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📚 A new school year can bring some big emotions 📚 A new school year can bring some big emotions — and teachable moments, too! 💕❤️🩷 I have gathered some of my favorite books to incorporate into morning meeting and use as a model for these important skills. These read-alouds are PERFECT for those first weeks of school when you’re building your classroom community and helping students name, navigate, and normalize their feelings.

✨ I have also created book companions to go with several of these beautiful books! 📪 Drop a comment below, and I’ll send you info about the companions and a link to all the books in one spot. 

Which one would YOU start with? 📚👇

🩷My Secret Bully: Not all bullying is loud and obvious! This story helps students spot the quiet, hidden kind and build a kinder classroom.

🪴 The Rough Patch: Change can feel hard, but this gentle read shows how new beginnings can grow from challenging moments.

🍁 Sweep: A perfect reminder for the start of the year: don’t let little frustrations pile up into something big!

😳 The Whatifs: Turn those first day “what ifs” into excitement instead of worry! 

🌱 Sprout Branches Out: A sweet way to encourage students to try something new, even if it feels a little scary.

😌 Clovis Keeps His Cool: A relatable lesson in staying calm when things don’t go your way.

🐉 Dragons on the Inside: Big feelings can feel like dragons—this book helps kids name them and take control.

🧠 Invisible Things: Help students notice and talk about the feelings we can’t see but can definitely feel.

🌪️ I Am a Tornado: A lively reminder that our moods and actions can sweep others up, and it’s better to use our energy for good!
Year five in this space, and after a few days of P Year five in this space, and after a few days of PD mixed in with sporadic time for classroom set up, it’s starting to feel like my home away from home again. 💕 

Is it perfect? Nope. Is it a space that brings me and my students joy? Yep. Does a lot of learning and laughter happen in this space? So much. 🥹

That’s it. That’s what matters.
I will NEVER get over the fact that thousand of st I will NEVER get over the fact that thousand of students use these resources every day. 😭

🚨 🔔 Drop a comment below, and I’ll send you all the info, including FREE weeks of each! 

I started creating these resources when I couldn’t find anything that fit my needs. Most spiral reviews focused on WAY too many skills at a time and my students needed time to review very specific skills. While my goal is always to immerse my students in authentic texts and tasks, I found that starting every single day with a quick skill review to keep content-specific terms fresh in their minds and well practiced was a GAME CHANGER! ✍️ 📖 

 Whether you use the journal format, digital version, or full-page version, it’s accessible and available for grades 2-3 or 4-5 (which offers great options for differentiation!). 🤩

#classroom #teacher #teachergram #teach #backtoschool #iteach #teachersofinstagram
Grab yours FREE and implement it during one of you Grab yours FREE and implement it during one of your first few days of school! 💕📕 Comment below, and I will send it your way.

By getting kids up and moving from the very first moment, you have an opportunity to authentically teach routines and expectations, AND they have a chance to shake some of their  first day jitters out. As a bonus, they’ll start to learn so much about each other and feel the warmth and community of your classroom. ❤️
🚨 💯 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!
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