos! But it turns out it’s possible to put together a simple party, devoid of chaos, that’s still tons of fun! Whether…
10 Ways to Revitalize Your Classroom in the New Year
My favorite part about the new year is that it feels like a second chance at a fresh start with your class! Here are some ideas and tips to inspire you to take this opportunity to revitalize your classroom! 1. Sharpen your procedures Doesn’t it sometimes feel like you come back from winter break and your kids…
Halloween Fun: Carving Out Time to Learn
We have a fun new bundle of Halloween activities for your little spooks! It’s important to us that when we make something seasonal that it’s both fun AND meaningful and we’ve worked hard to achieve that with these activities. They’re also differentiated so should be appropriate for grades 1-4! The first activity in the bundle…
