I’m going to be completely honest here, I used to HATE teaching elapsed time to my students. Elapsed time can be a difficult concept for students to master. Especially when it involves word problems. I always felt like I spent so much time focusing on having my students master the concept of elapsed time. When I first started teaching, I didn’t have tons of resources to help my students master this skill. Throughout my 16 years in the classroom, I have found some strategies and activities that help my students become elapsed time masters. Now, I look forward to teaching elapsed time to my stu ..read more

Every school year we start math with the same unit, place value. Over the years I have used many different strategies to engage the students and make learning place value fun. Below are a few of my favorite activities and strategies. Understanding Place Value Lesson Pack I always start my unit out using this lesson pack. The presentation is perfect for introducing the unit and goes over key vocabulary terms like digit, place value, and period. These terms lay the foundation for understanding place value, and students need to comprehend these terms before moving on. This pack also goes ov ..read more

The start of the school year is my favorite time of year. Everything is new. The students are with a different group of peers and everyone is getting to know each other. It's a great time for me, the teacher, to observe my class and the student dynamics. I've found that I get the best feel for my class by assigning group projects on those first few days of school.  Group projects are great because the students have to collaborate with one another. While they are working, I can see which of my students are leaders, rule followers, creative thinkers, and which students need an extra push.&n ..read more

Are you looking for a fun and rigorous way to end the school year? A colleague recently introduced me to an amazing site called BreakoutEDU. This site has tons of breakout room games ready to go for your classroom.  The breakout games work like the fun breakout rooms that seem to be popping up everywhere. Your students are introduced to a problem that they need to work with the class or small groups to solve in a certain amount of time. These games are great because they make students think outside of the box. The students have to collaborate, use higher level thinking skills, and work ..read more

I have been hard at work creating some new math resources for my store. I have new third grade math units that align perfectly with the CCSS. I have been using them in my classroom and my students are loving the lessons. I like to use math group rotations while teaching and these lessons are a perfect fit. They give me time to introduce each skill, work with small groups, and keep the other students actively engaged with centers and assessment. So far I have created the following units: Multiplication Strategies Unit This unit is perfect for introducing multiplication to your stude ..read more

Who doesn't love a sale!?! It's time for the Teachers Pay Teachers annual Cyber Monday Sale! Time to stock up your classrooms and save! If you are looking for some holiday activities for your classroom, check out my store. I have added a bunch of fun holiday projects and activities. It's Gingerbread Baby! If you are planning a gingerbread unit for the holidays, check out my Work, Work as Hard as You Can! It’s a Unit of Fun with theGingerbread Man!  and Area and Perimeter Gingerbread House Project. The Gingerbread Unit includes activities for each subject area so it can be ..read more

I like to offer students choices in their learning. Giving my students the freedom to make choices makes learning meaningful to them.  Every student is unique and learns differently. Some students are musicians, artists, actors, authors, scientists, or engineers. I feel as educators we sometimes forget this. It’s easy to do when you are in the school year rush desperately trying to teach all of the standards before the dreaded state tests. Districts tend to forget this too and try to make us “cookie cutter teachers.” Which is ironic. We teach differently, just like our students learn diff ..read more

If you missed the Best Year Ever Sale, you are in luck! On August 22nd TpT is having the Best Year Ever Sale part two! I'm giving away a $10 TpT gift card for your back to school goodies. This giveaway is for one day only so you can enjoy the sale. Use the Rafflecopter link below to enter. a Rafflecopter giveaway Good luck! Now go load up your wishlists and get ready to shop for an amazing school year. Happy shopping ..read more

It's time to load up your wishlists, and stock up your classroom! It's time for the annual TpT back to school sale. I love this sale! I have a bunch of great products in my wishlist ready to go for August 1st. I also have some great products in my store to make going back to school much easier. If you are looking for easy to use writing centers for upper elementary students,check out my Write 'N' Roll Writing Centers. These centers are aligned with the CCSS and cover the four main types of writing; descriptive, persuasive, expository, and narrative. To do these centers, your students just ..read more

I like to give gifts to my students and coworkers at the beginning of the school year. This year I found two cute ideas that didn't break the bank! My husband will thank me later :-).  For my students, I made these cute glow stick cards for Meet the Teacher Night. You can get a pack of 5 glow stick bracelets at Party City for $.99! I was able to get a present for all of my students for only $6! Which means more money for classroom supplies! Woo hoo! You can get these Glow and Grow Back to School cards for free at my TpT store. I made cards for kindergarten through fif ..read more