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Teaching with a Mountain View

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Anchor Charts

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Teaching Story Elements & A WONDER Freebie!

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Decimal Place Value Resources & Teaching Ideas

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The Best Anchor Chart Paper Ever & A Giveaway!

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Oreo Stacking Contest for Mean, Median, Mode Lesson!

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Perimeter & Area of Irregular Shapes

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Line Plot Activities and Resources

Teach students to analyze firsthand and secondhand accounts with this anchor chart, interactive notebook template, and task cards.

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Analyzing Firsthand and Secondhand Accounts

Teaching compare and contrast in upper elementary is simple and fun with this picture book and accompanying activities.

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Teaching Compare & Contrast

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Teaching Place Value

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Math Quicks!

teaching main idea vs theme

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Teaching Main Idea Vs. Theme

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Using Pictures to Teach Key Reading Skills

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hey there!

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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FREE Prefix, Suffix, and Root Activities!

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🚨 💯 Drop a comment below to incorporate thes 🚨 💯 Drop a comment below to incorporate these mental math tasks into your daily instruction!! 👏 It truly takes just a minute or two out of your day… it’s that easy and oh, so important to improving mental math. 

🎉 Here’s how I start every math class: I read these cards orally, step by step, and when I’m done, I count down from three silently using my fingers. When my students see a closed fist, they share their answer in unison — or on a dry erase board. My students LOVE it, and it’s so easy to implement. I see HUGE impacts within the first couple of weeks! Win/win/win! 😍😍

👀 Why mental math?

🧠Increases Self-Confidence
🧠Increase Number Sense and Manipulation of Numbers
🧠Real-World Relevance
🧠Develops Math Fact Automaticity 
🧠Helps build conceptual understanding
🧠Keeps the brain sharp
🧠Taps into different learning modalities 

Need a link? Drop a comment, and I’ll send it your way!

#iteach #iteachtoo #teacher #backtoschool #iteachmath #mathteacher #teachersofinstagram
OBSESSED with these books for teaching important e OBSESSED with these books for teaching important expectations and character building at the beginning of the year!! Swipe to see the books and their themes. Comment below if you’d like the list AND links to resource guides to accompany several of them! 🥰😍
I learned about weekly letter writing while studen I learned about weekly letter writing while student teaching 17 years ago, and I’ve done it ever since. It brings me SO much joy to read the responses! ❤️ 

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

Here are the details:

🌟 Each full week of school, I write a letter to my students (each student gets the same letter)… In it, I talk about interesting things in my life, 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. 

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

‼️ It’s the only homework I give, and it’s my FAVORITE. I love reading their responses and learning so much about them. ❤️❤️

#teacher #backtoschool #iteachtoo #teachersofinstagram #iteach #firstweekofschool
🥔 😀 I’ve been doing Mr. Potato Head Observ 🥔 😀 I’ve been doing Mr. Potato Head Observations during the first week of school FOREVER, but with the popularity of potatoes these days (humans are random lol), I’m taking it up a notch this year. Here is my plan for using our creations throughout the first week! 

🌟 Guaranteed engagement and all you need are some old Mr. Potato Head parts! Check your local thrift shops, garage sales, and Buy Nothing groups!

Here are the lesson details:

👀 Science: This is the OG lesson!! It’s a great science lesson to teach students about the importance of excellent observations and creating detailed diagrams. Drop a comment, and I’ll send you a link to my FREE First Week Plans that have all the details or you can hear me chat about it under my “Engagement” tab on stories! 

✍️ Writing: Write a story about your potato creations! This is a great way to start seeing some of your students’ writing in a super low pressure environment. You could also do a round robin collaborative story verbally!

📕 Reading: The Couch Potato Connection! Read The Couch Potato, then have them draw their own All About Me version of themselves as potatoes. Maybe they’re the Soccer Potato or the Cheer Potato or the Book Potato! Bonus: If you’re ready to start content, discuss character traits and development!

❤️ Positive Potato Signs: I’m going to have my students create Positive Potato signs and leave one of our potatoes up all year while rotating the positive messages!
🔔 First thing’s first: EVERYTHING is a succes 🔔 First thing’s first: EVERYTHING is a success if you want to celebrate it! 👏 

A few years ago, I was looking for a way to encourage connection with students AND incorporate the popular stickers kids love! I don’t routinely reward expected behaviors, but I am ALWAYS looking for ways to get students connecting with me and talking about things they’re proud of… Success Stickers were born! I have learned SO much about my students, their interests, and the everyday events in their lives. 

ℹ️ Every week, students share one success or accomplishment with me (either privately or in our whole group Morning Meeting) and pick out a sticker. They can add it to their journals, their water bottles, or anywhere else they’d like. By the end of the year, they have a huge collection of stickers to remind them of all the successes they’ve have this year! 

🆕 Last year, my kids were LOVING these tiny acrylic animals, so I added Accomplishment Animals as an option and they were a HUGE hit!! Even my own 8th grade kids ooh and ahhh when I get a new pack and beg to grab one or two! 👏 

Comment below, and I’ll share my favorite animals and stickers with you! 

#teacher #backtoschool #iteachtoo #teachersofinstagram #iteach
I can’t believe I created these almost 12 years I can’t believe I created these almost 12 years ago, and they just got a HUGE update. 🩷❤️ Now includes over 82 conversation prompts for Back to School, a super fun first day set of task cards, slide sets, AND a Get To Know Me template for your students to create a slideshow! 

👏 Comment below for a link and download the update if you are one of the many teachers who already own this set!
This brilliant idea from the @texaslonestarteacher This brilliant idea from the @texaslonestarteacher was one of my favorites from last year, and I’ll undoubtedly be implementing it again this year! 👏 I used this for our Battle of the Books, so each book was assigned a different colored bead, and once a week they got to update their necklaces. 

At the beginning of the year, each student put their name on beads to claim their necklace. Then, we displayed them on hooks all year and they proudly wore them at our practices, battles, and end of the year book celebration! I still have enough beads to do it again this year (and probably next)!

Comment below, and I’ll send you a link to my supplies. 💖
Grab my FREE first week plans!! Comment below, and Grab my FREE first week plans!! Comment below, and I’ll send you a link to these activities and SO much more! 🤗 🥰
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