Open House and/or Parent-Teacher Night can be a stressful event. Teachers are busy setting up their classrooms, preparing lessons, sitting through meeting upon meeting, and dealing with mountains of paperwork, so it’s hard to devote extra time for open house. However, open house
My Top 10 Favorite Back to School Resources
When it comes to shopping for your classroom, never forget you do not need all the things! As a new teacher, I felt an immense amount of pressure to purchase things that I later realized I absolutely did not need. My advice is to focus on the essentials and the resources that
Nonfiction Text Structures With Back to School Activities
Nonfiction text structures can be a challenging concept for students to grasp. Because of this challenge, I used to wait until later in the school year to introduce these text structures. But, I realized that was a disservice to my students. They need time to process and and
The First 30 Days of School
The first 30 days of school are never easy. In fact some might call those days exhausting and overwhelming. And that's when we know what to expect and what to plan for.
With talks about distance learning, alternative schedules, and hybrid models, this school year may be a
5 Reasons for Student Misbehavior
In this post, I share five common reasons for student misbehavior. No matter how strong our classroom management is or how positive our relationships with our students are, we are bound to encounter student misbehavior. As I've said before, I firmly believe the most important
Pacing Guides for Literacy and Math
I've worked on A LOT of resource updates this summer, so I wanted to share my corresponding pacing guides with you.
As always, it's important to remember that this is just a guide. I try to never let the pacing guide dictate my instruction. There are times when we need to
Introducing Reading Workshop
To introduce reading workshop, it is essential to start the year with procedural lessons, rather than jumping right in to your curriculum. This may initially seem a little time consuming, but this will make reading workshop flow smoothly throughout the year. This post shares my
Back to School Breakout
I absolutely LOVE using escape lessons or breakout activities to make my instruction fun and engaging for my students. Earlier, I shared a blog post on how I’ve started using escape rooms in my fourth grade classroom. The post gives step-by-step directions in how to implement and
My Favorite Back to School Game
I want to share with you my new, absolute favorite, back to school game. However, before I share the game, I need to give a little background...
My husband and I went on a cruise where there was a game showed called The Quest. We had no clue what we were getting into, but
First Day of School Ideas and Lessons to Get You Started
Whether you are a new or veteran teacher, planning for the first day or week of school can be a bit overwhelming. Planning is much easier when you've developed your routines, procedures, and you know what to expect from your students. However, the first day, or even week, is a
