The Blog
The Best Way to Teach Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) with Picture Books
In today’s ever-changing landscape of education, fostering Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) is essential to prepare students for life beyond the classroom. Teaching students critical SEL skills is something I’ve become particularly passionate about over the last several years. I’ve…
5 Benefits to Mental Math Tasks
Throughout my career, I have always believed that laying a strong mathematical foundation is crucial for a student’s future success. And at the heart of this journey, I discovered the power of mental math tasks. In this blog post, I…
Fun Ideas for Teaching Figurative Language & Free Starter Kit
Ah, figurative language. Sometimes, teaching figurative language can feel like an uphill battle. If you’ve ever found yourself grappling with how to make teaching figurative language in the upper grades appealing and accessible to your students, you are not alone…
Christmas Math and Literacy Ideas for Christmas in the Classroom
As the holiday season approaches each year, I look for creative ways to infuse the festive spirit into our classroom. Over the years, I’ve created a collection of engaging (and educational!) Christmas math and Christmas literacy activities that are perfect…
Top 10 Christmas Picture Books for Upper Elementary
Ahhh, who doesn’t love the holiday season?! Celebrating one of the most magical times of the year with my students is one of my favorite parts of teaching. Using Christmas picture books allows your students to capture the magic, wonder,…
9 Activities to Teach Holidays Around the World
Who doesn’t love the holiday season? As they say, it’s the most wonderful time of the year. When you teach holidays around the world in your classroom, you can quadruple the holiday fun. That’s why I wanted to share my…
Anchor Charts | Book Recommendations | Literacy | Literacy Anchor Charts | Picture Books | Reading Skills | Seasonal
4 Beautiful Fall Picture Books for Teaching Character and Academic Skills
I’m a HUGE fan of finding picture books with similar themes, characters, and challenges and having students analyze them. They work so well for both academic and character goals, so at any given time, you will likely find a similar…
Spooktacular Halloween Math Activities for Upper Elementary Students
Are you looking for a way to make math more thrilling and engaging during the Halloween season? You’ve found it! In this blog post, I’ve curated a collection of fun and educational Halloween math activities specifically designed for upper elementary…
5th Grade Novel Study Books
We have one more post in our novel study series, and today, I’m sharing my favorite 5th grade books for novel study. In case you missed the previous posts, I shared my favorite 3rd grade novel study book recommendations and…
Tips For Supporting Group Work and Collaboration
Group work. Collaborative projects. Team-based assignments. No matter what you call them, working together is an important life skill that doesn’t always come naturally to our students. We need to intentionally build in time for supporting group work in our…
Tips for Using Focus Walls in Upper Elementary
Are you required to display learning objectives or focus walls in your classroom? Many schools now require focus walls in upper elementary as a way to clearly communicate and display what students are learning. While you might be nervous about…
7 Favorite Fluency Picture Books
You may have started hearing more and more about the science of reading, which is a body of research about how kids learn to read and evidence-based instructional practices on how to effectively teach kids to read. Though the research…
