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These free after spring break lessons include my favorite ways to ease back into learning (while still learning!) on that first day after spring break.
Free | Seasonal

Free Day After Spring Break Lessons

Let’s talk lesson plans after a holiday break. I know I always rest easier during a vacation when my plans, copies, and activities are all prepped and ready to go for the first day back. Being strategic about your lesson…
READ POST Free Day After Spring Break Lessons
test prep bundle 2023
Test Prep | Classroom

Teacher Care GIVEAWAY + Exclusive Bundle

Is it test prep season for you? We have spring break coming up and then it’s time to dig into allllll things test prep. If you’re doing the same, I have a fun GIVEAWAY for both you and your students…
READ POST Teacher Care GIVEAWAY + Exclusive Bundle
March read alouds and related activities to use during morning meeting and your upper elementary literacy block.
Book Recommendations | Literacy | Seasonal

March Read Alouds and Related Seasonal Activities

Read alouds are one of the best things about teaching elementary school! Between the start of Spring, St. Patrick’s Day, Holi, and International Women’s Day, March is a super fun month for connecting read alouds to current events. There are…
READ POST March Read Alouds and Related Seasonal Activities
Teaching current events in the classroom can be daunting, but these tips and resources can help you bring the news to your students' level.
Informational Texts | Classroom | Critical Thinking | Literacy

Age Appropriate Ways to Use Current Events in the Classroom

Teaching current events in the classroom can be a daunting task, especially when current events can sometimes feel difficult to process as an adult. However, if we don’t teach current events to our students, we miss out on an opportunity…
READ POST Age Appropriate Ways to Use Current Events in the Classroom
Simple upper elementary activities, lesson ideas, and book suggestions you can use to increase student engagement mid-year.
Classroom Management | Classroom | Prepping for the Academic Year

4 Easy Activities to Increase Student Engagement

As we settle into February, it can become harder and harder to engage students. If we view student engagement as closely linked to student motivation, and the school year as a marathon, this makes sense.  It’s important to go into…
READ POST 4 Easy Activities to Increase Student Engagement
Practical test prep tips for how to make test prep meaningful and effective for upper elementary students.
Test Prep | Classroom

Meaningful Test Prep Tips for Students

As you inch closer to state testing, do you ever feel like you’ve wasted the last few months on routine test prep instead of meaningful learning with your students? It’s not a good feeling at all. Feelings aside, it can…
READ POST Meaningful Test Prep Tips for Students
This FREE context clues guide includes a ton of ideas, context clues lessons, essential skills, book list, free activities, and more!
Free | Math | Professional Development

The Complete Guide to Teaching Math Vocabulary

I am a firm believer that students in the upper grades can be expected to use precise math vocabulary. This means they know the difference between conceptual and computational errors, they fluently use words like “sum” and “product,” and they…
READ POST The Complete Guide to Teaching Math Vocabulary
February read alouds and related activities to use during morning meeting and your upper elementary literacy block.
Book Recommendations | Holidays | Literacy | Seasonal

February Read Alouds and Related Activities

It’s February, which means it’s time to mix up your book lists and bring in new seasonal read alouds! Here are some of my favorite February read alouds to use during morning meeting, during your ELA block, or even display in…
READ POST February Read Alouds and Related Activities
Here are some of the websites, apps, and activities I have come to love, as well as how I use technology in the classroom to enhance lessons.
Classroom

7 Ways to Use Technology in the Classroom

Incorporating technology into the classroom has been an initiative since I entered the world of education. Of course, when the pandemic began, we were forced to adapt and change at a rapid pace, even compared to what we were accustomed…
READ POST 7 Ways to Use Technology in the Classroom
Many gifted students experience some level of perfectionism. Here are ways you can provide support & combat perfectionism in gifted students.
Gifted Learners

How to Combat Perfectionism in Gifted Students

One of my passions is gifted education, and one thing I often find in my position is that there are A LOT of misconceptions about gifted students. One of those is that “they’ll be fine” and need very little intervention….
READ POST How to Combat Perfectionism in Gifted Students
Here are my best tips to prevent teacher burnout, from a seasoned teacher who has really been (and is still!) there in the trenches with you!
Teacher Ideas | Classroom

How to Prevent Teacher Burnout

It may be a buzzword, but teacher burnout isn’t a new concept. In fact, I’d say within the past few years, it’s become a hot button topic in the teacher community, but when I entered education in 2007, I KNEW…
READ POST How to Prevent Teacher Burnout
I have the perfect after break January activity ideas that are both content and classroom management related for upper elementary students.
Seasonal

January Activity Ideas for After Winter Break

If you’re coming back from winter break and feel like you have forgotten how to lesson plan, you aren’t alone! Every winter, it seems like my brain dumps everything important, and I walk into school with no memory of passwords,…
READ POST January Activity Ideas for After Winter Break

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I’m Mary

Welcome to my blog! I started blogging in 2011 and have amassed hundreds of posts full of engaging, research-based, and classroom-tested teaching ideas. Enjoy exploring!

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I’m obsessed with these reading review cards! Simp I’m obsessed with these reading review cards! Simple and quick, but still requires students to really ✨ think ✨ about what they read! Comment below, and I’ll send a link your way! 🩷
Accomplishment Animals are still going strong in m Accomplishment Animals are still going strong in my classroom! I’m answering some of your most asked questions here! Comment below, and I’ll send you ALL the info and my favorite tiny critters. 🩷❤️
Comment below, and I’ll send you ALL the info abou Comment below, and I’ll send you ALL the info about how we use book beads, including these cute Book Review Cards for meaningful (but fun) accountability. 🤗
Sooo I’ll be the first to admit that I spent an ho Sooo I’ll be the first to admit that I spent an hour on my first day of school as a teacher making my students brainstorm a million rules — all of which were stated as “don’ts” and “nos”. 

Don’t talk while the teacher is talking. 
Don’t leave your desk messy.
Don’t get out of line. 
No running. 

Oh, how I cringe at the thought of it. 😬 💔 

Luckily, I learned from teachers who knew better and over the years, I ended up creating just ONE RULE in my classroom. I have the PERFECT book to use for the lesson, too! We still brainstorm “rules,” but the lesson looks and feels SO different now. 

💥 Comment below, and I’ll share all about how I teach just one rule every year and the book I use! 

P.S. To my 3rd graders my first year, I’m so sorry. 😭😭😭
📢 UPPER ELEMENTARY TEACHERS: Comment GRAMMAR below 📢 UPPER ELEMENTARY TEACHERS: Comment GRAMMAR below, and I’ll send you my FREE hour-long Grammar PD! ✨ Join thousands of other teachers starting their year on the right track with writing and grammar!

Inside the super short course, I’ll walk you through my five grammar non-negotiables that will help set your students up for success this school year. 🩷
Always so much to do and so little time! 👏 Comment Always so much to do and so little time! 👏 Comment below, and I’ll send you my FREE first week of school lesson plans full of activities, procedures, read Alouds, and more! 🫶 

I want our first week to be full of experiences that set the expectations for the ENTIRE year. We aren’t just “doing activities.” We are working together, practicing with supplies, learning how to transition, and getting to know each other. 🥹
🩷🩷🩷🩷Reading these responses every week brings me S 🩷🩷🩷🩷Reading these responses every week brings me SO much joy, and I learn SO much about my students… their lives outside of school, their writing style and voice, and so much more. 

✨ Leave a comment below, and I’ll send you a FREE guide to get started and a link to prewritten letter templates for the whole year! ✍️ 

Here’s how I run Weekly Letter Writing as homework:

🌟 Each full week of school, I spend a few minutes writing a letter to my students (each student gets the same letter)… In it, I talk about interesting things in my life (they LOVE this), what we are going to learn about and do that week, a character trait we’re focusing on, any interesting dates or celebrations that week, and then I always ask them a question or give them a relevant prompt (or two) to respond to me. 

They write their responses at home and drop them in my mailbox any time throughout the week. I write short responses back to them (directly on their letters) each week. 

#teacher #backtoschool #iteachtoo #teachersofinstagram #iteach
This is one of my favorite back to school activiti This is one of my favorite back to school activities that you can use all year long. 👏 Giant Scrabble has been a staple in my first month of school plans for YEARS, and last year I used the giant letters to play a human-sized version of Tapple, which was a massive hit! 

💌Comment below, and I’ll send you ready to print letters AND my free first week of school lesson plans so you can implement it during YOUR first week! 👏 

🌟 Why does this make such a great back to school experience in the classroom? 🧐 It serves as a GREAT lesson in productive struggle. It’s always amazing to see my students work through both games — and they beg for them to return all year long. 🧩 💡 We also used it as an opportunity to talk about how some students thrive under pressure while it can be intimidating for others. That doesn’t mean anyone is better than another person. 💕🩷

🌟 Details: We don’t REALLY keep score on either of the games. The point is to get them excited about overcoming obstacles and continuing a task that seems impossible or difficult. Most kids aren’t familiar with the games, so some variations and exceptions are allowed.
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