Teaching your students to follow directions and build their listening skills takes work! I couldn’t believe this when I read it, but did you know that LISTENING makes up 45% of our daily communication?!?!?!?! That blew my mind! As teachers, we spend so much time teaching reading and writing, ... READ the POST

Teaching reading strategies in the elementary years is so important, especially as students transition from learning to read, to reading to learn! Helping elementary students develop a love for reading is something that we can do as teachers, especially if we have the right tools in our reading ... READ the POST

Organizing Writer's Workshop in the elementary classroom can be simple if you have the right tools! Often, one of the hardest parts of writing workshop is helping students stay organized as they move a piece of writing through the entire writing process. That's what led me to create these awesome ... READ the POST

Math fact fluency takes a lot of practice! Learning addition facts with sums to 20 is a skill students should have mastered by the end of second grade. Yet, there are many incoming third graders that still don't know their basic facts. Developing strong number sense begins early on, and first and ... READ the POST

Teaching reading strategies and skills lights me up! I love to create new tools to help my students become active and engaged readers, thus helping them build their reading comprehension skills. Reading Response Mini Books are one of the many tools in my "teaching toolbox" to get students excited ... READ the POST

Poetry Writing is my favorite writing unit of the year! Teaching elementary students how to write poems is simple with the 1-2-3 format that I share below. The best thing about this Poetry Unit is that it helps students grow in their confidence as writers. Even my most reluctant writers say this ... READ the POST

Math Tiles are one of my favorite hands-on math activities! Math Tiles takes students beyond the usual paper/pencil practice and gives them an opportunity to use their mental math skills AND critical thinking skills in a tactile way. I will always have Math Tiles as a part of my classroom  ... READ the POST

Valentine's Day is one of my favorite classroom holidays, not only because it's full of candy hearts (hello white and yellow hearts!), but because it's often filled with the sweet exchange of kind words and love! Every February, we do a fun My Jar of Hearts Writing Activity. While students share ... READ the POST

February is here and Valentine's Day is right around the corner! Two things I love most about Valentine's Day are the "feel good fuzzies" you get from someone else's kind words, and the all yummy candy hearts. So, I created a writing activity that includes both of those things and is perfect for the ... READ the POST