What is the science of reading and how do you tell if something is aligned?  The science of reading includes important research on how students best learn to read. There is no one organization or curriculum that tells what is science reading aligned instead the term science of reading aligned means that instructional practices for teaching reading, are founded in reading research which includes phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. However, since the first two concepts have been largely ignored much of what you will now see labeled as the science of ..read more

Happy Teacher's Appreciation Week! Teachers deserves so much gratitude but especially now as many of us have found ourselves teaching in a whole new way. Some of us come from schools or districts that are well-funded in technology and trained in using Google classroom or other platforms and others of us are scrambling to find away to connect with our students due to a lack of resources either from school or home. But all of us are making due. Whatever your situation is, I hope you, your students, and families are safe. Now lets get to some resources that I hope might help you out right now ..read more

As a reading specialist I've been using this FREE awesome resource for a while now, because I can print and choose leveled passages and articles geared towards each of my students' reading needs and levels. If you aren't familiar with ReadWorks.org check them out. I also have a free video explaining it a bit that I saved to IGTV on my Instagram. What has been great about this website is that I can now connect it to my Google Classroom for remote learning, and assign reading this way. Students can then read to me what I sent on video chat. I'm not teaching math this year but my other ..read more

I want my students to learn kindness and empathy towards others over anything else. Random Acts of Kindness Day is celebrated on February 17th each year, and many schools also have events and service projects the same week. While I focus on character education the entire school year, and we have a service project in the fall this is another opportunity to emphasize, especially after students celebrate Valentine's day where cards and candy are the focus rather than how we can show real love and care for each other. Other days where acts of community service and kindness are encouraged are ..read more

Share some activities I use to celebrate the 100th day of school with upper elementary students. Often you see counting activities geared towards primary grades but you can do so much more. Dress up is always a fun idea for both students and teachers. Cue Golden Girls and this cute kiddo below for costume inspiration. One of the activities I like to do is read a book about what it was like to live 100 years ago. This book takes place in the 1900s in New York city so you have some context. I included some sample pages so you can see the table of contents as well. (If you are interested in ..read more

It's that time of year again when you get the back to school jitters and you worry about all you have to accomplish. My hope is that some of these resources might be helpful to you.   All of my classroom products at TpT are 20% off Aug 6-7 this Tuesday and Wednesday. If you use the promo code BTS19 at checkout, you'll get an additional 5% off. This would be a great time to check out some of my top teaching resources for the beginning of the year at an awesome discount or even the ones I offer for free via the link before. Many are already part of discounted bundles so watch for that in c ..read more

I have three tips and resources to help your struggling readers improve their Phonemic Awareness. But first an awesome giveaway for #teacherappreciationweek. Teachers deserve appreciation all year long, but I'm glad we have this week each year because we need something to cheer us up when we are faced with too much testing, and school-wide events not to mention kids (plus teachers) struck with a case of summer vacay fever. Also, I realize how many teachers don't live anywhere near the awesome Target Dollar Spot so I collected some items to giveaway to my blog readers! Pictured below are fo ..read more