Before you can really plan out the first days and weeks of your school year, you need a plan in place for how you intend to handle the routines and procedures in your classroom. Effective procedures are a hallmark of every well run class. They’re an indispensable part of a successful school year. If your room…
Back to School
20 Awesome Books for the First Week of School
When I’m creating my first week of school plans, I always make time for several read aloud books every day. Reading aloud picture books is a great way to: take a break from procedures and routines introduce ideas of friendship, community, rules, and more model fluent reading bond as a class over the shared experience…
5 Teacher Books I Read Every Year
There are a few professional development books that I pull out to reference (and sometimes reread) every single year. The First Six Weeks of School by Paula Denton, Roxann Kriete, Responsive Classroom – Tools for Teaching by Fred Jones The First Days of School by Harry Wong The Joyful Classroom by Responsive Classroom The Daily…
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…