The Blog
Beyond the Book: 3 Ways to Supplement Textbooks
Textbooks often get a really bad reputation. When I first began my teaching career, I worked at a school that didn’t have ANY textbooks that we followed with fidelity. The only textbook we had was for math, but we weren’t…
Martin Luther King, Jr. Activities: Teaching Perspective and Main Idea
While I firmly believe that Black History should be taught all year long, January is the perfect time to embed some of this learning with crucial reading skills. With Martin Luther King. Jr. Day coming up, you may be looking…
How To Teach Sequencing In Upper Elementary
I LOVE teaching sequencing in the elementary classroom. There are so many ways to make the skill of sequencing fun, engaging, and meaningful. Sequencing sometimes feels like it should be a natural skill for students. After all, humans are natural…
Holidays Around the World Activities
December is a MAGICAL (albeit exhausting) time to be a teacher. I love the innocence of children during this time and all of the ways we can leverage the excitement of the season in our classrooms. Teaching Holidays Around the…
8 Exciting Ways To Use Task Cards In Upper Elementary
Can we talk about task cards for a minute? I’m sure you’re seeing them all over social media, and you may even own a few (or more than a few!) sets yourself… but are you getting the most out of…
Interpreting Expressions in Upper Elementary
Hey there! I am so happy to be here with you today to chat math, specifically the standard that asks students to write simple expressions that record calculations with numbers, and interpret numerical expressions without evaluating them. I have a…
Math Anchor Charts: Templates For Math Success
Anchor charts have always been one of the most popular topics here on the blog, probably because I’m so passionate about using and sharing them. As a newer teacher, I wasn’t sure exactly how to use them. We’d often create…
Classroom Tools: Three Ideas To Improve Focus
With most of us back in the classroom after a long stretch of distance learning, we’re seeing a lot of students still trying to adjust back to more traditional classroom environments. Thankfully, I have found some solutions to help improve…
The Week Junior: My Honest Review of the Magazine
Whether you are looking for the perfect holiday gift for your kids OR the perfect holiday gift for your classroom, I have the best gift recommendation for you (and as a bonus, it’s a gift that keeps on giving ALL…
What Can Dialogue Tell Us? Inferring Character Traits and Feelings From Dialogue
Typically teaching dialogue to your class might sound a little something like this…“Dialogue is when two or more characters in a text are talking. You will know you are reading dialogue because you will see sets of quotation marks. Now…
Indoor Recess Ideas: Activities all students will love!
Are you ready for two words that can make a teacher shudder?? Indoor recess! Oof. We all know our students need the brain break, a chance to socialize freely, and hopefully time to burn off that extra energy too. We…
Long Division: Strategies and Extensions for Upper Elementary Math
I’m so excited to chat all about teaching long division! Ah, division. Does the mere mention of it make the hair on your arms stand up? And the timing! Why do we always seem to be teaching long division during…
