The Blog
4 Spelling Strategy Tips for Upper Elementary
Teaching spelling to upper elementary students can be somewhat of a head scratcher. When I was in school, we were given spelling books. Each week, we would be required to memorize a list of words, complete activities, and then pass…
Tips for Using Literacy Centers in Upper Elementary
Reading centers, literacy centers, reading stations… whatever your school calls them, they are often overlooked tools in the upper elementary classroom. However, reading centers are an integral and successful part of my literacy instruction. In fact, I’d dare to say…
Activities for Teaching Punctuation: Quotation Marks, Dialogue, and Apostrophes
Students who don’t use punctuation often miss the point. Get it?? That’s a lame joke, but it speaks to our upper elementary students’ larger struggle with using quotation marks and apostrophes. By the time students enter upper elementary, they have…
How To Organize Student Supplies
There’s just something about back to school time that makes my heart so happy! In the weeks leading up to our first day, I can’t pass a store display of school supplies or organizational tools without swooning. Give me all…
Classroom Management Tips: Essential Daily Routines
As you begin thinking about back to school, it’s likely that classroom routines and classroom management tips have been teaching topics on your mind. It doesn’t matter how long I’ve been teaching, I always reevaluate and improve my classroom routines…
A Complete List of Back to School Read Alouds
Back to school is a time filled with lots of emotions – anxiety and excitement included! (And I’m not just talking about the teacher.) Including back to school read alouds into your daily routine is a great way to talk…
Teaching Informational Text Skills
I am always searching for engaging informational texts to get my students and children excited about reading. About two years ago, I discovered The Week Junior, a weekly news magazine written for kids ages 8-14, and I fell in love….
FREE Skill of the Day Week
Skill of the Day is my favorite resource I’ve ever created. Now you can download a free skill of the day week for each subject! Skill of the Day Difference What makes this different than most other spiral reviews? I…
Math Flip Books: An Engaging Way to Teach Key Math Skills
It’s no secret that I love using math anchor charts to introduce new concepts and hold our learning throughout each unit. They also serve as valuable reference charts throughout the year, but it can be difficult to find space to…
10 Morning Meeting Read Aloud Activities
Anyone else a picture book collector? I love accumulating picture books to use in my classroom, and I love using them for my morning meeting read alouds. Using picture books during morning meeting provides a great opportunity to build relationships…
How to BEST Utilize Your Classroom Parent Volunteers
I have always been fortunate to work at schools where parents want to volunteer! I was tickled pink that I had so many classroom parent volunteers who wanted to join, but I also wanted to make sure I was using…
Math Tips To Start The Year Strong
Last week I shared literacy tips and ideas to help you start the new school year strong, so today I’m sharing similar math tips. I find that a little bit of prep and planning now saves me so much time…
