I love getting a new holiday-themed book to read for pleasure in December and why would our students be any different? It’s especially exciting when kids get the chance to read a holiday-themed tale about characters from a series they already love. We’ve talked before about how we love reading early chapter books aloud to…
Collective Noun Cauldrons – A Spooky Grammar Freebie for Halloween!
As a teacher, I really do love October. There are so many fun ways to add a little Halloween zing to your regular classroom routines. Today we’ve got a fun freebie for you that puts a spooky twist on collective nouns! Collective nouns are names for groups of people, animals, or things. Some of these…
The Secret to End of Year Survival
Want to know my tried-and-true secret to surviving the last few weeks of school? THEME DAYS! I love theme days for two reasons. They keep the kids engaged. They make planning easier. We call these our D.L.I.T.E Days. D.L.I.T.E stands for Differentiated Learning and Integrated Theme Experience. You can call them Theme Days or whatever…
Morning Routines: Setting the Stage for a Successful Day
How you start your day is often how you live your life. –Louise Hay Beginnings matter. What happens before the first bell even rings has a huge impact on the outcome of the entire day. The tone of the day is established in the first 20 minutes of the day. The effectiveness of the entire…
The First Week of School in 2nd Grade
I sat down to type up what I did the first week of 2nd grade, but a few thousand words later, I’d only covered the first day! So it seemed like we probably needed 2 posts on that topic. If you want to know how I organized the first DAY of 2nd grade, check out…