As I've said in previous posts, I love decorating a classroom, but those decorations need to have a purpose.  I leave a lot of empty space on my bulletin boards at the beginning of the school year so the students can fill the walls with their learning.  So, when I do take up that precious wall space, the decor has to have purpose for my upper elementary classroom. These Character Affirmation Posters are perfect!  Bridging literature and character growth, these positive affirmations for my students are linked to some of their favorite main characters in popular novels for upper ..read more

With three teenage daughters, the summer of Taylor Swift hasn't escaped our house.  And that's perfectly O.K. with me.  We didn't score tickets, or even an access code (large sigh), but we've been living vicariously through friends' posts. So when I saw the cutest friendship bracelet bulletin board by A Girl and A Glue Gun, I started to get a great idea. These Taylor-inspired friendship bracelets,  with Taylor's lyrics, are the most adorable addition to my classroom, and looking at them just makes me happy. I bought large wooden beads, wooden toy car wheels (about one and hal ..read more

The countdown is on.  After 22 years at the school I started at, I'm moving to a new school this year.  Like any good introvert, the prospect of change is a scary one for me, so I'm excited that my new school isn't so new to me.  In fact, I'm heading to my own kids' elementary school ... and MY old elementary school.  I do enjoy a whole full circle thing.  ;)  While packing up my old classroom, I decided to change my classroom theme and colours.  I thought this would help me purge more, but the stacks of boxes in my basement report that was a lie.  Oh w ..read more

Are you tired of the routine book reports and presentations for novel studies? Do you dream of adding an engaging, interactive, and imaginative twist to your novel read aloud? Well, if you haven't heard of them before, welcome to the world of Drama Circles, an incredible tool that can take your novel study culminating activity to new heights. Breaking down Drama Circles I started to make drama circles over 20 years ago for my classroom.  Over the years, my drama circles have evolved from random fun topics that got my students building confidence in drama activities, to a more engaging ..read more

I love everything about the Fall.  It's the perfect combination of weather, beauty, and all things cozy.  It's also one of my favourite months in the classroom.  We're starting to get our routines down pat, beginning of the year assessments are complete (or almost ... haha), and our classroom community vibes are pretty strong.  We can start to handle some more engaging and hands-on activities ... and in my opinion, there is no better month to do it.   1.  Fall Poetry Books - Falling into Poetry is easy with this resource that's perfect for the beginning of ..read more

These Skip-Counting Spiderwebs are one of my best Halloween tricks (tips?) to keep your students focused and busy on Halloween day.  Seriously.  Let's face it - the excitement in the room makes it hard to settle, so it's not the time to start a brand new concept.  A few years ago I started to do this activity in the morning on Halloween, and we get in a great skip-counting practice and create an awesome art project with lines, shape, and repetition.  It's calming and mindful, and will take around an hour to complete.  Put on some low spooky music in the background, an ..read more

With disrupted school years a few years in a row now, I noticed a few important conversations we needed to have much earlier than previous years.  These conversations have focused on being kind, showing our positive character, social media use, and using mindfulness.  Each of these resources or ideas gets your students reflecting on their opinions, feelings, or self-awareness of different attributes and once completed, are the perfect starting points for initiating whole group discussions.  Because students have already reflected on, tried, or talked about the activity, their di ..read more

  This week was Truth and Reconciliation Week in Canada.  Although officially recognized over one week, these are conversations and teachings that should happen throughout the school year, not just one week, or one day.  Reconciliation is about building relationships and respect, and that just cannot be reduced to a week. I wanted to share some of the activities, readings, and discussions I had with my Grade 5/6 class this year, mainly inspired by this resource, Every Child Matters.  After reading the book Trudy's Rock Story, and discussing how Trudy uses rocks to rel ..read more

 Hello.  Remember me?  I've been wanting to get back into blogging for a while now, but I guess it doesn't magically happen unless I actually write a post. So, if I'm dusting off this blog, I should start at the beginning of the year with my back to school room tour.   I started my 21st year of teaching in a straight 6 with 19 students ... a dream too good to be true ... and it was.  Two weeks later, I was reorganized into a 5/6 split with 25 students.   I am still at the same wonderful school, but my classroom was newly constructed last year.  A ..read more

  I started using math mats as a quick warm-up activity last year for metric conversions.  It was a HUGE hit for all of us in the class.  The amount of visualizing and processing that happened in a short amount of time was amazing, and my students loved the interactive nature of it.  I loved that it gave me a quick comprehension check, and I could easily take note of which students needed a little extra reinforcement, and which concepts could benefit from more teaching. I shared this math warm-up idea on my Instagram account in March last year.  I made up a "Which ..read more