It's Back to School time! I love going back to school with all of the eager faces and changes that have taken place over the summer. Teaching is an amazing and evolving experience of not only what you teach, but HOW you teach it.  Let me show you how EASEL is changing my teaching! You might think, yes I have used Easel or maybe you are new and have no idea what it can do. I want you to watch the video below of how Easel can be more hands-on for your students.  I have created this Back to School Digital Escape Room, but have utilized it so that it can be used as a traditional ..read more

It's April! The weather is warming up here and flowers are starting to come up. April reminds me that Earth Day is around the corner. Caring for our Earth is so important and there are so many easy things we can do as citizens to help it. Educating others about the Earth is one way to help! I am super excited to post my NEW Earth Day Digital  Mini Escapes on The Importance of Plants and The History of Earth Day, as well as some other resources for your classroom.  Here are some great websites for your students to learn more about Earth Day what they can do to help the Earth every d ..read more

April Fool's Day is this Friday! It's the first day of our Spring Break so the kids won't be in school. I think this is probably for the best, but do love some good pranks. April Fool's Day is a day that you might not have on your radar or maybe you don't have any activities to do for this day. I wanted to do a post about April Fool's Day and activities that you can quickly add into your plans.  April Fool's Day Activities Print and Digital An easy writing activity is to have students write jokes, idioms, or alliteration! Check out this website on writing tongue twisters using Alliterat ..read more

It's later in the year and during tis time, I am rolling out longer units of study and some more in-depth learning. My kids are starting to zone out as we do more testing and it's time to find something fun without them realizing they are doing the work! Fairy Tales are a great unit for this time of year! My younger students love listening and reading the picture books and older students can get a more in-depth look at the fairy tales and their literary devices.  First, I start my Fairy Tale unit by thinking about what my focus is going to be. At this point in the year, my focus is on th ..read more

Did you know March is Women in History Month?! We have been working on Biographies A LOT, because it is such a great and easy way for kids to have CHOICE in their writing/research. See my last few posts about Biographies! If you are not on the Biography train, don't worry. You can still celebrate some AMAZING Women and their contributions to history.  I have these amazing Women in History Bubbleheads. Over 50 women to choose from to write research and use character traits. A character trait dictionary is included. You can use this to supplement research, as a culminating project,&nb ..read more

St. Patrick's Day is such a fun holiday! I wanted to share an EASY and fun probability activity and game that you can not only do in March, but any time of year to introduce or reinforce probability.  Hands On Probability Activities  for Elementary Students First, I go and purchase the Welch's Fruit Snacks (not sponsored). You can buy these from Target, Walmart, Kroger, Amazon ~really any store. You do not need these specific snacks. You can use this with Skittles, M & M's and any other snack, but I have found it works best with these because of the shapes and the amount per b ..read more

It's March! Well....... it's so close that at this point I am going to put February behind me. I am moving on to warmer temperatures, (although where I live they aren't too warm in the Midwest) and a celebration that puts a smile on my face ~ St. Patrick's Day!  So no one loves the pinching tradition, but they love the excitement of the gold, that sneaky leprechaun and let's face it any holiday that is supposed to give you LUCK is a winner for me! For any special holiday or celebration, I am wanting something easy, fun, and engaging for my students, BUT I want them to be learning at the ..read more

It's almost March! Just one week away until the month that seems to last forever before Spring Break. I love March because that means that the weather is starting to turn into spring, even though it's warm one minute and cold the next! Tomorrow where I live it's going to be 60 degrees when yesterday is was a high of 20. CRAZY! Let's talk Math Games this week! I know a lot of you are still teaching virtual, looking for classroom activities that are fun and engaging, or curriculum you can put on your personal sites so students can access them.  Math games allow students to have fun, use ..read more

Happy Pre-Valentine's Day! I hope you were able to get out this weekend or tomorrow to hang with your friends and family. Maybe you showed some LOVE by cheering on your favorite Super Bowl team! I wanted to take this week to focus on Book Clubs and how exactly they work. First of all What is a Book Club? A Book Club or Literature Circle, is small group of students reading the SAME book. It can be a book they they have chosen themselves, chosen from a pre-picked list by the teacher, or assigned to them.  How Does It Work?! Good question! A working Book Club is going to look different at ..read more

February is Black History Month and it's always my go to month to introduce a research project. Students have learned most of their writing skills to begin a project like this and it is great for ANY age level. You can tailor the research to be as in depth as you would like.  Here are the steps I follow for Biography Research. If you want to skip ahead to the resources, I totally get it! BUT here's a quick guide if you need! 1.THINK about what you want the END product to be for your students. Would it be one paragraph  of writing, a paper with multiple paragraphs, or a culminati ..read more