Will you be teaching summer school this year?  It's tough to keep yourself going through the summer, but you and your summer school program are most definitely life-changers to those kiddos who desperately need the boost to be successful in the next school year! It goes without saying that it's even harder to keep little learners motivated when ... hey, there are swimming pools and playgrounds calling their names! So, what's the key?  Well, the key is the same thing as it is all year! Keep the fun in learning! The easiest way to keep learning fun? Teach with games! Need c ..read more

Just ask any kid - snow is the BEST! But depending on where you live, you may have students who never have ... and maybe never will ... experience all the fun that comes with a snowy day! Well, you have the power to change that! Even if you can't take a class trip to the snowy mountains of Switzerland, here are some ideas for bringing snowy learning fun into your classroom... even if you teach in the tropics! First up is the classic snowball fight game.  This game has so many elements that kiddos love ... *   Sitting on top of their desks *   Ripping paper&nb ..read more

Hey, second grade teachers! I have news that some of you have been waiting for a long, long time! Read on to find out more! If you want to keep your students challenged and enjoying fun with math all year, math riddle cards are the answer!  Here are five powerful ideas for using math riddles to bring new energy to your teaching! * Start a math lesson by solving a riddle together. It will focus your students' attention, plus give you many opportunities to focus on concepts and vocabulary. * Riddles are an awesome way to squeeze in some fun and engaging spira ..read more

As the warmer days come and the end of the school year is within sight, I know a lot of you turn to theme weeks and theme days, with all of the fun activities that go along with them.   I've seen some amazing high-energy classroom transformations that go along with these themes. The children love them. More power to the teachers that thrive on big events!!   But, seriously, teachers, after a looong and challenging year, know that it is totally possible to bring in a theme without using your last few drops of energy (and without emptying your bank account!)   Here are a few op ..read more

Books about animals are universally appealing. So many of our students seem to have an unquenchable thirst to learn more about every kind of animal!  What better way to learn more about animals than through great read aloud books! Using good read alouds was always a big part of my science teaching. These non-fiction books are such a great way to introduce or review concepts and vocabulary. A read aloud book is also a great way to kick off a writing project! What makes a good non-fiction read-aloud for the primary grades? There are so many factors! As a start, I'd suggest taking these i ..read more

Ahhhhh, February! So many fun holidays to celebrate in school that it's hard to know where to start your planning!  Groundhog Day, Valentines Day, 100th Day of School, and so much more... plus a new and unique math holiday this year, Twos Day, on 2/2/22 or 2/22/22. Where to start??  Well, here's a whirlwind tour of some of the February resources that I've created for you over the past ten+ years of being a blogger and TpT teacher author.  These are both paid and free resources, from this blog and my TpT store. If it's time for you to fill in or freshen up your collection of ..read more

Keeping your students calm and learning in December without taking the joy out of a very exciting month is a huge challenge. Holiday crafts and Christmas Around the World activities are a ton of fun, and definitely have lots of learning value. But we all know that this is definitely not the year to let the pace of teaching curriculum slip, with so much time to be made up for! Here are three ideas for holiday learning activities that your students can do independently, so you can continue to meet with small groups, or at least try your best! :)  All three of these activities are  ..read more

For many of you, the start of this new school year this may be like no other,  a back to school season filled with new questions not only about what each new day will bring (and each new spin of the pandemic wheel), but also about where to start your teaching.  Exactly what did most of your new students actually learn and retain from last year? Who was in school for face-to-face learning every day? Who bounced back and forth from in-school to virtual? Who got a lot of family support during Zoom lessons? Who never logged in to even one Zoom session? How much time can you ..read more

Originally posted on Teaching Blog Roundup Ah, summer! Here it comes! We may be lucky enough to be relaxing on the beach, gathering pretty shells, eating sandwiches with real sand in them. But our kiddos?  Always in search of adventure, they're thinking about SHARKS!  So it's definitely time to take advantage of that with these free shark math games! It's hard to ignore the fascination kids have with sharks These free shark math games for kindergarten through third grade are a great way to put that enthusiasm to good use! Here's a sample of the games directions that you'll ..read more

Every April, Poetry Month used to make me feel kind of guilty when I taught in the primary grades. I'd think,  "How can I teach these little ones anything about poetry beyond rhyming?" This post includes affiliate links, which will provide a small percentage of each sale to me without increasing your price. And then one day, I realized that I already was teaching poetry! And chances are that you are, too, or you easily could be with these three easy tips! Tip #1 Use what you already have! Incorporate poetry into the daily procedures you already have in place! Above all, this mean ..read more